Hindi English Translation || Editorial || Slippery slopes: On the retreat of southwest monsoon

Slippery slopes: On the retreat of southwest monsoon

To face heavy monsoons, States must preserve (रक्षित, रख-रखाव करना) the integrity (अखंडता, सुदृढ़ता, मजबूती, ताकत) of rivers and mountains

Even as the Southwest monsoon retreats (वापसी, शरण) along parts of northern Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Bengal and the northeastern States in October, it is leaving a trail (leave a trace, leave a mark, have a significant effect, have a lasting effect) of destruction in several districts. Significant loss of life has occurred in Kerala. While the heaviest recent downpour (a heavy rainfall) has been reported from west Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, east Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, with as much as (to the degree that; surprisingly large) 31 cm in Sheopur on Monday, there has been very heavy rain in Kerala and Gangetic West Bengal. The Indian monsoon is an invaluable (अनमोल, अमूल्य, बहुमूल्य) resource that sustains (बनाए रखना, सहारा देना, बल देना) hundreds of millions of people, but variations in its patterns and intensity pose (constitute, present, create, cause (a problem or danger or risk)) a rising challenge. Kerala, which hosts a vast stretch (फैलाव, विस्तार) of the Western Ghats, is having to contend with (बहस करना, सामना करना, हाथापाई करना) these changes with almost no respite (rest, break, interval, halt, breathing space, stoppage) between severe spells. The recurrent (repeated, regular, cyclical, continual, periodic) bursts show that anomalies (विसंगति, असंगति, असामान्य) in precipitation over the State, spectacularly (असाधारण रूप से, आलीशान ढंग से) demonstrated by the inundation of idyllic (ideal/perfect, picturesque, peaceful) towns in 2018 and by mudslides that killed many a year later, require a comprehensive (व्यापक, सर्व-समावेशी, संपूर्ण) adaptation (अनुकूलन, परिवर्तन, संशोधन) plan. This year’s torrential (मूसलाधार, गंभीर, भारी) rain in the State, which has killed at least 35 people so far (अब तक, जब तक, इतना ही), is causing alarm (danger signal, distress signal, alert) as large reservoirs (जलाशय, झील, तालाब) in mountainous reaches (a continuous extent of water) start filling up fast, while the Northeast monsoon lies ahead. The Government has responded by issuing alerts for several dams, including Idukki, and put in place (establish, set up, create/form) plans to release water to avoid a repeat of the flooding witnessed three years ago. Significantly, the IMD has issued an alert for more heavy rainfall in Kerala from October 20.

The precarity (the state of being uncertain/insecure/unsafe) of living conditions in much of the country make the annual monsoon a persistent threat for millions, and governments should do more to reduce the risk to life and property. Nurturing (protect, care for, take care of, attend to, look after) the health of rivers and keeping them free of encroachments (intrusion, trespass, appropriation, infringement, invasion), protecting the integrity of mountain slopes by ending mining (the extraction of valuable minerals (e.g. iron ore) or other geological materials (e.g. coal) from the Earth), deforestation (it is when humans remove or clear large areas of forest lands and related ecosystems for non-forest use) and incompatible construction hold the key (to have control over something). The ecological imperative (necessary condition, precondition, essential requirement) should be clear to Kerala with successive years of devastation, echoing (repeat, say again, restate, reiterate) the warnings in the Madhav Gadgil committee report on the Western Ghats. Land may be an extremely scarce (insufficient, deficient, inadequate) resource, but expanding extractive (relating to/involving extraction (of something (resources) completely without provision for redevelopment)) economic activity to montane forests is certain to cause incalculable (inestimable, indeterminable, immeasurable) losses. One estimate by researchers in 2017 put quarrying (the process of removing rock, sand, gravel or other minerals from the ground in order to use them to produce materials for construction or other uses) area in Kerala at over 7,157 hectares, much of it in central districts that were hit later by mudslides. It should be evident to governments that it is unconscionable (unethical, immoral, unprincipled, wrong) to allow the pursuit of short-term profits at the cost of (by sacrificing/losing/giving up something) helpless communities. A more benign development policy should treat nature as an asset, and not an impediment (obstacle, barrier, obstruction, hindrance). Accurately mapped hazard zones should inform all decisions. There is a similar threat from extreme weather, breaking glaciers (a large body of ice which flows under its own mass. Glaciers are made of layers of compressed snow that move or “flow” due to gravity and the softness of ice relative to rock) and cloudbursts to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Several States face climate change (a long-term change in the Earth’s climate, or of a region on Earth) impacts and extreme weather, and the response must be to strengthen natural defences.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.retreat (noun)

Hindi Meaning - वापसी, शरण
English Meaning - decline, withdrawal, pulling back.

