Rising temperature across the State, including in major cities and towns, has created an alarming situation. Why Kala Baisakhi is hitting the State perpetually every year during April and May, when peak of summer should be felt only in JuneIJ
Kala Baisakhi implies death, which is associated with Baisakh or the month of April and May, known as the hottest period. Kala Baisakhi comes with excess heat, humidity, hailstorm, cyclone, rain and thunder.
low pressure belt is the origin of cyclone. During summer the spearing rays of the sun always heats up the ground. The surrounding air is also heated up after it comes in contact with the ground. This gives rise to low pressure. When a low pressure is created in a particular place, the air is moved up and the wind from the neighbouring areas flows towards the low pressure region.
Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts are quite vulnerable to Kala Baisakhi, having heavy deposits of different kinds of minerals like iron ore and manganese, which extends from Sukinda to Sundargarh hill regions and adjoins the Eastern Ghat.
The ecological balance of the region was perfectly maintained so long as a luxuriant green belt existed in the region. But when the entire tract was cleared of its vegetation for mining and industrial activities, the zone fell bald
and barren.
The wind from high pressure areas of the oceanic region always moves to low pressure areas of the lands to fill the voids. Similarly, when low pressure belt is created in the ocean, the wind from high pressure belt of land mass fills the voids, giving birth to cyclone and super cyclone, considering the velocity of the wind flow. Five to six decades before, the district head quarters of Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj were considered as summer capitals of the State. However, that is a thing of the past now.
When excessive heat invites the cyclone, it brings cyclonic rainfall. The precipitating rainfall of the summer always causes humidity known as dampness of the air. The moisture released by plant bodies and the water bodies always goes to the atmosphere through the process of evaporation.
When the dampness of the atmosphere remains static for some period or even for a few days and moments, it creates perspiration and brings in various health hazards. The deposition of carbons with dust particles in the atmosphere prevents the movement of the moisture contents and the dampness of the atmosphere continues.
Man is solely responsible for atmospheric hazards, which invite climatic disasters. We are very much aware of this, but we have been giving priority on economy over environment.
The Brahmani and Mahanadi valleys are rich in coal deposits. Mining of coal has caused irreparable devastation of the forests in last few decades.
As a result, the temperature of Talcher at time reaches 47º C, while in Sambalpur, it is 46ºC. The hotness of these areas is not only increasing for the devastation of forest cover, but due to forest fire, continuous deposit of carbon discharge by several industries and vehicular explosion.
As the densities of natural ecosystems of Subarnapur and Bolangir have been reduced and multistory buildings have instead been built, the radiation effects are playing a role to invite Kala Baisakhi.
Although the river Mahanadi is traversing in the boundary of the region, the effect of the river is diminished before the developing baldness of the area. Similar situation is also happening in Titilagarh region. The whole tract is devoid of vegetation and barren hillocks are exposed very much to the sun ray, creating radiation.
Everybody knows if proper management of the ecological systems of the tropical region is not made, including efficient and careful management of biodiversities, survival of man will be very much difficult.
The situation of the tropical countries like India is going from bad to worse. Recently, the Andhra Pradesh Government carried out disaster management for survival of fishing communities of coastal zones. Similar works are also going on in Odisha, but the principles of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) management are not given primary importance.
Hence, ecology should be efficiently managed. During the Super Cyclone in 1999, it was decided by the Government to evolve tree belts along the sea-coast to prevent the ferocity of sea based cyclone, but it was not efficiently carried out till date.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist)