Kolhapur/Pune : Have you ever bought an apartment in a housing society in a posh area surrounded by nature and possibly with a beautiful view of a river? Have you ever tried to find out before buying the flat whether your society might be affected if the river gets flooded?
Well, for the residents of the several housing societies in the Nagala Park area of Kolhapur, one of the relatively newer residential area in the city, the concepts of red and blue lines of a river were alien. “We did not know what red line of a river meant, how would we know that our society lies within it?” said a woman residing in a society in Nagala Park area.
While most of the residents requested not to use the names of their societies, they had only one thing to say, “We assumed that since the builder had permission, we thought that they must have adhered to all necessary norms related to the environment too.”
While unlike the villagers and other affected population in the city, who lost their homes and livelihood in the floods, the damage was relatively lower in these housing societies. They were back to living in their buildings, carrying on with their lives as usual.
It was the memory of the two days in the flood that haunted them now.
“In our society, water had reached up to the level of the first floor, but thankfully, it had not entered our homes. Those living in the bungalows were severely affected as water ruined everything in their houses that was on the ground floor and basement. However, we will never forget travelling in those boats while being rescued at the mercy of the river water that had gushed onto the roads,” said another resident of a society in Nagala Park.
The residents felt nothing but gratitude towards their rescuers. One of them said, “Within a night, the water levels rose by around five feet. We were too scared. Amongst the boats of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Indian Army and Navy were the volunteers of the White Army who helped us equally. Since the ground floor was flooded, we had to sit in the boats from the balconies of the first floors. They carried us on their shoulders to help us into the boats.”
Speaking to Sakal Times on the issue, Ashok Rokade of White Army, Kolhapur, said, “Look at these people, they have all the money in the world and huge apartments. However, in the face of adversity, they were just like anyone else affected by floods. They left behind everything that they had to save their lives. I hope that at least now, they would try to find out if their house lies in the flood-prone area or not. Kolhapur is a flood-prone as well as an earthquake-prone city. However, nobody anticipates any disaster here as there is no awareness even amongst the educated class.”
Red line and the Blue line
The Red line and the Blue line of a river are imaginary lines that mark the maximum water level that a river may reach when flooded. The Red line shows the mark that the river might reach once in 100 years while the Blue line shows the mark in 25 years. The area between the Blue and the Red lines is for restrictive use.
