Angry Himalayas wreak havok in Uttarakhand

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The pilgrimage to Badrinath and Kedarnath as also to what is known as “Chaar Dhaam yatra” in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhad has come to a halt on account of heavy incessant rains, both in the Shivaliks and on the Himalayas. Consequently, there have been floods and landslides; the roads are blocked and the pilgrims in thousands are stranded at various places on the way up to the temples of Badrinath and Kedarnath at the elevations of more than 10000 ft. and more than 11500 ft, respectively.

This is the second successive year when bad weather has played havoc with the Badri-Kedar and “Chaar Dham” (Gods’ four abodes) pilgrimages. Despite the massive tragedy that occurred last year the intrepid pilgrims in fairly large numbers ventured out on the difficult and dangerous pilgrimage. Many who were washed away last year in the floods during their journey, from their hotels and guest houses or even the homes that collapsed under the incredible force of waters tumbling down the steep mountainous valleys are still untraceable. The Holy Temples were severely damaged, the river valleys and their banks were ravaged by the gushing waters bringing down debris with the inhabitants of the area losing their houses, sources of livelihood like cultivable lands and cattle and even their bread-winners. The state of Uttarakhand was an absolute wreck, so much so that the devastating floods and attendant havoc were even featured in a documentary in the National Geographic channel.

The major disaster invited the attention of the Supreme Court which suo moto took up the matter and later directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests to appoint an Expert Body to look into the reasons for the deluge that wrecked the state. The Ministry appointed an 11-member committee under Dr. Ravi Chopra, Director of the non-profit People’s Science Institute and Managing Trustee of the Himalayan Foundation. Dr. Chopra’s report was submitted in April last to the Apex Court holding that multiple hydropower projects under construction in the State were largely the cause for the catastrophe. The general consensus among a majority of members of the committee was that there is adequate scientific evidence to prove that multiple hydropower projects in the same river basin aggravated damage to the surroundings. As many as 24 projects were being worked on with dams descending down at various elevations from more than 6000 ft at an interval of a little more than a kilometre.

Dr. Bharat Jhunjhunwala, a scientist and a freelance columnist has reported that the real cause of the disaster was use of dynamite to cut and puncture the hills for making roads and tunnels for hydropower projects.  This, coupled with the concomitant deforestation, loosened the topsoil that flowed downward with the heavy downpour instead of allowing the rainwater to seep underground. The sides of the mountains, with trees and shrubs flowed along only to be obstructed by succeeding barrages leading to accumulation of water that formed reservoirs building up pressure to break down obstructions like vital connecting bridges stranding pilgrims. The muck, apparently, a collection of excavated earth for tunnelling and other waste carelessly stacked up on the riversides by companies executing the power projects, was washed away by the gushing waters raising the level of the river beds of Mandakini and Alaknanda causing floods and devastation to the roads and habitations alike on both banks. Dr. Jhunjhunwala also feels that there is overwhelming evidence to show that the disaster was caused by human activities, especially hydropower projects. The Chopra Committee has reportedly recommended axing of 23 out of 24 power projects in the area.

The other human activity that of unregulated tourism, made no mean contribution towards the disaster last year. A report said that, according to the state government records, the numbers of pilgrims have registered a 300% rise during the last decade of 2001 to 2011. From 1.11 crore (1billion) it has risen to 3.11crore (3 billion) and was expected to double by 2017. The infrastructure to cater to the rising numbers has developed but only very tardily, and as is the wont of the governments, in an unregulated manner. Roads were widened cutting the hill-sides to allow for the exponentially risen traffic. Necessarily, large tracts of forests had to be felled with the same eventuality as occurred for building of hydropower projects. According to another news report, “Construction on the pilgrim route grew organically and with successive state governments providing limited public infrastructure, people in the region built up (mostly illegally) the cheapest and quickest motels, restaurants and roadside kiosks to benefit from the growing number of tourists.” Apparently, the government of the state ignored the findings of its own studies and continues to do so, drawing hardly any lessons from the tragedy.

