August 6, 2025 • 27 mins
Firstly, The Indian Express’ Amitabh Sinha explains the flash floods in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi, where heavy debris flow has destroyed parts of Dharali village.
Next, The Indian Express’ Maulshree Seth talks about Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh where a revival of a long-forgotten river tells us how a district-led effort has brought the Noon River back to life. (10:08)
And in the end, we look at how two officials, a Cabinet Minister and a police sub-inspector, have gone viral amid flood-like conditions in several parts of UP. (23:08)
Hosted by Ichha Sharma
Produced and written by Shasahnk Bhargava and Ichha Sharma
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar
Next, The Indian Express’ Maulshree Seth talks about Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh where a revival of a long-forgotten river tells us how a district-led effort has brought the Noon River back to life. (10:08)
And in the end, we look at how two officials, a Cabinet Minister and a police sub-inspector, have gone viral amid flood-like conditions in several parts of UP. (23:08)
Hosted by Ichha Sharma
Produced and written by Shasahnk Bhargava and Ichha Sharma
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the show, all our stories have water at
the center of them. We talk about how a forgotten
river was brought back to life by a statewide ecological
initiative called One District, One River. We also discuss why
two officials have drawn attention amid floodlike conditions in several
parts of Upi. But we begin today by talking about
(00:23):
the flash floods in Utra Khan's Utar Kashi.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm at Chasharma and you're listening to Three Things the
Indian Express New show. On Tuesday, flash floods and a
massive debris flow swept through the Dharrali village in Uttar Kashi,
washing away hotels, shops and restaurants. So far, at least
(00:51):
sixty people have been reported missing and with rescue efforts
now in their third day, teams are grappling with persistent rainfall,
over ground connectivity and a shortage of heavy machinery. Now,
flash floods in Utra Khan are not uncommon and are
often caused by what's known as a cloud burst, a
highly localized but intense burst of rainfall. But this time
(01:15):
it wasn't a cloud burst that triggered the disaster. In fact,
the area hadn't even recorded any unusual high rainfall, So
what actually caused these flash floods. To understand that, my
colleague Shashang Bhargav speaks to the Indian expresses Ametab senha Amitab.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Just for context, can you tell us what is the
difference between a cloud burst and heavy rainfall?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Right? So, cloudburst is just another instance of very heavy rainfall,
but there is a strict definition for it. So IMD
defines a cloud burst as a rainfall that is in
excess of ten centimeters in about one hour in a
very small area of about ten kilometers by ten kilometer.
Now we are talking about very intent dense rainfall over
(02:01):
a very small area or over a very short period
of time. Now, if all these criteria are met, then
it's called a cloud burst. And by this definition, if
you have, say in a five centimeter rainfall over a
half an hour period, again that gets qualified as a
cloud burst event. And ten centimeter is actually quite a
(02:22):
lot of rainfall. The average rainfall over the country as
a whole in the entire year is supposed to be
about one hundred and sixteen centimeters of rainfall. Right, what
we are talking about is roughly about ten percent of
that in just one hour, So that's intense amount of rainfall,
and that too over a very small area, so that
(02:43):
the impact gets magnified. So very intense rainfall over a
very small area over a very short period of time.
So that's how cloud burst event is defined.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And what kind of rainfall was Uturkashi witnessing when this
disaster happened? Was the rainfall?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Actually, if you look at the rainfall information over the
Uttara Kashi district itself, it wasn't very unusual. So Utra
khunt the entire state has been receiving continuous heavy rainfall
for the last three days, and we're talking about the third,
fourth and fifth of August. Utar Kasha district itself was
(03:23):
not getting any extraordinary rainfall during this time. It was raining,
of course, but on third and fourth utar Kashi received
less than normal rainfall. On fifth it received about ten
percent more than normal rainfall. But here we are talking
about twenty four hour periods. Right. If the same amount
(03:43):
of rainfall which is expected during the entire day just
happens during one hour, then of course the magnitude of
the situation is very different than when you have no
light rains that keep happening over at twenty four hour period.
So it seems that you know, there was a spell
of very heavy rainfall on fifth in Outrakashi, but it's
(04:04):
not out of ordinary, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So if the amount of rainfall wasn't extraordinary, is the
region's topography to blame here? Is that what led to
these flash floods.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
See, flash floods are generally associated with very intense rainfall events.
Whether it's a cloudburst or not, that's a different matter.
But very heavy intense rainfall happening in a hilly area,
they trigger sort of landslides or mud slides. Once all
this the rock and the earth and the mud and
(04:40):
the sand, once they get into the river or riverlets
and in the streams and all of them move into
the river, they start to flow downstream. And as they
flow downstream, they gather more and more momentum, because you know,
they gather more and more mass as the downwards and
then downwards, it creates havoc in most of these situations,
(05:02):
most of these flash flood events which happen in utrak
and in other hilly areas, what you see is a
very intense rainfall that triggers the event right now, what
we have to understand is not every intense rainfall event
actually leads to a flash flood kind of a situation,
though the dangers are always there. And two, not every
(05:26):
flash flood actually requires very heavy or you know, extraordinary
amount of rainfall to get triggered. And therein you know,
other factors come to plain as to where it all started,
what is the geography of the area, and how it started.
