While the impact of climate change is not uniform across regions, nations and continents, the impact is usually mediated by human actions. It is true that nature does not discriminate between the rich and the poor, a Bengali or a Garhwali, men and women and so forth. As one of our interlocutors from the Eastern sub-Himalayan region of Arunachal Pradesh once told us, when a dam bursts or an earthquake strikes, it is the human life that is lost irrespective of the class, ethnicity, gender and so forth that otherwise divide them. Climate change, in simple terms, takes place on a global scale and no one is safe now.

At the same time, there is no denying that human tweaks and interventions often compound the climate crisis making climate justice a distant dream. A study conducted recently by a group of researchers from Jadavpur University – one of India’s premier universities – for instance, raises the question of why the flooding in Kolkata back in 2007severely affected the Tangra-Topsia Basin falling under Ward 58 inhabited overwhelmingly by the poor and the illiterate. Ward 58 has the highest concentration of slums in the city of Kolkata (then Calcutta): almost the entire population (99.8 percent) lives in slums and 44.8percent of the population is illiterate.” The study also notes ‘poor maintenance’ of the sewage clearance system that does not allow rainwater to drain out even after weeks and months of any heavy downpour. The study establishes a connection between poverty and illiteracy on the one hand and climate vulnerability on the other. According to the researchers, “ the wards with higher concentration of the poor living in slums [are] exposed to more risks from floods like loss of habitat, outbreak of water borne diseases and other climate-related vulnerabilities.” Why do the poor and the illiterate are disproportionately concentrated in the low-lying areas of Kolkata and other cities and metropolises as well? The answer is obvious.  

If the impact of climate change unevenly affects different segments of population, responses from the poor and the illiterate do not necessarily help promote climate justice. The flood in Silchar (Assam) in 2022 may serve as an example. The state of Assam recorded 65 percent more than the average annual rainfall between 1 March to 20 May 2022. The flood in Silchar began on 19 June 2022, when the river Barak breached an old dyke in Bethukandi, a few kilometres upstream from the city resulting in the flooding of the entire city within hours. The Barak is known to have been discharging excess water particularly during monsoons to the backwaters locally called the anuas. Mahishabeel happens to be one of the oldest amongst as many as 8 anuas the river had developed over centuries around the city. With the rise in population of the city, the Government decided about 50 years ago to separate the river from Mahishabeel primarily to stop the excess flow of water into the river from its backwaters in a bid to save the city from floods. As a result, Mahishabeel, according to many locals, remains flooded for 7-8 months in a year. While areas adjacent to Mahishabeel are also heavily populated mainly by the poor and the illiterate, the overflooding causes havoc to the agriculture they had developed in synchrony with the climatic pattern of the area. The local inhabitants have been insisting on the construction of a sluice gate for long hoping that this would let flood water flow into the river from Mahishabeel. They even made their demand clear before the political leaders when they had visited them on the eve of the severe flood of June, 2022. The construction of the sluice gate was initiated in 2018 only to be shelved in the middle in order presumably to save the city of Silchar from floods. The choice seems exclusive: If people of Mahishabeel are to be saved, the sluice gate is necessary. If the residents of Silchar are to be saved, shelving the construction of the sluice gate is necessary. It seems that the Government made up its mind.

In 2022, when Assam witnessed record rainfall, the river was in a spate andMahishabeel flooded its banks in the month of April itself. This reportedly angered the localswho gave the administration an ultimatum insisting that they made the sluice gate functional so that floodwater could be drained out or else they would take matters in their hand. While there was no administrative action in sight, ‘some locals acted upon their word and cut open a section of the dyke right next to where the half-constructed sluice gate stands in Bethukandito drain out water’. The action on the part of the poor and the illiterate does not address the issue of climate justice; it only passes the burden to others. Much of what goes on in the name of climate actions resembles only the ping-pong game of transferring the climate impact on others. `

In the battle between administration on one hand and the poor and the illiterate on the other, it is the agenda of climate justice that remains unaddressed.