Defence against diseases

It's virtually Defence against diseases and literally action on a war foot. As per a request from the Kerala Government, the central government has deployed its army to assist the ongoing vector control drives and fever surveillance.

As the fever toll soars alarmingly, the military is doing its best service along the rustic stretches that have been bombarded with the Chickun gunya. The very professional and prompt service by the defence doctors has become a big support for the health department of the State that has been panting out of inadequate staff.

Yesterday, the leading paramilitary wing of the country, Central Reserve Police Force personals were doing an admirable cleaning drive. They were virtually rescuing the environs along the main bypass road connecting world renowned tourism spot, Kovalam and the Thiruvananthapuram city. Local residents in turn, very jubilantly offered their share for the jawans. If some houses prepared food for the force, others physically assisted in their work.

Kerala, the only State in India to earn complete literacy is always cursed for its environmental ignorance. Only an outbreak of disease awakens the conscience of the people here to engage in massive cleaning drives. It was only last October-November that Chickun gunya cast a shadow over the shining image of the State, killing several people and turning many others as bedridden due to agonizing joint pain. Last November there was a massive government-led cleaning . But what sustained was perhaps the photographs and videos of political leaders and rulers aiming raised spades over garbage mounts. The spirit didn't. Present decline in Kerala's health sector is speaks in volumes about the catastrophic aftermaths, when our environmental thoughts become ephemeral.

Wherever people have the pastime of keeping environmental vigilance in their actions, waging a war against epidemics should not necessarily incorporate a military intervention. Kerala should also have avoided this, had its citizens showed a sustained eco-friendliness every day, every moment and in every action.

Kerala that has set several admirable models of development. Poor environmental maintenance and consequent hike in morbidilty has become a disgraceful story from the State - an unworthy model that should teach not only Keralites but also others to adopt sustainable care for their environment.
- Prepared by K.P.Sivakumar, based on recent health scenario in Kerala.

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Gonu, a climate pickpocket

The severe cyclone that has hit the coast of Oman and put the shores of Persian Gulf under sheer threat after claiming several lives, has become a pickpocket who had fled with considerable part of Kerala's monsoon rains. Even while typing this note, Thiruvananthapuram, the Capital city of this southern State of India remains hot and dry. Whereas June 8 is never supposed to be a day of sunshine as it is.

June, for Keralites, is a month that finds monsoon in its full vigour. There has been a custom belief that when schools re-open after summer vacation, monsoon showers will be there for sure, to wet the students who march to school and back, wearing the newest of their uniforms and bags. But this didn’t' happen even after a week of beginning the so-called monsoon month.

This late monsoon is meteorologically attributed to the formation of the big cyclone, Gonu. Gonu was described as the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea. If the monsoon is already too late to cool the southern shores of Kerala, Gonu has swiftly spelled catastrophic effects taking the lives of many along the coasts of Oman, U.A.E., Pakistan and Iran. The cyclone had double the speed of express trains running in Kerala, i.e., about 240km/hour.

The deep depression over the East Central Arabian Sea, that has obviously unshackled Gonu, has badly affected the progress of Indian monsoon, if to go by the met reports.

India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Deputy Director General (Weather Forecasting), A.B.Majumdar (मजुमदार) has said during a press brief that the depression could move along the North-Westward and delay the further movement of much-longed monsoon.

Any way, an advanced and augmented monsoon is the best thing for the sweating Indian farmers to hope. Good monsoon means better yields for cotton, soybean, groundnut and rice.

A recent statement by the IMD said that the monsoon had lashed the coastal Kerala on May 28. But where actually the showers are? People of Thiruvananthapuram ask. If monsoon was in its full stream, media here would have already been flooded with news of flood-related destructions. But what floods in the Kerala media now is the resurgence of chickun gunya and other communicable diseases. Today alone 11 persons lost their life owing to fever in the southern district of Pathanamthitta. Another startling scene is the unusually fierce sea erosion along the coasts of the State.

The global devils of warming and climatic changes already have their share on the natural settings of Kerala. It seems, amid this chaos, Gonu like a pickpocket, has taken away a good part of the State's monsoon rains too. And quite pathetically Keraliltes, particularly the dwellers of its Capital city, join their State bird Hornbill and gaze skyward, thirsty of rain.

-Prepared by K.P.Sivakumar after observing trends in the climate of Thiruvananthapuram.