Drought to flood, flood to drought

Today, he is preparing a flood damage assessment report. Two days of incessant rainfall—more than 50 per cent above average—has swamped Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district.

Villagers are marooned, road links snapped, houses damaged and crops destroyed. In a district where drought relief work was on till some time back and water tankers were being used, floods have suddenly altered everything.

In Parmar’s damp office, with seepage marks making ugly splashes on the wall, District Collector Rajiv Singh Thakur is trying to organise relief work. There is an urgency in his voice as he talks to a volunteer about food packets and clothes. In a State that has learnt to live in the shadow of drought, where the monsoon flopped this year too, heavy rains over the weekend has caught everyone unprepared—at least in Shahpura.

Besides Bhilwara, Kota Town, and a few villages in Tonk district are battling swirling water. In Tonk, the threat is from water spilling out of the Bisalpur dam.

R K Meena, Secretary, Relief and Disaster Management, told The Indian Express that the heavy rainfall last week was completely unexpected. ‘‘We got less reaction time. But we were able to deal with the situation and there has been no loss of life. The only issue we have to deal with now is the distribution of compensation to the villagers, which we are working on,’’ he says. ‘‘A drought happens over a period of time and there is sufficient reaction time,’’ says Thakur, who has already spent a couple of sleepless nights in Shahpura. ‘‘But these floods destroyed everything overnight. And nobody, including villagers, really knew what to do.’’

About 200 metres down a flooded road, 600 families soak in the weak sun inside a dharamshala compound. Residents of Raghunathpura, they spent a harrowing day on rooftops as they watched rainwater flood their homes and damage their crops. It took over 10 hours for Army boats to bring them to Shahpura.

On August 15, as everyone looked up to see the national flag being unfurled, they also caught the first glimpse of the ominous black clouds gathering overhead.

‘‘But nobody believed things would go out of hand,’’ says Thakur. ‘‘In fact, I visited a few areas before August 15 and as a precautionary measure, suggested that people move out. But villagers told me with utmost confidence that the rain would never enter their homes. I left a wireless set behind and also set up a WLL phone. They saved the day.’’ By the evening of August 16, all dams in the region were flowing above the danger mark and rains showed no signs of abating. ‘‘Our first distress calls started coming in that afternoon and then there was a deluge by evening,’’ says Parmar, looking up from the damage assessment performa he is preparing. ‘‘The Army was called in because people were stranded. In a rescue operation starting at 1.30 a.m. on August 17, they evacuated people. We had also organised helicopters to drop food packets,’’ he says.