Authorities must be prepared to tackle landslides and other tragedies (Editorial)
More than 25 persons have died in massive landslides in Darjeeling. But figures alone might not convey the whole extent of such tragedies. Homes, a bridge, roads and tea gardens have been washed out by the intense rainfall. Tourists have been stuck in the flood-hit tea garden areas.
This is not the lone incident of its kind that India has faced during the monsoons of June-Sept 2025. Many parts of the country have faced such tragedies in the past few months. North India and the Himalayan states (Himachal, Uttarakhand, J&K) have had multiple cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides. Punjab has faced severe flooding in many of its districts due to very heavy rains upstream in the Himalayas and dam water release. Then, there were a large number of deaths from heavy rains and flooding in Madhya Pradesh and nearby Maharashtra. Northwest India also faced above-normal rainfall, and excess of a deluge in many districts. Urban areas like Kolkata have not been spared either, facing severe flash floods and disruption.
For Goa, such issues are not just incidental matters. Being on the west coast, heavy rainfall is something that showed up with some regularity over the past years and decades. Such events have been recorded in local history, the memories of the seniors, and even in local song and film at times. Except that, extreme weather events are now more common. Fortunately, the past monsoons have been kind to Goa. Though the rainfall was concentrated around some weather-disturbances elsewhere, things were reasonably okay here.
We cannot afford to lose sight of such trends. In fact, it might not be wrong to say that in the past decade (2016-2025), Goa has seen heavy or “unpleasant” seasons in about six to seven of those ten monsoons. For instance, 2024 saw a record in terms of heavy rain in many decades. Earlier to that, 2020 was the wettest monsoon in a long time. 2021 saw severe flooding, heavy rains and rivers swelling. Ditto for 2019 when there were squally rains, uprooting of trees, landslides and flooding in low-lying areas. There were also very heavy rains in 2023. Goa has had a few cyclonic impacts in recent years, but it’s hard to forget the major one which was Cyclone Tauktae in May 2021, coming right in the midst of the most deadly killer phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. Luckily, Kyarr (2019) and Ockhi (2017) passed close by, but mostly over the Arabian Sea.
Such issues cannot be left to luck and chance alone. Obviously, the coastal state needs to be far more proactive. Goa can better face extreme weather events by investing in early warning systems, stronger coastal and river embankments. We need resilient infrastructure that can withstand heavy rain and flooding. Restoring and protecting natural buffers like mangroves, wetlands and hill slopes to absorb excess water can play a role, if there is the political vision to push in this direction.
Strictly regulating construction in low-lying and ecologically fragile zones can help. Improving urban drainage and solid waste management to prevent water-logging is part of the long-unfinished agenda, though officials have been claiming some success on this. Ensuring community preparedness through awareness drives, disaster drills and quick-response rescue networks have to go beyond being good intentions alone. We need to identify the trouble areas and address them in a professional manner. The authorities need to get community participation as part of the preparedness to face such eventualities. Can we too boost our ecological, infrastructural and social measures to reduce Goa’s vulnerability to increasingly frequent climate shocks?
