Climate change may have caused Kashmir floods: CSE

New Delhi, Sep 10: The devastating floods in Jammu and Kashmir could be a manifestation of extreme weather events induced by climate change, the Centre for Science and Environment said Wednesday.

Sunita Narain, director general of CSE, said the calamities in Mumbai (2005), Leh (2010), Uttarakhand (2013) and now Jammu and Kashmir show a similar pattern of extreme rainfall, which can be a result of climate change.

She said that as was the case with some of the previous extreme rainfall events, the scale of disaster in Jammu and Kashmir has been exacerbated by unplanned development, especially along the river banks.

She said: "In the last 100 years, more than 50 percent of lakes, ponds and wetlands of Srinagar have been encroached upon for constructing buildings and roads. The banks of the Jhelum river have been taken over in a similar manner, vastly reducing the river's drainage capacity."

CSE deputy general director Chandra Bhushan said Jammu and Kashmir is not prepared to handle extreme rainfall events.

"Jammu and Kashmir does not have a flood forecasting system. Its disaster management system is also rudimentary," he said.

IANS