* THE TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAIMONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 20158 TIMES REGION

The recent flood in Chen-nai is an example ofwhat can transpire

when a natural disaster meetsbad planning, according tophysicist M V Ramana, whois the author of “The Power ofPromise: Examining NuclearEnergy in India.”

Ramana, a lecturer atPrinceton University’s pro-gram on science and global se-curity, was in the city for thescreening of “This ChangesEverything”, a documentarybased on Naomi Klein’s workon climate change.

He speaks to M T Sajuabout the climatic challengeswe face today besides other en-

vironmental issues. Ramanais a member of the Interna-tional Panel on Fissile Materi-als.

What are the climaticchallenges we face today?And how are they going toaffect us?

The main impact of cli-mate change so far has beendifferent kinds of extremeweather events: droughts,hurricanes and cyclones, andso on.

Of course, it is hard to at-tribute any individual eventto climate change — althoughthis could change soon withrapid improvements in cli-mate models — but there islittle doubt that the increas-ing trend in such events hasto do with climate change.

The main challenge isthat the impact of theseevents has primarily fallenon the poor, who have contrib-uted almost nothing to theproblem and have the least re-

sources to fortify themselvesagainst such extreme weath-er events.

How do we addressthose issues?

There is no short cut. It lit-erally and figuratively re-quires a very large-scaletransformation of the way weorganise our societies andproduction in it.

This is true, naturally, in

developed countries like theUS, but it is also true in devel-oping countries like India.There is a need for a rapidtransition from fossil fuels torenewable sources of energy.

This is easily said but it ishard to put into practice, inlarge part because those whoprofit from the use of fossilfuel find ways to slow down ifnot completely block thetransition. At the same time,the danger of climate changeis so urgent that we cannot af-ford to go down dead ends andexplore solutions that weshould know perfectly wellwill not work, such as nuclearenergy.

How do you look at therecent flood in Chennai?

The flood is an example ofwhat can transpire when anatural disaster meets badplanning.

The rapid pace of urban-ization is simply not respect-ing ecological boundaries.

What are the main cli-matic issues that Tamil Na-du is going to face?

I won’t try to answer thisin detail except to say that as astate with a large coastalboundary, sea level rise andstorm surges are going tohave great impacts on TamilNadu over the next severaldecades and after.

A little about the docu-mentary, “This ChangesEverything”?

Naomi Klein has been anextremely influential writerand she, with her husband,has produced this documen-tary.

One of the main messagesof the movie is that there are,all over the world, severalmovements opposing the ex-pansion of fossil fuel extrac-tion and other related activ-ities. These movements, whatKlein calls Blockadia, areslowly but surely gaining instrength.

Climate ChangeMainly AffectsThe Poor, Says

Princeton Expert

‘Sea level rise to impact TN in future’The flood is anexample ofwhat can tran-

spirewhen anaturaldisas-termeets

bad planning

M V Ramana | LECTURER AT

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Chennai: The AIADMK gen-eral secretary J Jayalalithaaset yet another ball rolling forthe much awaited December31 party meeting by reconsti-tuting the executive commit-tee of the party. Out of the 77members appointed to the ex-ecutive committee, 72 arewomen. This significantlyboosts the presence of womenin the committee of around250 members.

The newly appointed com-mittee members includeMLAs, MPs, heads of corpora-tions and party spokesper-sons. Notable names includeformer DMK minister ParithiIlamvazhuthi and formerUnion minister E Ponnusamy.“Parithi was once a DMK manand close to Stalin. He was abitter critic of Jayalalithaa.He could be a key campaignerfor AIADMK and could helpthe party in Chennai wherethe government has drawnmuch flak for its handling ofthe floods. As a dalit leader andold party hand, Ponnusamy ismaking a comeback,” said GSathiyamoorthy, a politicalanalyst.

“So many women being in-ducted is interesting. But thisappears to be more an electo-ral exercise and cosmetic,”said R Manivannan, professorof political science at MadrasUniversity.

In a statement, theAIADMK chief asked partycadres to cooperate with thenewly appointed members.Jayalalithaa also announcedthat the party’s general coun-cil and executive committeemeetings would be held in

Chennai onDecember 31.She said themeetingswould be heldunder thechairmanship

of AIADMK presidium chair-man E Madusoodanan at10.30am. She asked all mem-bers of the two councils to at-tend the meetings without fail.''Invitations for the meetingshave been sent independentlyto all members. I request allthe members to attend themeetings with the invitationwithout fail," said Jayalalith-aa.

In the meeting, Jayalalith-aa will lay down the party’sstrategy. She will provide hercadres with the ammunitionthey would need to counter thecriticism of opposition par-ties especially regarding thegovernment’s handling of theflood situation.

