Few years ago, I wanted to add a few
rooms to the top floor of my house, which already had one built up
room and covered and uncovered terraces constructed about sixty years
ago. When I explained my ideas to my architect, his first reaction
was to arrange for a labourer to dig a trench besides the foundation
of the house with sole purpose of finding out, how deep and wide were
the foundation walls. Only after he ascertained that the old
foundation walls were sufficiently deep and wide enough underground,
he agreed to my plans of adding to the superstructure.
I am very much reminded of this act of
wisdom on part of my architect, as I read about the disaster caused
by monsoon rains in India's northern state of Uttarakhand. It is true
that the floods here were cased by abnormally heavy rainfall like a
cloudburst. But, in any mountainous geographical terrain, the excess
water in such events, is bound to be carried off downstream, through
all vales and gullies that become available to heavy discharge of
water. If humans fault and encroach upon this natural waterway by
means of dams, barrages and narrow down the water way by means of
buildings, they are bound to be punished by mother nature. That is
why media are calling this sad disaster as a man made one.
We all have learned in our elementary
school geography books, that Himalaya mountain range is supposed to
be one of the youngest one on earth. It is not stable and geographic
profile keeps altering all the time. It is not that India's federal
Government at New Delhi, is not aware of this fact. In a recent
statement issued after Indian state of Uttarakhand still keeps
struggling to cope up with one of the worst ecological disasters in
recent memory, India's federal Environment Minister, Jayanthi
Natarajan is reported to have said that an ‘eco-sensitive zone
plan’ was in place in the State and that the authorities must not
compromise on the ‘fragile ecology’ of the region. She added: “As
Minister for Environment, I feel that it is an ‘ecologically
fragile zone’ and that the eco-sensitive zone proposal needs to
remain in place.” It seems that the National Ganga River Basin
Authority (NGRBA) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had in 2011
recommended that a 130-km stretch from Gomukh to Uttarkashi be
declared an eco-sensitive zone. Environmental minister says that
“The proposal was accepted and a draft notification was put in
place in 2011, which was later finalised in December, 2012, and is
still in force.”
If this is the case, the blame must
surely go to the state Government for blatantly overriding the norms
set up by the federal Government. This is the exact reason for which
the State Government of Uttarakhand has been defending itself by
crying hoarse that the floods were a natural calamity, while
environmental activists maintain that the flood was a man-made
disaster waiting to happen.
In fact, the legislative assembly of
the state of Uttarakhand, had earlier passed a resolution opposing
the move to notify the Gangotri-Uttarkashi stretch as an
eco-sensitive zone. The political leaders of the state, rising above
party lines, are dead against this proposal by federal Government,
because they believe that the move would rob the local people of
much-needed infrastructure development and deal a blow to the State’s
tourism industry. So we have a clear case here, where for development
of the region, we are trying to play with forces of nature; a
dangerous act that was bound to invite nature's fury one day or
other.
It seems that at least 11 major
Hydro-electric power projects are currently being constructed in the
state. According to Wikipedia, the list includes, Bhimgoda Barrage,
Dakpathar Barrage, Dharasu Power Station, Dhauliganga Dam,
Ichari Dam, Koteshwar Dam, Loharinag Pala Hydro Power Project,
Maneri Dam, Pashulok Barrage, Ramganga Dam and finally Tehri Dam. I
have pin pointed all these projects on a Google earth map. It can be
clearly seen that the present flooding has occurred along the rivers
on which many of these construction projects have come up. Readers
can well imagine how much deforestation must have taken place here.
In addition to construction of dams and
hydroelectric projects, it appears from the news, that Illegal
constructions on the banks of the rivers and on mountain slopes had
proliferated, particularly in the Uttarkashi-Kedarnath region in
spite of repeated warnings. Real estate activity and tourism has
been allowed without restraint. With nature's full fury, the
Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers carried along whatever was built in
their ways including houses, hotels, roads and bridges built over
years. These were all gone within minutes. This is the sad lesson, we
should all learn from and try to curb our actions that interfere with
the environment.
Politicizing this issue is not going to
help anyone and it would be crucial to study in details the exact
course of floodwater flows and whether any of the construction
projects have impacted on it. Development by itself can not be the
goal, if that is going to bring about such catastrophic events. For
the time being, all future construction projects in the hilly
Himalayan region should be put into deep freeze.
27 June 2013
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