As the Mahatma Gandhi said,"The
earth have enough to fulfill everybody’s need but not to fulfill everybody’s
greed".The unjudicious utilization of resources and illegal cutting of trees and
deforestation leads to the disturbance in the ecological balance. Heavy monsoon
rains begin on September 2, 2014 in J&K region lead to heavy flooding. On
September 3, A border security force officer and five others were killed in land
slides and flash floods triggered the Jammu region. On September 6, it was
claimed that it is the worst flood in 109 years. Jammu & Kashmir CM Omar
Abdullah estimated on September 6 that 390 villages were in undated. The PM
declared a national emergency on 7th of September. The changing climatic
environment today is a major cause for concern and is now the greatest
environmental challenge facing the world today. The recent devastated flood in
Kashmir valley is the live example of climate change. The centre for science and
environment, Sunita Narayan director general of CSE said, “The calamities in
Mumbai in 2005, Leh 2010, Uttrakhand 2013, and now in J&K show a similar pattern
of extreme rainfall, which can be a result of climate change” Climate change in
erratic rainfalls worst effected the border district of Poonch. The flood
directly or indirectly impact on the life of people. It directly impact on the
life of farmers who are totally dependent on agriculture and this year climate
changer is unexpected and effects farm profitability as commodity prices are
decreased, and producers were already working with diminished profit margin
potential. The temperature across the Jammu region of J&K state, shows
increasing trend and it increases at rate of 0.3 to 0.6 per decade. The monsoon
season in the Poonch comes with the month of June and stays till the month of
September in summer and in winter season comes with the month of November and
stays till the month of December. But now the monsoon is changing its pattern
and is not coming on the expected time. “Alam Din, A wheat grower in the border
town of Poonch blames fickle weather for the failure of his crop this year. Last
year there were bumper crops, I earned wheat for my family and consume it the
whole year but this year there are no crops. Erratic rainfall and flood caused
the crops” he said.
According to Parveen Akhter “Farmers are now sick of the erratic weather
condition over the last three years. I have been witnessing quite strange
weather conditions. Hails and storms have become frequent while heavy rains
occur erratically. It causes the internal seed of crops”
The reduction of snowfall has been clearly noticed over the last few years in
Poonch. In previous years there were harsh winters in Poonch due to frequent and
heavy snowfall. Manzoor, Hussain a farmer of Mendhar said” The monsoon is not
reversing on expected time from last few years, and it led to great hardships on
farmers life. He blames’deforestation’is the major cause of erratic rainfalls
and calamities”According to professor Mohd Mahroof of degree college
Mendhar,"increasing population is one of the leading factor of climate
change.when population is increasing at an alarming rate then the people need
more land for agricultural purposes,which led to deforestation.Moreover drinage
system is very necessary for preventing the loss from flood but in our district
there is no drinage system.It is the high time for government to take all
necessary initiatives for prevention of flood.But if the cause of the disaster
are not tackled through better adaption to climatic change and long term
disaster prevention measures,disasters of this scale may become a regular
feature"
Effective measures are needed to combat frequent floods.Though the agriculture
department has constructed ponds in some areas for water harvesting,much more
has to be done.In the same fashion,awareness programmes on climate change and
its effects on various sectors like agriculture,health,water,sea level,ocean
biodiversity and the role played by human interventions in climate change needs
to be taken up on priority basis.