The Uttarakhand 2013 and Jammu-Kashmir 2014 disasters: Upstream effects of water piracy

Countries lack the infrastructure to deal with the drainage following flashfloods from localized downpours which may originate from localized evaporation or its combination with that from surroundings or from hurricanes. The natural distribution of water is the best and optimum for the globe. Among the world’s riparian countries, India makes her territory both the sources and the sinks of river discharges by constructions of dams, reservoirs, barrages, weirs, etc. on international rivers and diversion of their courses within herself. Water confinement constructions make rivers silted heavily reducing their discharge capacities all through but more so in the downstream. The two catastrophic incidences – 2013 Uttarakhand and 2014 Jammu-Kashmir - presented in this article vouch for the curses of water confinement. Theoretical treatments have been provided for studying the impacts on the climatic variables for pre- and post-dam periods. Against the backdrop of these incidences, India has threatened her western neighbor of cutting off water supply which she has already done to the eastern neighbor. She, however, opens the gates of all dams and barrages built upstream of the river-silted eastern neighbor Bangladesh and floods that country causing irreparable losses of lives and properties, and adding misery to millions of people when India fails to accommodate excess water. On top of this confinement of river discharges within India, she has been working on the master plan of river networking. It is imperative for judges of international arbitration court, donors, World Bank, policy makers, etc. etc. to take lessons out of this study.   Key words: Dams, reservoirs, evaporation, macrostate, microstate, extreme event, powerhouse, river basin, Ganges, Indus, Teesta, tributary, distributary, water piracy, upstream, downstream.