2.preserve (verb)

Hindi Meaning - रक्षित, रख-रखाव करना
English Meaning - conserve, protect, maintain.

3.integrity (noun)

Hindi Meaning - अखंडता, सुदृढ़ता, मजबूती, ताकत
English Meaning - soundness, robustness, strength, solidity, durability, stability.

4.invaluable (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - अनमोल, अमूल्य, बहुमूल्य
English Meaning - indispensable, crucial, critical, key, extremely helpful/useful, vitally important.

5.sustain (verb)

Hindi Meaning - बनाए रखना, सहारा देना, बल देना
English Meaning - support, give strength to, help, assist, succour.

6.stretch (noun)

Hindi Meaning - फैलाव, विस्तार
English Meaning - area, sweep, extent, spread.

7.contend with (verb)

Hindi Meaning - बहस करना, सामना करना, हाथापाई करना
English Meaning - deal with, cope with, face, grapple with (a difficult or unpleasant situation).

8.anomaly (noun)

Hindi Meaning - विसंगति, असंगति, असामान्य
English Meaning - something different, abnormal, unusual; oddity, peculiarity, deviation, aberration, exception.

9.spectacularly (adverb)

Hindi Meaning - असाधारण रूप से, आलीशान ढंग से
English Meaning - strikingly, shockingly, conspicuously.

10.landslide (noun)

Hindi Meaning - भूस्खलन
English Meaning - a landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope. Landslides are a type of “mass wasting,” which denotes any down-slope movement of soil and rock under the direct influence of gravity; landslip, rockfall, mudslide, earthfall/slip.

11.comprehensive (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - व्यापक, सर्व-समावेशी, संपूर्ण
English Meaning - all-inclusive, broad-based; all-embracing, universal, complete, thorough.

12.adaptation (noun)

Hindi Meaning - अनुकूलन, परिवर्तन, संशोधन
English Meaning - alteration, modification, adjustment, transformation.

13.torrential (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - मूसलाधार, गंभीर, भारी
English Meaning - (of rain) severe, heavy, copious, relentless.

14.so far (phrase)

Hindi Meaning - अब तक, जब तक, इतना ही
English Meaning - until now, up to the present, up to this point.

15.reservoir (noun)

Hindi Meaning - जलाशय, झील, तालाब
English Meaning - a source of water supply; pool, lake, pond.

16.slippery slope (noun)

English Meaning - a series of actions that can’t be controlled over once it has begun and the series of actions are going to create a lot of problems.

17.leave a trail (phrase)

English Meaning - leave a trace, leave a mark, have a significant effect, have a lasting effect.

18.downpour (noun)

English Meaning - a heavy rainfall.

19.as much as (phrase)

English Meaning - to the degree that; surprisingly large.

20.Gangetic (adjective)

English Meaning - relating to the river Gange.

21.pose (verb)

English Meaning - constitute, present, create, cause (a problem or danger or risk).

22.host (verb)

English Meaning - have.

23.Western Ghats (noun)

English Meaning - The mountain range that runs along the west coast of peninsular India from Tamil Nadu through Kerala, Karnataka and Goa to Maharashtra is known as the Western Ghats. Spread across six states, Western Ghats is a treasure trove of biodiversity and source of major rivers, including Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery.

24.respite (noun)

English Meaning - rest, break, interval, halt, breathing space, stoppage.

25.spell (noun)

English Meaning - a period of rain; rainy period/time.

26.recurrent (adjective)

English Meaning - repeated, regular, cyclical, continual, periodic.

27.burst (noun)

English Meaning - spell, session; sudden outbreak (of a heavy rain).

28.precipitation (noun)

English Meaning - rain, rainfall.