So the flash floods itself, they are a result of
(05:47):
as we talked about, no landslides originating at hides, and
if those landslides, and if the mass that comes out,
you know, all the earth and mud and everything and
her rain, if it gets stopped somehow before reaching the
river and it doesn't flow downstream, then you are saved.
And in a lot of situations these things happen. So
(06:09):
it depends on where exactly the rainfall has happened where exactly,
and how much of earth has moved, how much stones
have got displaced because of rain, whether they have been
able to reach streams or not, or whether they have
got blocked on the way, and all these then eventually
decide whether we'll see the kind of flash floods that
(06:31):
we have seen in utruk Hunt.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
And the other thing we should point out is that
the region where this happened is an eco sensitive zone
and one of the concerns that has been raised a
number of times in the past is that despite this,
a lot of unregulated development has taken place here. How
much does that add to this problem?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So they do, of course, I mean and unregulated activity
in utruk Hunt has been under intent focus for a
pretty long time, at least in the last one decade now.
People would remember the Kedarnath tragedy in twenty thirteen, for example,
and that was blamed to a very large extent on
very unregulated kind of construction and building activity that has
(07:17):
been going on in that state and ever after that
also there have been several instances of these kinds of
disasters taking place in Uturakhunt. Not that these disasters would
completely be stopped if no no construction was happening, just
that construction, especially unmindful construction or unregulated construction, they do
(07:39):
add to the fragility of the region, and that is
what environmentalists have been raising for a fairly long time.
And so we have seen the sinking of certain towns
Joshimut came in news. We have seen multiple instances of
flash floods in Uhurakhan Utrak Hunt is also an earthquake
(07:59):
prone area, so that's another dimension that has to be
looked at. There were lots of hydropower you know, dams
that were being constructed in this state, some of whom
have been stopped since then. Few of those projects have
been abandoned because of environmental concerns. Tourism has boomed in
that state, religious tourism mainly because of which you have
(08:21):
seen a huge amount of mushrooming of tourism infrastructure, hotels,
restaurants and everything. A lot of them are located in
areas where they should not be located at. This particular
incident happened near an ecosensitive area, a particular area which
has been declared as an ecosensitive zone, the Bagarati Ecosensitive Zone,
(08:44):
And there have been activists and environmentalists who have been
pointing out that even in this area, there have been
certain you know, violations of ESZ norms, that is, the
ecosensitive zone norms that are in said those get routinely
violated and those who have been flagged and there have
(09:04):
been claims that now these kind of things, even though
triggered by natural events, they turn into disasters because of
human interventions like unregulated construction and all right.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
In fact, the government's Chardham All Weather Highway that is
being built has faced a lot of criticism and legal challenges.
But you know, even besides this, the other thing that
is known to increase the risk of these disasters is
climate change, right, because that is something that is making
these kind of weather events more frequent.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yes, so what we certainly know from past trends is
that climate change is exacerbating your extreme weather events. Extreme
rainfall events are increasing both in terms of frequency as
well as their intensity. Now, there has been no trend
as far as cloud bursts are concerned, und the strict
(10:00):
definition of what a cloud burst is that we do
not have very good handle on. But extreme weather events
and particularly extreme rainfall, that is something that we have
very good data for, and we can see that the
instances of extreme rainfall have been increasing under climate chain scenarios,
both the frequency of extreme weather events as well as
(10:22):
the intensity of extreme weather events. So you have many
more extreme rainfall events happening now compared to say ten
years ago, so that is certainly there. So these kind
of things, yeah, they're increasing under climate chain scenarios.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And next we turn our attention to a rather.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Unique ecological intervention led by a state government. For years now,
the Known River in Canpur had been choked by construction,
wasted encroachment from nearby farms, and the spread of water
hyacinth or jalcombi species, often called the Terror of Bengal
because of its devastating impact on the aquatic ecosystems across
(11:07):
the globe. But now, thanks to a district led initiative
aimed at reviving forgotten and drying rivers, this forty eight
kilometer long river has come back to life. In fact,
as recently as February this year, there was no visible
sign of the Known as it passed through Rampur Narua
village in the Kanpur district.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
See, what had happened was not the one or two
years process.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
It was a gradual process which happened over the period,
in fact, over decades.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
This is The Indian Express's Maltree Sate who reported on
the story for the newspaper.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
What had happened slowly because it was a very narrow
stream which was going across the fields because it's about
fifty kilometers away from the Carnput town, so it's largely
the agriculture area, So it was going through the fields.
And what had happened over the years in some areas
there was encroachment in some areas, like a road was
being constructed, boulders and everything who had landed on that
(12:02):
particular stretch of the river, so that got blocked. And
in some areas the field covered it. And in larger
section where it was not flowing, there was also jalcumbee
which was infestation which had taken over the river bed.
