Last two months, India was at the receiving end of nature’s fury. In early June, Biparjoy Cyclone was formed over the Arabian Sea and after whirling over an unusually long period of around 10 days in the sea, it developed into a severe cyclonic storm, with a wind speed reaching 129 km/hour on June 14, Fig 1. The landfall of Biparjoy on the Gujarat coast created a trail of destruction in more than 1,000 villages in the Kutch and Saurashtra regions, uprooting trees, houses, electricity poles, etc. Biparjoy also resulted in excess-to-large rainfall in the western and north-western parts of India, while many other parts of the country had received deficient rainfall. Incidentally, it may be recalled that India was hit by two cyclones in 2022 – Asani and Sitrang, and three cyclones – Amphan, Nisarga and Nivar – during 2021. It thus seems that the incidence of tropical cyclones visiting India is on the rise, tending to be a yearly feature.

Fig 1 Biparjoy cyclone satellite image picture from NASA.

Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151463/cyclone-biparjoy-churns-toward-india-and-pakistan

Fig 2 A rescue operation on Ring Road in New Delhi during recent floods

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/delhi-flood-live-updates-yamuna-water-level-rising-delhi-weather-monsoon-news-supreme-court-ito-delhi-rain-kejriwal-101689296465726.html

On the heels of Biparjoy, another disaster involving unprecedented rainfall was witnessed in several parts of north-west India during the first half of July 2023. Past records of extreme rainfall were broken across northern states and Union territory, which included Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi. While Himachal Pradesh faced the harshest rain-and-flood disaster during the past 75 years, large-scale damage reportedly occurred in the Shimla and Kullu-Manali valley. Videotapes of rainwater gushing through human settlements at several places in Himachal Pradesh and rainwater overflowing racecourse in Chandigarh became viral on social media. Delhi received torrential rains with the Yamuna rising over the danger marks and inundating the low-lying areas (Fig 2) The Rajghat remained submerged due to water logging and flood water even reached close to the Supreme Court of India. Another affected area was the Union Territory of Ladakh and Leh. Being a cold desert, this area usually receives meagre rainfall. However, during the period June 1^st to July 9^th, the Union Territory received 24.1 rainfall as against the normal of 6.5mm, inflicting damages to houses in the region.

Complete data on the loss of human lives and damages to properties are not yet available. It may take more time to gather such data. One media report quoted the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh saying that the loss incurred by the state due to the rain-induced damages could reach Rs. 8,000 crore [1]. The total losses owing to rain-induced damages could be in multiple of this figure.

Food-drought syndrome is not new to India. During the past, the country witnessed the spectre of heavy floods wreaking havoc in one region while the other regions received deficient to very deficient rains – almost drought-like situation. What is new is the growing trend of an increasingly unpredictable pattern of monsoon, which is accompanied with a high to very high intensity of rainfall occurring at certain localized areas leaving large locations deficient to highly deficient in rainfall.

Prior to the floods in north-west India, the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were reeling under an extreme heat wave during the second half of May 2023 with temperature reaching up to 45C, resulting in the death of 98 people [2]. The fact that India has been witnessing higher ambient temperature regimes is confirmed by the observations of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which reported that while the north-west and the central India witnessed the highest temperatures in the past 122 years during April 2022, the year 2023 saw the warmest February since 1901!

One can thus attribute the scenario of the rising occurrence of tropical cyclones, record-breaking heat waves and unprecedented rains and flash floods being witnessed by India to the Climate Change phenomenon. It also needs to be underlined that the frequency and intensity of these extreme events seems to be increasing. Unless effective steps are taken to make a sweeping reduction in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on a large scale worldwide, the climate change phenomenon is bound to get accelerated soon. It is unfortunately going to take some time to witness sweeping reductions in the GHG emissions and its positive impact on the environment. To mitigate immediate risks the human society therefore must take adaptive, climate resilient measures to avoid adverse effects of climate change.

As far as the construction industry is concerned, it would be essential to take urgent measures to ensure that the risks to human beings are reduced by minimizing damages to buildings and civil infrastructure during climate-related extreme events. For this purpose, it would be necessary to first identify zones or areas in the country which would be prone to extreme events. For example, certain zones/areas/regions along the 7500-km long coastline of India that had witnessed the footfall of cyclonic storms during the past few decades could be identified and the health assessment of major buildings and critical infrastructure in the area could be taken up. If major shortcomings are noticed in some of these structures, these could be retrofitted to minimise the risks of damages during extreme events. Numerous industrial establishments, including the ones which are crucial from an energy-security perspective, are located in the coastal zone. Protection to ensure hassle-free performance of the infrastructure of these industries from any climate-centric hazards should be a priority.

Both the central and state governments can revisit the regulatory mechanism for fresh construction of climate-resistant structures at critical locations and issue new guidelines. Further, there could be a ban on construction activities in the most hazard-prone areas. Incidentally, adoption of performance-based specifications in the construction of new climate-resistant structures for ensuring their long-term durability need due consideration. Many more worthwhile suggestions could emerge during the interaction of experts from civil engineering fraternity, climate scientists, government and semi-government agencies and the private sector.

In this context, it may be mentioned that India’s Prime Minister launched the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) at the UN Climate Action Summit at New York on 23^rd September 2019. CDRI is a partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and knowledge institutions that aims to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development. The three strategic priorities of CDRI include technical support and capacity-building, research and knowledge management and advocacy and partnerships. It is appropriate that the professional bodies of the civil engineering industry, private sector, academic institutions, volunteers from NGOs, etc. work together with CDRI to achieve the common objective of having climate-resilient buildings and civil infrastructure in India.

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