This project talks about a brief yet informative aspects of floods and a natural or rather a man-made disaster and studies the recent calamity in Kerala which shook the state and in turn the whole country in more than one way.
Objectves of this study include-
1. Understanding the disaster of floods
2. Understanding the floods in Kerala and causes and impacts
3. Looking for solutions and if there rather were any preexisting preventive measures
Let us begin by understanding what flood disaters are; Flood is an overflow of huge amount of water covering large areas causing destruction at the places affected. Many regions across the globe face the problem of floods each year causing not only destruction of property but that of human casualties, geographical deterioration, economical set back and ecological loss.
Flood occurs due to excessive downpour, ecological imbalances and lack of proper drainage system.
Meeting the ‘Land of Lamps’- KERALA
Kerala stands out among the states of India, not only for its relative poverty, but for the truly remarkable array of basic health benefits which it manages to provide to its citizens. Despite having a per-capita GNP of only $298 in 1991, Kerala boasted a nearly one hundred percent literacy rate, and had one of the lowest incidences of child malnutrition in all of India. By contrast, the GNP in the rest of the country was $330, and the adult literacy rate only 52%. In fact, the phenomenon of the state’s development has been so well studied that the “Kerala Model” is frequently referred to by economists, anthropologists, and policy-makers alike.
Kerala is often dismissed as a special case, a perfect storm of ecological, historical, and individual circumstances. Kerala challenges the assumption that countries have to experience economic growth on the national level to be lifted out of poverty by showing that meaningful education reform and the nurturing of an engaged active citizenry can create a better standard of life without succeeding on any traditional monetary growth metrics. The state’s uniqueness is not then a testament to the Kerala Model’s ineffectiveness or irreplicability, as some allege, but to the deep entrenchment of the economic growth model and the interests which support it.
GEOGRAPHY
Kerala is a region of great natural beauty. In the eastern part of the state, Anai Peak (8,842 feet [2,695 metres]), the highest peak of peninsular India, crowns the Western Ghats. Descending from the rocky highlands westward toward the coastal plain is a stretch of farmlands, with different crops cultivated at different elevations. Among the more important rivers that flow to the Arabian Sea are the Ponnani (Bharatapuzha), Periyar, Chalakudi, and Pamba.
CLIMATE
The climate of Kerala is equable and varies little from season to season. Throughout the year, daily temperatures usually rise from the low 70s F (low 20s C) into the 80s F (27 to 32 °C). The state is directly exposed to the southwest monsoon, which prevails from July through September, but it also receives rain from the reverse (northeast) monsoon, which blows in October and November. Precipitation averages about 115 inches (3,000 mm) annually statewide, with some slopes receiving more than 200 inches (5,000 mm)
PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE
The watery coastal zones of Kerala are interspersed with coconut palmgroves, while much of the Western Ghats and riverine areas are covered with rainforests and monsoon forests accompanied by typical upland grasslands around the state. This diverse natural environment is home to an extraordinary array of wildlife. Mammals include sambar deer, gaurs (wild cattle), Nilgiri tahrs (wild goatlike animals) elephants, leopards, tigers, bonnet monkeys, rare lion-tailedmacaques and Hanuman and Nilgiri langurs, respectively). Kingcobras are among the notable reptiles, while peacocks and hornbills are common birds. The state has several national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, among which the Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve is the largest.
ECONOMY
Agriculture is the state’s main economic activity. Commercial plantings on less than half of the total land under cultivation earn a sizable amount of foreign exchange but have necessitated the importation of food for local consumption. Kerala’s principal cash crops are rubber, coffee, and tea, which are cultivated in plantations on the slopes of the foothills, as well as areca nut, cardamom, cashew nut, coconut, ginger, and pepper. The major food crops are rice, pulses, sorghum, and tapioca. Commercial poultry farming is well developed.
The forests yield valuable timbers such as ebony, rosewood, and teak. In addition, Kerala’s woodlands supply industrial raw materials such as bamboo (used in the paper and rayon industries), wood pulp, charcoal, gums, and resins. The state is also a national leader in fish production. Sardines, tunas, mackerels, and prawns are among the principal products of the industry
Aside from agriculture, manufacturing and service activities are important contributors to Kerala’s economy. Traditional cottage industries, such as weaving, the production of coconut fibre, and cashew processing, employ many workers in the manufacturing sector. Of the medium- and large-scale industries, food processing is the principal employer.
The above discussion clearly indicates the major dependency of the state demography on forests, agriculture in ergo nature as a resource of livelihood.
Other major manufactures include fertilizers, chemicals, electrical equipment, titanium, aluminum, plywood, ceramics, and synthetic fabrics. Banking, finance, and other components of the services sector also employ a significant segment of the state’s workforce. However, unemployment has remained acute, with the state’s high level of education among the jobless exacerbating the problem.
History
Kerala’s successes are the result of a long history of division and struggle. Up through the 1900s, people in that area were bound by a rigidly inflexible caste system. Subtleties of dress and speech “ensured that a person’s place in society could be recognized at a glance”. These highly visible classifications in turn determined how wealth was distributed and how different social groups interacted. Higher-caste groups were considered pure; they owned the land or were priests, while lower castes were relegated to the most menial labor and considered contaminated or polluted. Though this system was in place throughout India, it was both particularly elaborate and exceedingly strict in Kerala.
Chief among the restrictions imposed on the lowest castes were their inability to own land, interact with higher-caste individuals, or enter Hindu temples, but other instances of structural violence against lower-caste Keralites were innumerable and utterly pervasive.
However, as described above, education for critical consciousness works to counteract the systemized violence of the caste hierarchy by teaching people to question the system rather than just adapt to it.
As challenges to the traditional system came in the form of the caste liberation movement, they also inspired challenges against the idea of top-down authority at all. When the caste system finally fell, those who had been most disadvantaged by it had also learned that social and governmental structures were not infallible – that they could be agitated against.
Education played an important part in Kerala’s tremendous transition from a rigidly caste-divided society into one of India’s most egalitarian states. Though the region historically had strong literacy rates, it was the early-1900s expansion of the education system into the countryside which paved the way for the mass mobilization and active citizenry which today define Kerala.
The school system in Kerala directly challenged the traditions of the past. It mixed the castes, even as it heightened awareness of ethnic identities by using them for scholarship distribution and other such organizational purposes. These hardened social identities challenged traditional modes of hierarchy and deference in Kerala, giving rise to a much larger movement. Schools became a testing ground for little acts of rebellion, and as Gandhi’s nationalist non-cooperation movement swept the country, it found many student followers.