Why Maharashtra's villages flood every year
newslaundry.com
newslaundry.com
On the other hand, the railways have brought prosperity for the region. India needs better access to her ports and previously it used to be thousands of trucks hauling cargo through the narrow winding highway. Truck accidents were a weekly occurrence. With the roll-on/roll-off system, the trucks can safely ride the rails for a fraction of cost and emissions. This is just one of the examples.
Coming back to the flooding topic, it seems deforestation is the main culprit and the railways are hardly the major source. Just as an anecdote, the village I grew up used to be surrounded by thick, diverse forest and it is now replaced by a monoculture of cashew trees. Most of this is illegal encroaching and there was hardly any enforcement until a few years ago.
India is such a large, geographically diverse nation. How do you think that plays into local policy development + enforcement?
The so-called environmentalists doesn't have a problem when the forest department itself is planting Acacia trees Willy-nilly in the fertile malnad region. But somehow railroad will destroy the environment.