If the floods, landslides and breaches took place because of the hydropower projects the immense loss of life was caused by the unregulated tourism. No wonder, the state government was paralysed and later the chief minister lost his job. But he could have done precious little as it was a man-made calamity of massive proportions for which, despite being in possession of adequate information, his government was caught totally unprepared. It was only other agencies such as the men of the defence forces, NGOs and other social organizations that helped in rescue and recovery of men and material. The local inhabitants displaced from their moorings, in many cases, are yet to be rehabilitated.

 And, yet earlier this year the government was ready with the plans of commencing the “Yatra” (pilgrimage). It could not possibly have waited as religious tourism has remained for many years the mainstay for the wellbeing of the people in the “spiritually rich state”. The economy of the state seemingly was heavily dependent on the influx of pilgrims during the annual pilgrimage. Curbing or restricting the tourist traffic is a political hot potato which no political party is prepared to enforce. After all, politicians’ votes are directly dependent on it. So, the more the number of pilgrims, happier the people of the state would be – regardless of the prospects of deaths and devastation.

Chasing the hydropower potential of 14-odd GW and allowing unrestrained tourism that let in hordes of neo-rich, the Uttarakhand government, treading the dangerous path of self destruction, unwittingly mounted an unsustainable assault on the young mountains. Beckoned by the prospects of prosperity and unending flow of votes, the politicians became oblivious of the power of Nature and that it could strike back, as it did in the summer of 2013.

 Being the “Spiritually Rich State”, its keepers should realise that the Gods are angry for the scarring, denudation and mutilation of their creation, the Himalayas, and that they are fed up with mostly the faux piety of the hordes of neo-rich. The message seems to be clear and needs to be heeded: Gods desire peace and tranquillity to once again rein in their lofty abodes. Restraint should be the watchword for us mortals.

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Photo from the Internet

Uttarakhand done in by overdose of "development"

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Kedarnath Valley

Any talk of “development” today sounds ominous and one tends to visualise the motives behind it that are sinister. Our political masters (mis) understand by the word development only growth and expansion that is  None is bothered about how that affects those who people such developed habitat with an ecosystem that is often uncongenial and degraded. 

mostly spatial in the context of a city. That there are other meanings also attached to the word, like improvement in quality, refinement or even an attempt to attain fullness, do not seem to occur to them. That a city has its own ecosystem comprising all the natural elements, including the humans that need to attain fullness is missed by them. To the politicians development means build and construct more and more eating away all that comes in the way, farmlands, hills wetlands or whatever. The greater such development, the thicker is the cream that can be skimmed.

In the context, for example, of Bhopal, a city that could have been beautiful and eminently liveable, development has wrought havoc to its environment. In the quest of that illusive or, more appropriately, ill-conceived and misdirected development, the powers-that-be allowed its green hills to be ravished, life-giving water bodies to be degraded, tranquilising centuries-old parks ravaged and rendered a once-salubrious clime immoderate and unwholesome. 

Living in this city as I do, I have, therefore, come to dread the word “development”. Fortunately for me I am not alone. Even the Supreme Court recently echoed similar sentiments, though in a different context. It said, (Mahanadi Coalfields case - 2010).  A kind of tyranny that inflicts lifelong misery and privation! 

Gangotri Valley

“the whole issue of development appears to be so simple, logical and commonsensical. And yet, to millions of Indians, development is a dreadful and hateful word...”

Nevertheless, driven by their lust for power and eventual pelf the politicians, ably assisted by the construction lobby (or is it a mafia?) and unscrupulous bureaucrats, swing into action for development contributing to that buzz-word, “growth”. Looking for short-term gains – of flow of votes and cash – they get into a mad rush for development with utter disdain for the consequences of their actions in the long term. 

Something of this nature happened in Uttarakhand in recent times. As long as it was part of the massive state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) it was neglected, being far away from the centre of gravity. Born as Uttaranchal in puranic times. Soon the process of development was initiated by those who fought for its separation. Having got hold of power they launched themselves into a mad scramble to convert it into an “Oorja Pradesh” (The Energy State). For realising the state’s hydro-power potential of an estimated 25000 MW building of dams, barrages and embankments on and along the rivers became an obsession. In the process, numerous roads by cutting the hills or tunnelling through them (weakening the already weak young mountains) were constructed to get to the sites of dams and barrages necessitating large-scale scarring of the mountain-sides and deforestation. Forests were also lost to agriculture, housing for progressive urbanisation and to other sundry activities.