And over the years, since the river flow could not
be maintained in those areas, that dried up, and then
the entire stretch had dried, so it was like about
a forty eight kilometer long stretch of the river in
(12:25):
Kanpur itself, so almost half of the river was facing
such kind of problems.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
She says that during the monsoon, water from the lake
would overflow into the nearby agricultural fields, leaving behind layers
of silt and salt that made the land unusable for
several months each year. But over time people actually forgot
that this river actually existed.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Because it had dried up in most parts and in
some places it was running, and there was no continuous
flow of the river from its origin point till the end.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
But today malt says the known river flow was once
again nearly six feet wide at its origin point thanks
to a statewide initiative by the Utda Pradesh government called
One District, One River. This effort was announced by Chief
Minister yugi Ada Tyanad during the Sarau mohatsev in Iota
on fifth of.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
June, and then the follow up by the officers started
like which district should be done, which river should be
revived in which district because earlier the river retribunation projects
used to be like scattered, whichever a person would feel,
whichever officer would feel that this river should be revived,
and there was no planned statewide differed unanimously across the state.
So that is how the process started in Noon River. Also,
(13:39):
like many other rivers, now seventy five are being revived
across This is for each of seventy five districts.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So that is how the process of Noon also started.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
So they kind of selected Noon River initially because they
said Noon River from its start to the endpoint was
in one district because otherwise in some rivers where their
two three districts involved, So there's a lot of coordination
to be done across of across districts.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
So that is why they chose Noon River as such.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Now, according to officials, Noon was actually one of four
forgotten rivers in the district, and while it hadn't completely
dried up like the others, it was heavily choked by water,
hyacinthe boulders and encroachments. Maltrey tells us that its revival
process began in February this year, with officials first consulting
archival irrigation maps and satellite images dating back over forty
(14:28):
years to trace the river's original course. But this of
course is not being done for every river.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
So what is happening is each and every district is
undertaking the process or the mechanism which they feel is
right depending on their particular area. Because in case, if
you talk about just the Noon River, because initially they
searched into the irrigation records, the old irrigation records to
know how the river flow was there. Once after looking
(14:56):
into the irrigation records, they went to the satellite imagery
the center which is there in Lucknow, and through that
they kind of saw the channel and where the problem.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Areas were there.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Then the field survey was done through drone mapping, because otherwise,
because it's in field most of the area which I
also saw, you can't even reach to those places on foot.
So the drone survey was done, and then the plan
was prepared like which area should be focused first where
because in case where there was just the jalcombie or
the infestation was there, that could be removed through manual labor.
(15:30):
But in case where there was larger encroachment or the
larger boulders were there, so that those couldn't be revoked,
so they needed to bring in the heavy machinery also.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
So this is how the entire plan.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Was made and different segments, different experts were hired like
roped in for different sectors of the revival project.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
As far as moon as concerned.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
For example, if we just talk about one we were
in Lucknow, which everybody had known it as an Allai.
It for decades people used to call Cokras and Nala
Coukran Nala, that.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Is how everybody associated with it.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
And once the process started and the officers and the
experts also started looking into it. They looked into the
satellite imagery of nineteen eighty five and they realized it's
actually a river. It's a Cokral lived river, not a
Cocral Nala. So then the entire mechanism started. Experts were
roped in from say Bababim Braham with university in Lucknow.
(16:18):
Then some from iight can't put into different fields they
were roped into.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And then the entire plan was made.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
And if we talk about just the Cocral River now,
just only the half part of it has been revived
because major section goes through different parts of the city.
So if we talk about the Cocral River in Lucknow,
the problem was an encroachment, like concrete encroachment which was there,
so that kind of created a problem. And because their
court case is also involved and the illegal construction has
because in case of Noon River, it was in the
(16:45):
agriculture area, so all they had to do was to
remove the actual infestation which was there and the concrete
construction was not that much.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
But apart from the challenges of mapping the river, Maltre says,
the initial outreach to local communities was met with skepticism.
And here it's worth noting that the Noon River flows
through thirty four gram panchayats across three administrative blocks, which
made community participation essential to the success of the project.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Yes, what had happened if we talk about just the
Noon River as such where we had visited initially, what
the local officials were saying. It was very hard to
convince people because when they approached them that they want
to revive the project. The first instance was people saying
that it's yet another government project that is coming and
it's not going to be successful. They would just remove
some of the silt from the river and then it
would be as it used to be.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
In the past.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
So initially they didn't get the support of the locals
as they had expected. Then they had formed a group
of women try to explain them how it's going once
the river flow is channelized, so how it would help
them in irrigation, also because they'll be easy access from
the riverside, and even the water flowing into the field
would be easier to maintain because then they'll be able
(17:58):
to channelize that water back to the river flow because
there'll be a continuous flow of the river from the
lake where it originates to the bit two point where
it actually exists. So these women kind of started having
along with the local officers. They raised slogans and they
kind of created awareness and later the senior officers were
brought in to actually work on the field to clear
(18:20):
the river project Cedio District Registrate and other officers. So
initially it was started by the officers, but when later
on through this awareness and everything, locals also started pitching in.
