Heat wave, rising temperature leads to disaster in Orissa
Since more than a decade, Orissa has been facing extreme heat during the summer. Every year, hundreds of people are dying due to heat wave.
A FRONTLINE victim of heat wave during summer, Orissa is experiencing unusually high temperature at this point of the year. Mercury has gone above 47 degree in parts like Talcher of Angul and above 46 in Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Bhubaneswar. Almost whole of western Orissa is experiencing high degree of temperature. So far, 85 people are said to have died due to sun stroke caused by rising temperature across the state. However, Government confirms only 11 deaths due to rising temperature and sunstroke caused thereof. At places, life has become almost miserable with just the advent of summer. ‘We can’t come out in the day time and stay inside the house in the night. It’s too hot round the clock’, said Manoranjan Sahu of Talcher adding that, ‘we advise our relatives not to come at this point of time’.
Water bodies disappearing too fast:
Growth of population, need of more houses, acquiring land space for housing, and in the name of development and urbanization, water bodies are being filled up by the builders and developed for construction of houses and huge apartments. ‘Dotted more closely once upon a time, almost all the water bodies between Zobra area to Link Road and Bidanasi in the filigree city of Cuttack are filled up by people and real estate dealers to raise simplex, duplex and apartments’, said Subhransu Mohanty – a TV Producer and communication consultant from the city of Cuttack.
Same is the situation in Bhubaneswar. Even though the city has less number of water bodies as compared to Cuttack, most of them are now history, as all have been grabbed by land mafias in connivance with revenue officials. Now big apartments and housing projects are raised on those places where once a pond was there. Not only in Bhubaneswar, water bodies are disappearing fast even in the outskirts where the city is expanding. Looking at the growing land price, people of outskirt villages are also into filling up of village ponds and converting them into housing lands. ‘The ponds or water bodies which were individual or private properties have faced such a fate. Not those which are recorded by revenue department. And, you can’t tell someone to stop from doing this because he needs money and the pond is valueless unless it is filled and converted to housing land. People in outskirt villages are allured by the money they are offered for land. So, why they would think of conserving a pond that is useless for them? It depends on our civic responsibility. But, again, you can’t impose it on poor villagers and people who are in need of money for their development’, said a leading infrastructure leasing and development consultant of Bhubaneswar, Tarun Barik.
The cities like Berhampur and Sambalpur are also facing the same fate. As, there is a law prohibiting water bodies to use for housing, the ponds are initially used as garbage dumping places and later, once it becomes incapable of carrying water, they are being used for housing purpose. This practice has picked up more speed since real estate business has picked up in the state of Orissa.
Nobody including the government housing agencies bother about the far reaching impact of such practice. Many of the government housing projects are raised on low land areas that once carried huge water bodies. Forests and Mines burning, City sees Green in Grass and Cactus:
Deforestation due to industrialization and mining are being discussed as reasons for temperature rise. Apart from large scale deforestation for mining and industrialization, there have been huge patches of forests set on fire by local people. Now, even timber mafias are promoting this for their own purpose. Recently, there was widespread fire in Simlipal reserve forests. The forests of Keonjhar are facing the same fate.
Angul and Jharsuguda are the two districts having huge coal reserves and open cast coal mines. Every year, the coal mines catch fire in the summer and they keep on burning for a longer period which again adds to the atmospheric temperature to make both the districts reel under heat wave.
This year the heat is crucial to people in the capital because hundreds of trees have been felled by the government itself in the name of beautification and widening of the roads in the capital city. Even though there has been provision of plantation before cutting of trees, government has just been irresponsive to the law and no plantation has yet been taken up by the government. There is no tree where someone could take rest for a while. Rather, the city looks for green in the decorative grass and cactus plants on the roadside. It seems, the havoc of heat across the state, including capital city Bhubaneswar, is a creation by the government itself.
‘Yes, development is required. We need our cities to be beautiful and the roads be widened. We can’t stop that. But, we can’t also ruin the environment and let the cities burn like this in the summer. It’s not only the government, but people should also contribute to the conservation of environment. If deforestation is required in the city for development works, we must create forests and required water bodies in the outskirts’, says Tarun Barik.