Before the floods, the par-ty's Chennai units were com-pletely renewed. Former MLAPVetrivel, who gave up his R KNagar seat to facilitate theAIADMK leader's return tothe assembly after her acquit-tal in a disproportionate as-sets case, was made the party'sNorth Chennai (north unit)district secretary.

Saidapet MLA G Sentha-mizhan now heads SouthChennai (south unit), while KS Seenivasan has taken overNorth Chennai (south unit)from former Rajya Sabha MPN Balaganga. Party's SouthChennai (south unit) secreta-ry and T Nagar MLA VP Kalai-rajan was replaced with Sath-yanarayanan alias T Nagar BSathya.

Jaya recasts partybody, inductsmore women

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

A driver of a truck was elec-trocuted when the vehiclecame in contact with a livewire near Erode on Sunday.Following the incident, thetruck caught fire. Fire andrescue services personnelrushed to the spot to put outthe fire. The driver wasidentified as K Saravanan,44, from Thanjavur.

Major train accidentaverted: A major train acci-dent was averted on Sundayafternoon, after a crack thathad developed on the rail-way track between Salemand Vazhapadi was spottedon time. The villagers re-ported to police officials af-ter they found a crack onthe track at Seshanchavadinear Vazhapadi. An expresstrain plies between Karaik-kal and Bangalore via Salemrailway junction.

Heightened security atSri Ranganathaswamytemple: Sri Ranganathas-wamy temple at Srirangamhas come under a thickblanket of security withover 4,000 policemen de-ployed for the VaikundaEkadasi festival to be ob-served in the early hours onMonday. Vaikunta Ekadasi,the most important day of21-day festival, which is al-so called the opening of thedoor to Vaigundam, abodeof Vishnu, attracts thou-sands of devotees.

AIADMK man’s houseburgled: Robbers broke in-to the house of AIADMKfunctionary M Arun Pandianat Irugur in Coimbatore onSunday and decamped with23 sovereigns of gold orna-ments.

REGION DIGEST

Truck driverelectrocuted

Kanyakumari:The ceiling ofan under-construction churchnear Marthandam collapsedon Sunday injuring 26 work-ers. Tiruvattar police bookedthree people, including a Kera-la-based engineer, in connec-tion with the incident.

Police said constructionwork was being carried out inSt Jude church in Samiyarma-dam near Marthandam in Ka-nyakumari district on Satur-day night, even though it wasraining.

The accident took placewhen freshly laid concretefrom the ceiling collapsed,trapping the workers, policesaid. The scaffolding to sup-port the concrete layer wasweak, resulting in the acci-dent, police said.

Christopher Raja, a con-tractor from Kattathuraj, Viji-kumar, a contractor from Ver-kilambi, and Bedison, anengineer from Thiruvanan-thapuram, were booked under

IPC sections 288 (negligentconduct with respect to pull-ing down or repairing build-ing), 337 (causing hurt by actendangering life or personalsafety of others) and 338 (caus-ing grievous hurt by act en-dangering life or personalsafety of others). Police wereon the lookout for the trio.

Fire and rescue personneland police were pressed intoaction after the incident.

District collector Sajjans-ingh R Chavan and Superin-tendent of Police G Dharma-rajan were also present at thespot. The rescue work went onfor hours and the injured wererushed to nearby private hos-pitals.

26 workers hurtafter ceiling of

church collapsesTIMES NEWS NETWORK

The accident tookplace when freshlylaid concrete fromthe ceiling collapsed,trapping the workers,police said

Rameswaram: Sri Lankannaval agencies on Saturdaynight seized a fishing boat andapprehended six fishermenfrom Jegathapattinam in Pu-dukottai district on charges ofpoaching in their territorialwaters.

Among the apprehended,one seems to be a minor boyof 15 years old. According tothe Sri Lankan navy website,the fishermen were held 7.5nautical miles north off DelftIsland on December 19.

U Arulanandam of Alli-ance for Release of InnocentFishermen at Pamban saidthe seized boat belong to AKuppuraj in Jegathapatti-nam. The detained fishermenare Tamilselvam, his 15-year-old son, Ramachandran, Aru-lanandam, Moorthy and Sel-vamani. They were taken toKangesanthurai naval baseand were handed over to thedepartment of fisheries andaquatic resources in Jaffna.

Later in the day, they wereproduced before the Kytescourt which remanded themin judicial custody till Decem-ber 31, he said.

On December 17, Lankannavy took four Jegapattinamfishermen into custody oncharges of poaching in theirterritorial waters.

6 fishermen,including

minor, heldTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai: Like overnighttrains plying between destina-tions, daytime trains are cru-cial for various segments ofpeople making short trips. Forinstance, the Vaigai Expressstarting from Madurai at 6.50am is often packed with officegoers and vendors travellingto Dindigul or Trichy.