So there are thirty four grampanchazz which were involved in
the entire stretch of the river.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
So there were success.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Stories coming in from one or two grampanchazz, so other
also started following up. And then the grampa dans also
took interest and the locals also because they were saying
that some of them also gave like their labor as
a bit out of charge, which is like shamdan.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And interestingly, another scheme that saw a boost through this
particular project was Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
or MANEGA, which is meant to give unskilled jobs to
millions of people every year.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
So in most of these areas where I visited, the
Nariga work was very low because the laborers throughout the year,
what they were not getting work they got through this project.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
In like three months time.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
So through Narrega also these laborers gave in like because
say for example one grampanchat only about twenty two hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Days would come in. I spoke to one of the laborers.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
They said, in three months time, I got almost thirty
thirty thousand rupees so which I would not get even
after almost a year long of work. So it kind
of the job employment scheme also got a boost through
this project and even the CASA also came in because
then there were some local industry because in the areas
they had to use machinery to remove the encroachment or
(19:49):
the area where the silt had accumulated. So in the
areas where they had to use the machinery, they brought
in the CSID funds of the local industry as a help.
So a lot of the local help when these as
are funds. So all these kind of combined together help
help revival.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Of this project.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Now, this campaign under Manrega in just three months generated
seventeen hundred and sixty man days of employment in Rampur
Narua alone. This was a significant jump from the twelve
hundred man days recorded in the entire previous financial year.
And Malshi tells us that across the state, work on
nearly fifty other small rivers is now nearing completion.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
See out of seventy five what the government has claimed
that almost fifty are near completion. Then the remaining rivers
are there, there are various challenges because the encroachment they
might be court cases or they might be encroachment which
are difficult to remove. And then the entire length of
the river is across districts. So as of now, what
(20:52):
the government is claiming that the almost fifty rivers are
closed to revival across the state and the target is
to complete at least one river in every district as
soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Now, these revived rivers have already begun delivering agricultural benefits,
providing natural irrigation and reducing the need for expensive water
pumps or makeshift check dams to store water near fields.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Yeah, see the different outcomes for different regions. If we
talk about Bundale countywood memory might see that the revival
of a river might bring water. But here because this
is Kantpour area which is like next to River Ganga.
So here the problem was of flooding. What used to
happen since the river was not channelized. So when there
would this lake, particularly lake from where this river originated,
(21:41):
it would overflow. The water would overflow into the neighboring
fields all across the river at various points. And when
this field was flooded with this water, and after the
water receded, these fields would be filled with salt silt.
And what locals said that for months, at least four months,
they were unable to use their fields because once the
flooding was there, and even after the water receded, so
(22:03):
almost three four months had gone waste. They couldn't grow
anything on those fields. So what is they're expecting this
year that with this flow coming in, So even if
there's a temporary storage of water, so through the channelization
they'll be able to kind of direct that water back
into the river flow. And another thing, because when I
spoke to some of the locals, they were saying that
(22:24):
earlier what used to happen because in between the river
was dry at many places those areas they would use
summer sable or water pumps and many of the small
farmers didn't actually have those pumps, so they would hire
on a daily basis to give water to their fields.
So what is happening now is in the neighboring fields
which were there so initially when that kind of rainfall
was not there, so they would kind of create small
(22:47):
check dams in between and through that with just minor
this thing, and they were able to directly irrigate their fields.
So that kind of reduced kind of a cost of
irrigation for their fields as well. They are hoping that
maybe over the period of time the flow is continued
and it helps them in both in irrigation as well
as drawing out what texis water from their fields back
(23:09):
into the river flow.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
And in the end we talk about an overnight Internet sensation.
Several parts of up are currently dealing with floodlike conditions
and severe water logging, especially in districts situated along the
Ganga River, and during this time at least two officials
have attracted attention for the wrong reasons. One of them
is State Cabinet Minister Sanjaanishad, who, during a visit to
(23:38):
a flood affected area in Can't put their heart on Monday,
sparked controversy. In a video that surfaced on social media,
he's seen telling villagers that since they are children of
the Ganga, the river is essentially arriving at their doorsteps
to clean their feet and that this would in a
way guarantee them a place in heaven. Another in the
(24:13):
video is heard making these remarks to villagers even as
they are apparently trying to highlight issues caused by the
water logging. Now, the second person who has made headlines
in this regard is a police officer posted in Fortpur district.
(24:42):
This is Sub Inspector Chandra, who has drawn attention after
videos surfaced of him swimming in floodwaters outside his house
in Prayagraj when many residential areas have been severely inundated,
displacing thousands of people. The videos, which are posted on
Instagram by his children, shown Ard worshiping the river and
diving from the second floor of his home into the
(25:03):
floodwaters caused by the overflowing Ganga kia.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
La.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Now, talking about the video, Nishad said the river Ganga
had played a crucial role in shaping his life. He
learned to swim in the river and was inducted into
the police force in nineteen ninety five under the sports
quota due to his achievements as a national level swimmer.
