Between August 1 and 10, rains battered south-western Maharashtra, causing water levels in the local rivers to rise uncontrollably. Due to this, lakhs of people in the Pune, Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli districts were left displaced. A month on, as these areas limp back to normalcy, the burning question that needs to be answered is whether Maharashtra is resilient for such events in the future?

Dr Thomas Oommen, associate professor of geological and mining engineering sciences and affiliated associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Tech, and Himanshu Grover from the University of Washington, believe that the answer lies in training disaster managers.