Gaumukh

2006 on separation from the parent UP, it was renamed as Uttarakhand – a name that traces its origin to

Those who happened to be in power could not resist the spin-offs from construction, logging and so on and, virtually, the state was progressively stripped off of its natural assets. Possessed as they seemed to be, they even refused to implement the Central notification declaring an eco-sensitive zone between Gomukh (terminus of the Gangotri glacier at around 13000 ft.) and its district headquarters Uttarkashi (app 4500 ft.) for the sake of development. (A 1700 MW hydelpower plant had been planned where generation of not more than 2 MW was permissible. Mass scale land-use conversion was planned for mining, construction of hotels and resorts.) Progressively, the mountains got scarred and lost their green cover that deprived them of the capability to hold the soil, the dammed rivers lost their waters, the animals their pastures as the locals looked on, presumably, in dismay.

Badrinath Valley

Blessed as the state is with the four holy Hindu shrines, of which two are connected with the most holy and Rest houses and hotels came up, shopping and eating joints were opened up all along the routes on mountain slopes and dangerously close to the fast-running rivers, throwing to the winds all environmental norms.

revered rivers of the country, it could never have escaped pilgrims from all over the country. The new state, however, gave the subdued religious tourism a mighty heave. It became a big collective enterprise and virtually every section of the population got into the act. Roads were re-laid or newly-built on which run hundreds of buses, SUVs and MUVs.

The country’s rising middleclasses sent the tourist traffic soaring by the year so much so that on 16^th June 2013, thousands were milling around at the four shrines located at elevations of 10000 to 12000 ft in ecologically fragile narrow valleys. While the entire population of the state is 1 crore, 2.5 crore tourists had

The flood

travelled to it – much more than what was its carrying capacity. Kedarnath with a population of fewer than 500 was hosting 17000 pilgrims. A disaster was in the making and, lo and behold, suddenly Nature struck a violent blow – a massive cloudburst that sent millions of cusecs of water gushing through the narrow valleys carrying along massive boulders down the steep mountain slopes sweeping away or destroying everything that came in their way, from houses to cars to men, women, animals roads, and slices of the weakened mountain sides.

The question that authorities must answer is “Development for whom? For those who lost their lives or are still missing and presumed dead or for those who have lost their homes, breadwinners and all their means of livelihood in the havoc that was wreaked?  

Uttarakhand alone is not in the race for development at the cost of environment. Another small state carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, is racing ahead to become the power house for the country. Sitting on vast reserves of coal, it has cleared coal-mining even in virgin forests, one of which was a proposed elephant reserve in a forest that was declared “no-go” by Jairam Ramesh during his tenure as environment minister.

Kedarnath shrine after the cloudburst

Advocated by him to prevent all human intervention in such primeval forests the concept, however, lost out to the imperatives of development at the hands of the Prime Minister. Numerous thermal plants in the state spewing yet-to-be-managed polluting fly ash have rendered fertile farmlands infertile and local tribal inhabitants sick and poor. The entire thing is, however, a different long story that has already been told.

A large section of the Indian political class care little for the environment as it often proves to be a hindrance in their vote-catching and money-making devices. No wonder environment is taking a beating all over the country in the mad rush for development. Dams, mining and industry coupled with unrestrained tourism have devastated or are in the process of devastating the environment in large tracts of the country in ecologically sensitive areas, from North-East to Odisha in the East, to the South in Karnataka and Kerala, from Goa and Western Ghats in the West to Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the North. The most serious instance of political aversion to the cause of the environment was the suppression in 2011 of the Report of Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel by the very Ministry (of Forests & Environment) that had constituted it. It had eventually to be put in the public domain as a sequel to orders issued under the Right to Information Act.

Politics of votes, coupled with pervasive corruption, is out to destroy whatever little is left of the country’s environmental assets. If no remission takes place in respect of all that is currently happening, the country is likely to witness many more “Uttarakhands” in the future.  

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 All photos are from Internet