He started as a constable and was recently promoted to
sub inspector and is currently serving as a personal security
(25:54):
officer to a judge of the Allahabad High Court. Nisha
told The Indian Expresses manish that the flood water entered
his house about five to six days earlier. Initially, the
water was low and he performed a brief ritual. As
the water level rose, he moved belongings to the upper
floors and began using swimming and rooftop roots to reach
(26:15):
dry areas and report to duty. At a point, the
water on the ground floor reached nearly nine feet and
it has since receded to about seven feet. Naishad also
noted that he is not very familiar with mobile phones
and had only saved the videos on his device. His
children took the initiative to share the content online. Nishad
(26:35):
further said that he has experienced similar flooding in past years,
especially in twenty thirteen, twenty sixteen and twenty nineteen. You
were listening to Three Things by The Indian Express. Today's
show was edited and mixed by Surreyesh Pavar and produced
by Shishangkhgov and me Ichasharma. If you like the show,
(26:57):
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Speaker 4 (27:04):
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Speaker 1 (27:07):
You can also tweet us at Express podcast or write
to us at podcast at Indian Express dot com
Today on the show, all our stories have water at
the center of them. We talk about how a forgotten
river was brought back to life by a statewide ecological
initiative called One District, One River. We also discuss why
two officials have drawn attention amid floodlike conditions in several
parts of Upi. But we begin today by talking about
(00:23):
the flash floods in Utra Khan's Utar Kashi.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm at Chasharma and you're listening to Three Things the
Indian Express New show. On Tuesday, flash floods and a
massive debris flow swept through the Dharrali village in Uttar Kashi,
washing away hotels, shops and restaurants. So far, at least
(00:51):
sixty people have been reported missing and with rescue efforts
now in their third day, teams are grappling with persistent rainfall,
over ground connectivity and a shortage of heavy machinery. Now,
flash floods in Utra Khan are not uncommon and are
often caused by what's known as a cloud burst, a
highly localized but intense burst of rainfall. But this time
(01:15):
it wasn't a cloud burst that triggered the disaster. In fact,
the area hadn't even recorded any unusual high rainfall, So
what actually caused these flash floods. To understand that, my
colleague Shashang Bhargav speaks to the Indian expresses Ametab senha Amitab.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Just for context, can you tell us what is the
difference between a cloud burst and heavy rainfall?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Right? So, cloudburst is just another instance of very heavy rainfall,
but there is a strict definition for it. So IMD
defines a cloud burst as a rainfall that is in
excess of ten centimeters in about one hour in a
very small area of about ten kilometers by ten kilometer.
Now we are talking about very intent dense rainfall over
(02:01):
a very small area or over a very short period
of time. Now, if all these criteria are met, then
it's called a cloud burst. And by this definition, if
you have, say in a five centimeter rainfall over a
half an hour period, again that gets qualified as a
cloud burst event. And ten centimeter is actually quite a
(02:22):
lot of rainfall. The average rainfall over the country as
a whole in the entire year is supposed to be
about one hundred and sixteen centimeters of rainfall. Right, what
we are talking about is roughly about ten percent of
that in just one hour, So that's intense amount of rainfall,
and that too over a very small area, so that
(02:43):
the impact gets magnified. So very intense rainfall over a
very small area over a very short period of time.
So that's how cloud burst event is defined.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And what kind of rainfall was Uturkashi witnessing when this
disaster happened? Was the rainfall?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Actually, if you look at the rainfall information over the
Uttara Kashi district itself, it wasn't very unusual. So Utra
khunt the entire state has been receiving continuous heavy rainfall
for the last three days, and we're talking about the third,
fourth and fifth of August. Utar Kasha district itself was
(03:23):
not getting any extraordinary rainfall during this time. It was raining,
of course, but on third and fourth utar Kashi received
less than normal rainfall. On fifth it received about ten
percent more than normal rainfall. But here we are talking
about twenty four hour periods. Right. If the same amount
(03:43):
of rainfall which is expected during the entire day just
happens during one hour, then of course the magnitude of
the situation is very different than when you have no
light rains that keep happening over at twenty four hour period.
So it seems that you know, there was a spell
of very heavy rainfall on fifth in Outrakashi, but it's
(04:04):
not out of ordinary, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So if the amount of rainfall wasn't extraordinary, is the
region's topography to blame here? Is that what led to
these flash floods.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
See, flash floods are generally associated with very intense rainfall events.
Whether it's a cloudburst or not, that's a different matter.
But very heavy intense rainfall happening in a hilly area,
they trigger sort of landslides or mud slides. Once all
this the rock and the earth and the mud and
(04:40):
the sand, once they get into the river or riverlets
and in the streams and all of them move into
the river, they start to flow downstream. And as they
flow downstream, they gather more and more momentum, because you know,
they gather more and more mass as the downwards and
then downwards, it creates havoc in most of these situations,
(05:02):
most of these flash flood events which happen in utrak
and in other hilly areas, what you see is a
very intense rainfall that triggers the event right now, what
we have to understand is not every intense rainfall event
actually leads to a flash flood kind of a situation,
though the dangers are always there. And two, not every
(05:26):
flash flood actually requires very heavy or you know, extraordinary
amount of rainfall to get triggered. And therein you know,
other factors come to plain as to where it all started,
what is the geography of the area, and how it started.
So the flash floods itself, they are a result of
(05:47):
as we talked about, no landslides originating at hides, and
if those landslides, and if the mass that comes out,
you know, all the earth and mud and everything and
her rain, if it gets stopped somehow before reaching the
river and it doesn't flow downstream, then you are saved.
