Uttarakhand Natural Disaster : Can Harish Rawat Avert Vijay Bahuguna’s fate?

By Deepak Parvatiyar

August 20, 2014

Last year’s Uttarakhand flood disaster remains etched in public memory. It had claimed thousands of innocent lives and thousands are still untraceable. Cloudbursts, landslides, floods have hit the state yet again. Though the extent of damage is much subdued, still over fifty persons have been killed and the casualty figure may further rise. But has the state government shown better preparedness to mitigate the disaster and lessen natural fury than its predecessor Vijay Bahuguna government?

Perils of Living in the Disaster Zone

Before we debate the issue, let’s consider these certain points:

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Uttarakhand is a highly disaster prone area. Cloudbursts, floods and landslides have been a routine feature every monsoon. It is important to note here that they are seasonal in nature. Besides, the region also falls in high seismic zone and earthquake are, indeed, most unpredictable in nature! In the last twenty five years or so, the region has witnessed two major earthquakes of magnitude more than 6 on Richter scale in Uttarkashi (1991) and Chamoli (1999). The state has experienced a series of landslides/cloudbursts such as Okhimath and Malpa(1998), Gona and Fata (2001), Bhatwari, Khet Gaon and Budhakedar (2002), Uttarkashi (2003), Amparav(2004), Lambagar(2004), Govindghat(2005), Agastyamuni(2005), Ramolsari(2005) and many more … Can anyone forget last year’s Kedarnath disaster?

Shouldn’t the state ever be on high alert with all its disaster mitigation machinery in place, particularly so during monsoons? Yet, the most important question is related to the need for new laws to check environmental degradation in the state and also a strict enforcement of law to ensure against any natural calamity. There has often been a debate on how much has been the human contribution to the upsurge of such natural calamities in the state.

Consider this – This month at least seven people from two different families were crushed to death as their buildings, built in ecologically sensitive areas close to the source of Respina river near Dehradun in blatant violation of norms, were destroyed in a massive landslide.

Unchecked Development: Aggravating the Disaster

For decades, experts have often debated the ecological impact of not just the several illegal and unchecked projects in the ecologically fragile zones of the Himalayas. In Uttarakhand, the ecological viability of the hydroelectricity dams that “disrupt water balances” is a hotly contested issue among environmentalists. There are over 200 power and mining projects running in 14 river valleys in the state and several rivers are being diverted through tunnels for these projects. There are also several unchecked roads, shops, hotels and multi-storeyed housing complexes have come up in the fragile zones.

Yet, it takes a major disaster to shake up the system as it happened this timed too under the Harish Rawat regime. It may be pointed out that an expert body that was set up to study the role of hydropower projects in Uttarakhand flood disaster of June 2013, in its report to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on April 16 this year confirmed that hydropower projects played a significant role in the Uttarakhand disaster and recommended that at least 23 hydropower projects in the states should be dropped.

It is widely conceded now that the extent of damage at Kedarnath too could have been much less had there been no general environmental degradation caused by haphazard development in the region. The natural destruction resulting from unusual meteorological and geophysical processes was undoubtedly greatly enhanced because of the general environmental degradation in the region.

Did Harish Rawat Learn from Vijay Bahuguna’s Costly Fiasco?

While the poor performance on the front of disaster management and relief and rehabilitation measures cost the then chief minister Vijay Bahuguna his chair, was that enough insurance against any future government’s callousness towards such calamities?

Consider again – Eight environmentalists recently moved the court with a Public Interest Litigation relating to inadequate repairs by the state government of bridges, highways and internal roads which were damaged during last year’s monsoon. The petitioners allege that the state government had ignored the Geological Survey of India report on disaster before giving the green signal for the Char Dham Yatra.

Last month theChar Dham Yatrawas affected for a prolonged period as landslides blocked roads to the famous Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri at several places.The Kedarnath yatra, therefore remained stalled for well about a fortnight.

Yet the following example amply highlights the limitations of the state government to tackle the issue — This August alone at least a dozen villages, were cut off from motorable roadheads in the state. This happened because at least 32 connecting roads were either washed away or damaged at Yamkeshwar and Pauri, this monsoon.

Harish Rawat: Inadequate Disaster Mitigation Measures

Reports suggest that initially there was no rescue operation in place to attend over 4,500 residents in these villages who were left to fend for themselves. It was only after media reports that the Government woke up to the crisis with the Chief Minister directing his top officials, including chief secretary and principal secretary (home) to use helicopters to intensify rescue and relief operations and pay compensation to the next of kin of those killed and seriously injured.

The deposition of a large amount of debris in the rivers in the aftermath of the disaster is, indeed, a cause of concern. As they flow above the safety mark, any calamity can trigger a disaster.

To the credit of the state government, it has been on its toes. It is providing regular weather updates. Helicopters have been pressed into service whenever required and at least 200 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel have been pressed into rescue operations.

Yet isn’t it a fact that no disaster mitigation plan had been in place even after months of the Kedarnath disaster?
Obviously there has been demand in certain quarters that the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) must audit the expenditure of disaster funds.(The state government got about Rs 7000 crore grant from various states and also received a chunk of the Rs 13,800 crore demanded from the Centre. There are allegations that there is no transparency in the handling of the fund).

Besides, don’t the delays in relief and rescue operations as illustrated above, suggest the inadequacy of the disaster response force?

It is, indeed, high time for the Harish Rawat government to show a firm resolve to not just save the fragile Himalayan ecology (Even Himachal Pradesh environmentalists now fear a Kedarnath like tragedy in their state) by checking the haphazard developments in the region, but also to formulate an all-encompassing and realistic disaster mitigation plan.