More than half-drowned and trapped in his waterlogged house, a middle-aged man in a light-green shirt donning rounded spectacles stood submerged, recording his desperate pleas on his mobile camera. Name still unknown, this man from Kerala was trapped in the recent floods, begging for help. Among many other gory reminders of Kerala’s devastation, this video too became instantly viral. The deluge in Kerala has, yet again, raised a most unavoidable question: are natural calamities entirely natural or are they partially man-made?
In the last two weeks, nearly 483 people have died, hundreds of people are still missing and close to 11 lakh people have been displaced and are living in camps set up by the government. Flood and rainfall pattern In the last few years, scientists have observed that the pattern of rainfall has drastically changed. While some parts of a state received 50 per cent excess rainfall, the other parts suffered from drought. This unpredictability has caused many scientists to ponder over the causes of floods.
