India Blames Climate for Chennai Floods

COP21: As the southern Indian city of Chennai still struggles to cope after floods that have cost hundreds of lives and left thousands homeless, India says climate change is to blame.

“We will have to resurrect an entire city,” was the verdict of one Indian army officer involved in rescue operations after 17 continuous days of record-breaking rainfall devastated the coastal city of Chennai.

Yet the plight of India’s fourth largest city, and other parts of the state of Tamil Nadu, has attracted little attention at the COP21 climate change talks in Paris, which aim to prevent the atmosphere overheating and causing extreme weather events such as the one that has ravaged Chennai.

The scale of the devastation has been vast after rivers and lakes broke their banks when rain three times more than the usual figure fell in the days leading up to the Paris summit.

The confirmed death toll has reached 280, and 28,000 people have had to be rescued.  Three million people were left without basic services at the height of the crisis, the cost of which is estimated at more than US$225 million.

Perhaps conference delegates are just getting used to extreme weather.  In 2012, it was Haiti and the Philippines that were affected, and a super-cyclone hit the Philippines again in 2013. This year, it is India’s turn.

No monsoon
But India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, insists:  “We are seeing the impact of climate change now.  The unseasonal rains resulted in the floods in Tamil Nadu.  We have witnessed heavy rains in non-monsoon weather.”

Read more at India Blames Climate for Chennai Floods