Just a quick note about the Monsoon induced floods in India in case you missed the note at the end of Amardeep’s updated post. Two new blogs have recently emerged to collect stories and the latest news from the affected area. They are in the same tradition (and run by some of the same dedicated people) as the SEA-EAT blog which was a great resource for many during the Tsunami. The blogs are as follows:
http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/
http://cloudburstmumbai.blogspot.com/
Also, on Thursday morning many of us NPR addicts woke up to a poignant essay by commentator Sandip Roy who relates his memories of the rains from his youth. He describes them in a mixture of both wonder and destruction.
Flooding has taken place not only in Mumbai, rather the problem is acute in many parts of south western Mahrashtra and Northern Karnataka. My grandmother, uncle, aunt and my cousins had to move today due to worsening situation. At least in Mumbai they will have some sembemlance of life back in about a fortnight, but in all these villages once the flood waters recede in about a fortnight there will be nobody giving any attenntion to them. Villagers are neither TV savvy nor do they have any real clout with their politicians to get the deserved attention.
Another problem that has begun to arise is that of people already begining to migrate towards other regions. In my nativr village about 2400 acres of land out of total 2500 acres is under water and it has been so for the last seven days. The standing crops have begun to rot and even feeding cattles has become a huge problem and many have started to die due to starvation. As it will take some time for water to recede and it will take about another three months before any kind of cultivation can take place on the flooded fields people are dreading about their short term future with no work and hence they have already begun to migrate towards other regions.
On the brighter side at least in my state (Karnataka) the district administration and people in the region have risen up to the occasion and helped people who have been displaced.
Hopefully things will work out soon.