Disaster management expert Manik Kar on Wednesday wrote an open letter to the people of Assam describing the impending danger posed by big dams and asked the government “certain questions”.

The Telegraph has a copy of the letter which was sent to this correspondent through email.

In the letter, Kar wrote: “This time states such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, among others, were heavily affected by floods.”

He said the dams always failed to prevent floods. “The main reason is that the terrain, precipitation besides socio-environmental and geo-morphological conditions are not the same with other countries. Dams can manage river water by adjusting flows and redirecting channels.”

The letter said: “There are big questions — the country has huge population, the Northeast is in seismic zone V, its rainfall is very to very high (more than average 5,000mm ). The most important point is the soil is very soft and erosion level is more as a result of which breach of dams is the most prominent factor.”

“So, won’t this place serve the purpose properly? Rather it will only kill people of Assam because the state is 150 metres below Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya and neighbouring Bhutan. Its flora and fauna will vanish due to flash floods and erosion.”

He asked the government: “What will you do by killing our people of Assam? There are so many ways to produce electricity. I agree we have large amount of free gifts of nature. Do you know we have only 32 per cent water of the Brahmaputra river? It is our own property. So how dare you build this big dam! Will it be safe for us if one million people are washed away by flash floods in one-and-a-half hours? Who will take risk on this type of fragile zone? Yes, you may build small dams for two to three towns that will function only on cooperative basis and it will serve the purpose of a low-lying state like Assam.

“Mind it, every disaster teaches people what to do and what not to do. This time, everyone was talking about heavy rain. It is the reason of floods all over the country. Actually from my study it is clear that rainfall intensity increases very much for environmental mismanagement.”

In the two-page letter, Kar said the cause of mismanagement are largescale deforestation as a result of which humidity in atmosphere decreases, leading to global warming and increase in ocean surface temperature.

The letter said: “Big dams of the Northeast will kill everything, including human beings. If human beings do not survive what is the need of power and electricity?”