So, in order to save the cities and people of Orissa from heat wave during the summer season, it needs a long term vision and planning than just taking a few relief measures during the summer only. Government must work out a balance between development, concretization and environment conservation. Otherwise, in a few years, the issue will gather more strength and summer will become a disaster spell in the state of Orissa.
Growth of population, need of more houses, acquiring land space for housing, and in the name of development and urbanization, water bodies are being filled up by the builders and developed for construction of houses and huge apartments. ‘Dotted more closely once upon a time, almost all the water bodies between Zobra area to Link Road and Bidanasi in the filigree city of Cuttack are filled up by people and real estate dealers to raise simplex, duplex and apartments’, said Subhransu Mohanty – a TV Producer and communication consultant from the city of Cuttack.
Same is the situation in Bhubaneswar. Even though the city has less number of water bodies as compared to Cuttack, most of them are now history, as all have been grabbed by land mafias in connivance with revenue officials. Now big apartments and housing projects are raised on those places where once a pond was there. Not only in Bhubaneswar, water bodies are disappearing fast even in the outskirts where the city is expanding. Looking at the growing land price, people of outskirt villages are also into filling up of village ponds and converting them into housing lands. ‘The ponds or water bodies which were individual or private properties have faced such a fate. Not those which are recorded by revenue department. And, you can’t tell someone to stop from doing this because he needs money and the pond is valueless unless it is filled and converted to housing land. People in outskirt villages are allured by the money they are offered for land. So, why they would think of conserving a pond that is useless for them? It depends on our civic responsibility. But, again, you can’t impose it on poor villagers and people who are in need of money for their development’, said a leading infrastructure leasing and development consultant of Bhubaneswar, Tarun Barik.
The cities like Berhampur and Sambalpur are also facing the same fate. As, there is a law prohibiting water bodies to use for housing, the ponds are initially used as garbage dumping places and later, once it becomes incapable of carrying water, they are being used for housing purpose. This practice has picked up more speed since real estate business has picked up in the state of Orissa.
Nobody including the government housing agencies bother about the far reaching impact of such practice. Many of the government housing projects are raised on low land areas that once carried huge water bodies. Forests and Mines burning, City sees Green in Grass and Cactus:
Deforestation due to industrialization and mining are being discussed as reasons for temperature rise. Apart from large scale deforestation for mining and industrialization, there have been huge patches of forests set on fire by local people. Now, even timber mafias are promoting this for their own purpose. Recently, there was widespread fire in Simlipal reserve forests. The forests of Keonjhar are facing the same fate.
Angul and Jharsuguda are the two districts having huge coal reserves and open cast coal mines. Every year, the coal mines catch fire in the summer and they keep on burning for a longer period which again adds to the atmospheric temperature to make both the districts reel under heat wave.
This year the heat is crucial to people in the capital because hundreds of trees have been felled by the government itself in the name of beautification and widening of the roads in the capital city. Even though there has been provision of plantation before cutting of trees, government has just been irresponsive to the law and no plantation has yet been taken up by the government. There is no tree where someone could take rest for a while. Rather, the city looks for green in the decorative grass and cactus plants on the roadside. It seems, the havoc of heat across the state, including capital city Bhubaneswar, is a creation by the government itself.
‘Yes, development is required. We need our cities to be beautiful and the roads be widened. We can’t stop that. But, we can’t also ruin the environment and let the cities burn like this in the summer. It’s not only the government, but people should also contribute to the conservation of environment. If deforestation is required in the city for development works, we must create forests and required water bodies in the outskirts’, says Tarun Barik.
So, in order to save the cities and people of Orissa from heat wave during the summer season, it needs a long term vision and planning than just taking a few relief measures during the summer only. Government must work out a balance between development, concretization and environment conservation. Otherwise, in a few years, the issue will gather more strength and summer will become a disaster spell in the state of Orissa.
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