Mahabaleshwar records its highest single-day rainfall
NEW DELHI: Mahabaleshwar, a hill station in Maharashtra’s Satara district located in the Western Ghats, has recorded the highest rainfall ever in its history with 60 cm in 24 hours ending 8.30 am Friday.
Rainfall of 20cm or more in 24 hours is termed “extremely heavy” by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Scientists said recording such abnormally high amounts of rain in a short duration is an impact of climate crisis. The impact of such prolonged and heavy rains is more over the west coast because of the ecologically fragile characteristics of the Western Ghats.
The intensity and magnitude of the latest record is evident in the one it broke -- 49.7 cm on August 11, 2008, almost 13 years ago and around 17% lower. In the 48 hours from 8.30am Wednesday, the town recorded a rainfall of 107.5 cm.
“Parts of the west coast have recorded very high amounts of rain continuously for seven days. That’s a very prolonged spell. There were several landslides also reported. Low level westerly winds are very strong and a low pressure area has developed over northwest Bay of Bengal which has accentuated monsoon rain over the west coast ,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist, national weather forecasting centre of IMD. He added that “landslides are common over Kerala, Kodagu etc but this time, the ghat areas of Maharashtra are reporting several landslides.”
A senior scientist at IMD Pune, who asked not to be named, said the flooding over west coast is being caused by a combination of issues. “There is very heavy rain which is clear from the data but reservoirs and dams are also releasing water as per their standard operating procedure; rivers in the Konkan are flowing above danger mark. They may have swelled for manmade reasons, such as encroachments on riverbeds in the Western Ghats... Mahabaleshwar recorded over 1,000 mm of rain in 48 hours. Can you imagine the scale?”
The Western Ghats are an extremely ecologically fragile region. The Madhav Gadgil Committee (Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel or WGEEP ) in 2010 recommended that 75% of the 129,037 sq km of the area be declared an environmentally sensitive area or ESA because of its dense, rich forest cover and large number of endemic species. Later, a panel headed by Kasturirangan, the former Indian Space Research Organisation chief, scaled it down to 50%.
Neither of the two reports has been implemented as yet. A senior official of the union environment ministry said on condition of anonymity that “states had various reservations with the recommendations. Plus because of Covid 19 pandemic we have sought time till December 31 to declare ESAS in Western Ghats so we have time to discuss and resolve the differences with the Western Ghat states.”