And in a lot of situations these things happen. So
(06:09):
it depends on where exactly the rainfall has happened where exactly,
and how much of earth has moved, how much stones
have got displaced because of rain, whether they have been
able to reach streams or not, or whether they have
got blocked on the way, and all these then eventually
decide whether we'll see the kind of flash floods that
(06:31):
we have seen in utruk Hunt.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
And the other thing we should point out is that
the region where this happened is an eco sensitive zone
and one of the concerns that has been raised a
number of times in the past is that despite this,
a lot of unregulated development has taken place here. How
much does that add to this problem?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So they do, of course, I mean and unregulated activity
in utruk Hunt has been under intent focus for a
pretty long time, at least in the last one decade now.
People would remember the Kedarnath tragedy in twenty thirteen, for example,
and that was blamed to a very large extent on
very unregulated kind of construction and building activity that has
(07:17):
been going on in that state and ever after that
also there have been several instances of these kinds of
disasters taking place in Uturakhunt. Not that these disasters would
completely be stopped if no no construction was happening, just
that construction, especially unmindful construction or unregulated construction, they do
(07:39):
add to the fragility of the region, and that is
what environmentalists have been raising for a fairly long time.
And so we have seen the sinking of certain towns
Joshimut came in news. We have seen multiple instances of
flash floods in Uhurakhan Utrak Hunt is also an earthquake
(07:59):
prone area, so that's another dimension that has to be
looked at. There were lots of hydropower you know, dams
that were being constructed in this state, some of whom
have been stopped since then. Few of those projects have
been abandoned because of environmental concerns. Tourism has boomed in
that state, religious tourism mainly because of which you have
(08:21):
seen a huge amount of mushrooming of tourism infrastructure, hotels,
restaurants and everything. A lot of them are located in
areas where they should not be located at. This particular
incident happened near an ecosensitive area, a particular area which
has been declared as an ecosensitive zone, the Bagarati Ecosensitive Zone,
(08:44):
And there have been activists and environmentalists who have been
pointing out that even in this area, there have been
certain you know, violations of ESZ norms, that is, the
ecosensitive zone norms that are in said those get routinely
violated and those who have been flagged and there have
(09:04):
been claims that now these kind of things, even though
triggered by natural events, they turn into disasters because of
human interventions like unregulated construction and all right.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
In fact, the government's Chardham All Weather Highway that is
being built has faced a lot of criticism and legal challenges.
But you know, even besides this, the other thing that
is known to increase the risk of these disasters is
climate change, right, because that is something that is making
these kind of weather events more frequent.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yes, so what we certainly know from past trends is
that climate change is exacerbating your extreme weather events. Extreme
rainfall events are increasing both in terms of frequency as
well as their intensity. Now, there has been no trend
as far as cloud bursts are concerned, und the strict
(10:00):
definition of what a cloud burst is that we do
not have very good handle on. But extreme weather events
and particularly extreme rainfall, that is something that we have
very good data for, and we can see that the
instances of extreme rainfall have been increasing under climate chain scenarios,
both the frequency of extreme weather events as well as
(10:22):
the intensity of extreme weather events. So you have many
more extreme rainfall events happening now compared to say ten
years ago, so that is certainly there. So these kind
of things, yeah, they're increasing under climate chain scenarios.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And next we turn our attention to a rather.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Unique ecological intervention led by a state government. For years now,
the Known River in Canpur had been choked by construction,
wasted encroachment from nearby farms, and the spread of water
hyacinth or jalcombi species, often called the Terror of Bengal
because of its devastating impact on the aquatic ecosystems across
(11:07):
the globe. But now, thanks to a district led initiative
aimed at reviving forgotten and drying rivers, this forty eight
kilometer long river has come back to life. In fact,
as recently as February this year, there was no visible
sign of the Known as it passed through Rampur Narua
village in the Kanpur district.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
See, what had happened was not the one or two
years process.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
It was a gradual process which happened over the period,
in fact, over decades.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
This is The Indian Express's Maltree Sate who reported on
the story for the newspaper.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
What had happened slowly because it was a very narrow
stream which was going across the fields because it's about
fifty kilometers away from the Carnput town, so it's largely
the agriculture area, So it was going through the fields.
And what had happened over the years in some areas
there was encroachment in some areas, like a road was
being constructed, boulders and everything who had landed on that
(12:02):
particular stretch of the river, so that got blocked. And
in some areas the field covered it. And in larger
section where it was not flowing, there was also jalcumbee
which was infestation which had taken over the river bed.
And over the years, since the river flow could not
be maintained in those areas, that dried up, and then
the entire stretch had dried, so it was like about
a forty eight kilometer long stretch of the river in
(12:25):
Kanpur itself, so almost half of the river was facing
such kind of problems.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
She says that during the monsoon, water from the lake
would overflow into the nearby agricultural fields, leaving behind layers
of silt and salt that made the land unusable for
several months each year. But over time people actually forgot
that this river actually existed.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Because it had dried up in most parts and in
some places it was running, and there was no continuous
flow of the river from its origin point till the end.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
But today malt says the known river flow was once
again nearly six feet wide at its origin point thanks
to a statewide initiative by the Utda Pradesh government called
One District, One River. This effort was announced by Chief
Minister yugi Ada Tyanad during the Sarau mohatsev in Iota
on fifth of.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
June, and then the follow up by the officers started
like which district should be done, which river should be
revived in which district because earlier the river retribunation projects
used to be like scattered, whichever a person would feel,
whichever officer would feel that this river should be revived,
and there was no planned statewide differed unanimously across the state.