29.inundation (noun)

English Meaning - flooding, deluge.

30.idyllic (adjective)

English Meaning - ideal/perfect, picturesque, peaceful.

31.mudslide (noun)

English Meaning - landslip, landslide, rockfall, earthfall.

32.adaptation plan (noun)

English Meaning - a process of adjustment to the impacts of climate change, including actions taken to reduce the negative impacts of climate change, or to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

33.alarm (noun)

English Meaning - danger signal, distress signal, alert.

34.reaches (noun)

English Meaning - a continuous extent of water.

35.lie ahead (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - draw near, await, loom, to be in the future, be going to happen.

36.put in place (phrase)

English Meaning - establish, set up, create/form.

37.India Meteorological Department (IMD) (noun)

English Meaning - an agency under the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India which is responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology. It has the responsibility for forecasting, naming and distributing warnings for tropical cyclones in the Northern Indian Ocean region, including the Malacca Straits, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

38.nurture (verb)

English Meaning - protect, care for, take care of, attend to, look after.

39.encroachment (noun)

English Meaning - intrusion, trespass, appropriation, infringement, invasion.

40.mining (noun)

English Meaning - the extraction of valuable minerals (e.g. iron ore) or other geological materials (e.g. coal) from the Earth.

41.deforestation (noun)

English Meaning - it is when humans remove or clear large areas of forest lands and related ecosystems for non-forest use.

42.incompatible (adjective)

English Meaning - irreconcilable, conflicting, opposed, opposite, contradictory; inharmonious, discordant.

43.hold the key (phrase)

English Meaning - to have control over something.

44.ecological (adjective)

English Meaning - environment-friendly, eco-friendly.

45.imperative (noun)

English Meaning - necessary condition, precondition, essential requirement.

46.devastation (noun)

English Meaning - destruction, damage, havoc/wreckage.

47.echo (verb)

English Meaning - repeat, say again, restate, reiterate.

48.Madhav Gadgil committee report (noun)

English Meaning - Western Ghats ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) was constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) comprising of 14 members and chaired by Prof. Madhav Gadgil. The commission submitted the report to the Government of India on 31 August 2011. In a 552-page report, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, commonly called Gadgil Commission, suggested shifting from large-scale cultivation of single commercial crops on steep slopes, which was leading to soil erosion and increased run-off (the draining away of water), and controlling massive encroachment and deforestation in the catchment areas of major rivers.

49.scarce (adjective)

English Meaning - insufficient, deficient, inadequate.

50.extractive (adjective)

English Meaning - relating to/involving extraction (of something (resources) completely without provision for redevelopment).

51.montane (adjective)

English Meaning - relating to or inhabiting mountainous regions.

52.incalculable (adjective)

English Meaning - inestimable, indeterminable, immeasurable.

53.quarrying (noun)

English Meaning - the process of removing rock, sand, gravel or other minerals from the ground in order to use them to produce materials for construction or other uses.

54.hit (verb)

English Meaning - be affected/impacted by.

55.unconscionable (adjective)

English Meaning - unethical, immoral, unprincipled, wrong.

56.pursuit (noun)

English Meaning - push towards, quest for, search for; aim of, goal of.

57.at the cost of (phrase)

English Meaning - by sacrificing/losing/giving up something.

58.benign (adjective)

English Meaning - considerate, thoughtful, helpful; agreeable, favourable, advantageous, beneficial; not harmful to the environment.

59.impediment (noun)

English Meaning - obstacle, barrier, obstruction, hindrance.

60.map (verb)

English Meaning - chart, plot, trace out, survey.

61.glacier (noun)

English Meaning - a large body of ice which flows under its own mass. Glaciers are made of layers of compressed snow that move or “flow” due to gravity and the softness of ice relative to rock.

62.cloudburst (noun)

English Meaning - a sudden and very heavy rainfall.

63.climate change (noun)

English Meaning - a long-term change in the Earth’s climate, or of a region on Earth.

64.defence (noun)

English Meaning - fortification, bulwark, buttress, bastion; shelter, protection.

65.precarity (noun)

English Meaning - the state of being uncertain/insecure/unsafe.

66.persistent (adjective)

English Meaning - continuous, constant, unending, unrelenting, unceasing.