MUMBAI: Nearly every district in Maharashtra has recorded extreme and untimely rainfall in the last five years, with half the districts reporting five to seven such incidents.
In all, 175 incidents of extreme rainfall events in 31 districts and 189 incidents of untimely rainfall in 36 districts have been recorded in the last five years besides a four-time rise in extreme drought events (increasing to 79 in 2010-19 from 23 the previous decade and 17 in 1990-99), all of which can be attributed to climate change, indicates the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2021.
The report, along with its findings on Maharashtra, was presented by principal secretary for environment and climate change Manisha Mhaiskar at an event held at the central hall of the state assembly on Friday.
The state has spent over Rs 21,000 crore in compensation and drought relief works taken up during disasters caused by events such as flash floods, unseasonal rains, cyclone, hailstorms and landslides, the report said.
Mumbai is also one of the 12 listed Indian cities at the risk of coastal submergence due to increase in sea surface temperature, extreme rainfall events and rapid urbanisation, the report indicates. Besides public health, the report also warns of threat to the economy.
Most of Mum region an Urban Heat Island
Between 2006 and 2018, the global mean sea level has risen by 3.7mm per year due to rising temperature, the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reveals. By 2050, the report says, major land areas of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane will be more likely to get severely flooded.
According to the report, almost the entire Mumbai region has become an Urban Heat Island (UHI) as a result of increased concretization, destruction of wetlands, degradation of mangroves and depleting greenery along with areas such as Kothrud, Hadapsar, Aundh and Viman Nagar in Pune city. UHIs have higher daytime temperatures which contribute to flash floods and unseasonal showers besides causing reduction in groundwater levels. "While major parts of Mumbai have experienced a temperature rise of approximately 2 degree C between 1991-2018, the parts of Pune have experienced about 3 degree C temperature rise between 2001-2016," the report points out.
Environment expert Raunak Sutaria and former MPCB chairman Sudhir Shrivastav said streamlining and decongesting concrete-based urbanisation and enhancing vegetation should be the top priorities to tackle rising temperatures, especially in cities under the grip of the UHI effect.
Environment minister Aaditya Thackeray, chairman of the state Legislative Council Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, Deputy Chairman Neelam Gorhe and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan were present when the report was unveiled. Thackeray said the effects of climate change "have already reached us and adversely affected us" and is no more a prediction but a reality. "Now, it's time to act decisively to save mother earth and the precious life on it," he added. Nimbalkar said an incident of 750mm overnight rain in Mahabaleshwar is nothing but the fallout of climate change which needs serious efforts to negate carbon emissions.