So that is how the process started in Noon River. Also,
(13:39):
like many other rivers, now seventy five are being revived
across This is for each of seventy five districts.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So that is how the process of Noon also started.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
So they kind of selected Noon River initially because they
said Noon River from its start to the endpoint was
in one district because otherwise in some rivers where their
two three districts involved, So there's a lot of coordination
to be done across of across districts.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
So that is why they chose Noon River as such.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Now, according to officials, Noon was actually one of four
forgotten rivers in the district, and while it hadn't completely
dried up like the others, it was heavily choked by water,
hyacinthe boulders and encroachments. Maltrey tells us that its revival
process began in February this year, with officials first consulting
archival irrigation maps and satellite images dating back over forty
(14:28):
years to trace the river's original course. But this of
course is not being done for every river.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
So what is happening is each and every district is
undertaking the process or the mechanism which they feel is
right depending on their particular area. Because in case, if
you talk about just the Noon River, because initially they
searched into the irrigation records, the old irrigation records to
know how the river flow was there. Once after looking
(14:56):
into the irrigation records, they went to the satellite imagery
the center which is there in Lucknow, and through that
they kind of saw the channel and where the problem.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Areas were there.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Then the field survey was done through drone mapping, because otherwise,
because it's in field most of the area which I
also saw, you can't even reach to those places on foot.
So the drone survey was done, and then the plan
was prepared like which area should be focused first where
because in case where there was just the jalcombie or
the infestation was there, that could be removed through manual labor.
(15:30):
But in case where there was larger encroachment or the
larger boulders were there, so that those couldn't be revoked,
so they needed to bring in the heavy machinery also.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
So this is how the entire plan.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Was made and different segments, different experts were hired like
roped in for different sectors of the revival project.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
As far as moon as concerned.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
For example, if we just talk about one we were
in Lucknow, which everybody had known it as an Allai.
It for decades people used to call Cokras and Nala
Coukran Nala, that.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Is how everybody associated with it.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
And once the process started and the officers and the
experts also started looking into it. They looked into the
satellite imagery of nineteen eighty five and they realized it's
actually a river. It's a Cokral lived river, not a
Cocral Nala. So then the entire mechanism started. Experts were
roped in from say Bababim Braham with university in Lucknow.
(16:18):
Then some from iight can't put into different fields they
were roped into.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And then the entire plan was made.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
And if we talk about just the Cocral River now,
just only the half part of it has been revived
because major section goes through different parts of the city.
So if we talk about the Cocral River in Lucknow,
the problem was an encroachment, like concrete encroachment which was there,
so that kind of created a problem. And because their
court case is also involved and the illegal construction has
because in case of Noon River, it was in the
(16:45):
agriculture area, so all they had to do was to
remove the actual infestation which was there and the concrete
construction was not that much.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
But apart from the challenges of mapping the river, Maltre says,
the initial outreach to local communities was met with skepticism.
And here it's worth noting that the Noon River flows
through thirty four gram panchayats across three administrative blocks, which
made community participation essential to the success of the project.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Yes, what had happened if we talk about just the
Noon River as such where we had visited initially, what
the local officials were saying. It was very hard to
convince people because when they approached them that they want
to revive the project. The first instance was people saying
that it's yet another government project that is coming and
it's not going to be successful. They would just remove
some of the silt from the river and then it
would be as it used to be.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
In the past.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
So initially they didn't get the support of the locals
as they had expected. Then they had formed a group
of women try to explain them how it's going once
the river flow is channelized, so how it would help
them in irrigation, also because they'll be easy access from
the riverside, and even the water flowing into the field
would be easier to maintain because then they'll be able
(17:58):
to channelize that water back to the river flow because
there'll be a continuous flow of the river from the
lake where it originates to the bit two point where
it actually exists. So these women kind of started having
along with the local officers. They raised slogans and they
kind of created awareness and later the senior officers were
brought in to actually work on the field to clear
(18:20):
the river project Cedio District Registrate and other officers. So
initially it was started by the officers, but when later
on through this awareness and everything, locals also started pitching in.
So there are thirty four grampanchazz which were involved in
the entire stretch of the river.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
So there were success.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Stories coming in from one or two grampanchazz, so other
also started following up. And then the grampa dans also
took interest and the locals also because they were saying
that some of them also gave like their labor as
a bit out of charge, which is like shamdan.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And interestingly, another scheme that saw a boost through this
particular project was Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
or MANEGA, which is meant to give unskilled jobs to
millions of people every year.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
So in most of these areas where I visited, the
Nariga work was very low because the laborers throughout the year,
what they were not getting work they got through this project.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
In like three months time.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
So through Narrega also these laborers gave in like because
say for example one grampanchat only about twenty two hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Days would come in. I spoke to one of the laborers.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
They said, in three months time, I got almost thirty
thirty thousand rupees so which I would not get even
after almost a year long of work. So it kind
of the job employment scheme also got a boost through
this project and even the CASA also came in because
then there were some local industry because in the areas
they had to use machinery to remove the encroachment or
(19:49):
the area where the silt had accumulated. So in the
areas where they had to use the machinery, they brought
in the CSID funds of the local industry as a help.
