The himalayan Catastrophes

Two Himalayan states, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were constantly in the news for wide range of rain-triggered catastrophes during July and August.

Besides deluges that washed away human habitations, traffic blockages were aplenty as chunks of highways caved in on vast stretches of roads in the two states.

Rain related mayhem has killed over 700 people while around 10,000 homes are estimated to have either collapsed or have been damaged.

Unprecedented torrential rains wrecked the infrastructure in the two states leaving pilgrims stranded, devastating crops and disrupting business and public life.

The region reported dozens of landslides during the two months. The heritage toy train between Kalka and Shimla was suspended as a bridge was washed away and the track was left hanging in the air. Its restoration may take months.

The Himalayas have been venerated by several communities since antiquity. This highest mountain range sustains the largest community of humans in its lap around itself in the Asian continent.

But being structurally unstable and young, the hills are still geologically active, fragile and vulnerable to both manmade and natural processes.

Nestling in the hills in the Uttarakhand region are important Hindu and Sikh pilgrim centres such as Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yumnotri and Hemkund. The Hill state having a population of 10 million reported 25 million pilgrim footfalls last year, vastly exceeding the carrying capacity of the towns and resorts in the Hills.

In the rat race to attract pilgrims and tourists, environmental interests were overlooked and economic interest took precedence.

Expressways and power stations are being built in the slopes ignoring warnings, bypassing directives from the Supreme Court and advice of environmental experts.

Work has been in full swing on the 880-km Chardham Expressway all these years. As hills were being scraped and tunnels drilled, rain-soaked hills denuded of forest cover have collapsed with sickening regularity destroying roads, filling streams with debris and causing deluges.

It is now revealed that the Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojana was broken into 53 projects, each less than 100 km in order to bypass the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The Pariyojana envisaged expressway building principally in Garhwal region with a small stretch in Kumaon, regions that have borne the brunt of the landslides. It was given hasty approval, ignoring the direction from even Supreme Court.

The Uttarakhand government inexplicably increased the carrying capacity of the Chardhams to 9,000 passengers in order to boost tourism even though the Transport Ministry notifications had anticipated destabilization of hill slopes as a consequence.

Experts have pointed out that the shrines sought to be networked by the Expressway are already overburdened due to excessive arrival of pilgrims. Not alone this.

The Pariyojana was initiated as a tourism project, but it was defended in the Supreme Court as a defence-related requirement for moving troops and armaments. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand represent a very small part of the damage accruing to the Himalayas.

The ranges are the major eco-service providers for the most populous nations of the world and the major source of Asia’s rivers. The storage of ice in its glaciers and valleys make them the third largest treasure house of the most pristine water available across the globe after the two poles.

The larger question that stares at us is whether these can be sacrificed at the altar of small commercial benefits.