Though there are a num-ber of overnight expresstrains plying from variouspoints towards Chennai,there are not enough daytrains, especially in interiorTamil Nadu, when comparedto neighbouring Kerala, Kar-nataka, Andhra Pradesh andTelangana. There are only ahandful of express trains likethe Trichy-Tirunelveli Inter-city Express and the Mayila-duthurai-Coimbatore Jan-shatabdi Express trains.

Chennai, which is in thefar north, has a large chunk ofday trains but not many ofthese go towards interior Ta-mil Nadu. There are nearly 16day trains in Tamil Nadu butmost of these ply towards des-tinations like Bengaluru andMysuru in Karnataka. ThePamani Express, that runs be-tween Tirupati and Mannar-

kudi, is a tri-weekly service. Even though there are a

number of passenger daytrains crisscrossing the state,people taking up short trips donot prefer them mainly be-cause the travel time is longerand the trains are poorlymaintained. For instance, apassenger train takes nearly13 hours between Nagercoiland Coimbatore, while an ex-press train takes just 7 hours.

Local trade and industrialforums have been urging therailway ministry to operateday trains to important desti-nations. The Madurai-basedTamil Nadu Foodgrains Mer-chants Association has beenpressing for a daytime trainbetween Madurai and Banga-lore as well as a morning trainfrom Chennai to Madurai.

Railway officials say lackof adequate rail infrastruc-ture and lack of strong de-mand from the public could bethe reasons for few day ex-press trains in the region.Southern Tamil Nadu is yet toget double line, though work isin progress. “The road trans-port is strong in TN and thepressing need to operatetrains during the day was notfelt,” a senior official from thesouthern railway headquar-ters said.

Lack of daytimeinter-city trains

troubles commutersArockiaraj.Johnbosco

@timesgroup.com

Erode: ThePWD onSundayreleasedwater fromthe KodiveriCheck Damin Erodedistrictfollowing anorder fromchief minis-ter J Jayala-liathaa. TNN

Waterreleased

Trichy: An illegal roosterfight turned fatal for a 29-year-old participant after aknife tied on a bird’s legwent into his leg at P Anapa-layam village in Karur onSunday.

The injured man wassent to Government Hospi-tal, Karur, but died due toexcessive blood loss.

Sivasudhan of Gandhi-gram near Karur came toknow about the roosterfight that was illegally orga-nized in the village. He thenwent along with his roosterto participate in the event.Roosters were made to fightin the arena with knivestied on their legs.

When Sivasudhan’srooster was fighting in thearena, it jumped towardshim. Accidentally, the knifeon the bird’s leg went intohis left thigh.

The K Paramathi policeregistered a case and wereon the lookout for the eventorganizers.

Roosterfight turns

fatal forparticipant

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ramanathapuram: A pall ofgloom descended over Erwadi,in Ramanathapuram district,as it received the news of thedeath of a local man in a missileattack on the Saudi Arabiancity of Najran, near the Yemenborder, on Saturday night. Hewas one among the two Indianswho died in the attack.

The district administra-tion, however, said it had no in-formation about the death. Dis-trict collector K Nanthakumarsaid he was unaware of the in-cident. When contacted on Sun-day evening, Nanthakumarsaid that he “will have to check

the news”.A Saudi-led coalition has

been fighting rebels Houthis(from Yemen) since March 26.

During the campaign, severalSaudi border guards and sol-diers have been killed in shell-ing from across the border.

The man, identified as Mu-hamadu Gilbi, hailed from theErwadi Darga area in Rama-nathapuram district. Thedeath of Muhamadu was in-formed to his wife Baragathand his family members on lateSaturday night. Gilbi has adaughter and a son. His son Wa-sim is 18 years old, while daugh-ter Asarath is 12. The familymembers said Muhamadu lastvisited them around eightmonths ago. Though the borderskirmishes have been in thenews for quite some time, Mu-hamadu never complainedmuch about anything for themto be worried, his family mem-bers said.

Muhamadu went to Saudi

Arabia 10 years ago. His rela-tives said that he went abroadwith help of his relatives in thatcountry. He decided to workabroad as he could not earnenough to make his both endsmeet in his village. He got a jobin a house in Najran. He used tovisit his native village once in ayear to meet his family mem-bers. He kept in touch with hisfamily over phone every Fridaywithout fail, the relatives said.

The family members haveurged the central and state gov-ernments to take prompt ac-tion in bringing the body backto Erwadi. They said that theywere not informed about any-thing about bringing back thebody so far.

Ramnad man among dead in Saudi attackDevanathan.Veerappan

@timesgroup.com

A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting rebels Houthis (from Ye-men) since March 26

File photo