So a lot of the local help when these as
are funds. So all these kind of combined together help
help revival.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Of this project.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Now, this campaign under Manrega in just three months generated
seventeen hundred and sixty man days of employment in Rampur
Narua alone. This was a significant jump from the twelve
hundred man days recorded in the entire previous financial year.
And Malshi tells us that across the state, work on
nearly fifty other small rivers is now nearing completion.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
See out of seventy five what the government has claimed
that almost fifty are near completion. Then the remaining rivers
are there, there are various challenges because the encroachment they
might be court cases or they might be encroachment which
are difficult to remove. And then the entire length of
the river is across districts. So as of now, what
(20:52):
the government is claiming that the almost fifty rivers are
closed to revival across the state and the target is
to complete at least one river in every district as
soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Now, these revived rivers have already begun delivering agricultural benefits,
providing natural irrigation and reducing the need for expensive water
pumps or makeshift check dams to store water near fields.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Yeah, see the different outcomes for different regions. If we
talk about Bundale countywood memory might see that the revival
of a river might bring water. But here because this
is Kantpour area which is like next to River Ganga.
So here the problem was of flooding. What used to
happen since the river was not channelized. So when there
would this lake, particularly lake from where this river originated,
(21:41):
it would overflow. The water would overflow into the neighboring
fields all across the river at various points. And when
this field was flooded with this water, and after the
water receded, these fields would be filled with salt silt.
And what locals said that for months, at least four months,
they were unable to use their fields because once the
flooding was there, and even after the water receded, so
(22:03):
almost three four months had gone waste. They couldn't grow
anything on those fields. So what is they're expecting this
year that with this flow coming in, So even if
there's a temporary storage of water, so through the channelization
they'll be able to kind of direct that water back
into the river flow. And another thing, because when I
spoke to some of the locals, they were saying that
(22:24):
earlier what used to happen because in between the river
was dry at many places those areas they would use
summer sable or water pumps and many of the small
farmers didn't actually have those pumps, so they would hire
on a daily basis to give water to their fields.
So what is happening now is in the neighboring fields
which were there so initially when that kind of rainfall
was not there, so they would kind of create small
(22:47):
check dams in between and through that with just minor
this thing, and they were able to directly irrigate their fields.
So that kind of reduced kind of a cost of
irrigation for their fields as well. They are hoping that
maybe over the period of time the flow is continued
and it helps them in both in irrigation as well
as drawing out what texis water from their fields back
(23:09):
into the river flow.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
And in the end we talk about an overnight Internet sensation.
Several parts of up are currently dealing with floodlike conditions
and severe water logging, especially in districts situated along the
Ganga River, and during this time at least two officials
have attracted attention for the wrong reasons. One of them
is State Cabinet Minister Sanjaanishad, who, during a visit to
(23:38):
a flood affected area in Can't put their heart on Monday,
sparked controversy. In a video that surfaced on social media,
he's seen telling villagers that since they are children of
the Ganga, the river is essentially arriving at their doorsteps
to clean their feet and that this would in a
way guarantee them a place in heaven. Another in the
(24:13):
video is heard making these remarks to villagers even as
they are apparently trying to highlight issues caused by the
water logging. Now, the second person who has made headlines
in this regard is a police officer posted in Fortpur district.
(24:42):
This is Sub Inspector Chandra, who has drawn attention after
videos surfaced of him swimming in floodwaters outside his house
in Prayagraj when many residential areas have been severely inundated,
displacing thousands of people. The videos, which are posted on
Instagram by his children, shown Ard worshiping the river and
diving from the second floor of his home into the
(25:03):
floodwaters caused by the overflowing Ganga kia.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
La.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Now, talking about the video, Nishad said the river Ganga
had played a crucial role in shaping his life. He
learned to swim in the river and was inducted into
the police force in nineteen ninety five under the sports
quota due to his achievements as a national level swimmer.
He started as a constable and was recently promoted to
sub inspector and is currently serving as a personal security
(25:54):
officer to a judge of the Allahabad High Court. Nisha
told The Indian Expresses manish that the flood water entered
his house about five to six days earlier. Initially, the
water was low and he performed a brief ritual. As
the water level rose, he moved belongings to the upper
floors and began using swimming and rooftop roots to reach
(26:15):
dry areas and report to duty. At a point, the
water on the ground floor reached nearly nine feet and
it has since receded to about seven feet. Naishad also
noted that he is not very familiar with mobile phones
and had only saved the videos on his device. His
children took the initiative to share the content online. Nishad
(26:35):
further said that he has experienced similar flooding in past years,
especially in twenty thirteen, twenty sixteen and twenty nineteen. You
were listening to Three Things by The Indian Express. Today's
show was edited and mixed by Surreyesh Pavar and produced
by Shishangkhgov and me Ichasharma. If you like the show,
(26:57):
do subscribe to us wherever you get your podcast, and
also recommend it to someone you think may like it,
with a friend or in your family.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
This is the best way for people to get to
know about us.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
You can also tweet us at Express podcast or write
to us at podcast at Indian Express dot com
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