No plan has been made so far to limit the construction work in the state and take appropriate steps to prevent disasters. Because of this the area was ruined. Read Akshit Joshi’s analysis
Who is responsible for the calamity in Uttarakhand?
of Uttarakhand Joshimath The town is constantly sinking. Although, this disaster in itself may seem sudden and unexpected, but cracks are being seen in both land and houses in this area for some time now. Indian Space Research Organization According to a report by (ISRO), the land in Joshimath town has been continuously sinking for seven months between April and November 2022.
ISRO and National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) have released satellite images of Joshimath. These pictures were taken from the Cartosat-2S satellite. This shows that this temple city sank 5.4 cm in just 12 days. It is worth noting that the present natural calamity is not a new phenomenon for the Himalayan state.
Despite repeated warnings of different scale disasters and scientists, the state government looked inactive, on which the opposition also raised questions. He accused the present government that the government did not take necessary steps, which led to many disasters. Also, their seriousness was also not understood. Many people believe that these disasters could have been reduced.
2013 Kedarnath flood
Uttarakhand is such a hilly region of the Himalayas, which is very vulnerable. The region has been hit by several natural calamities over the decades. In June 2013, the state had to face one of its worst natural calamities. During that time thousands of people lost their lives and property was damaged. During 14 to 18 June 2013, heavy rains lashed the state, causing floods. In this incident, thousands of people lost their lives and billions of rupees were lost. Landslides also occurred at many other places due to heavy rains.
According to a report by the National Institute of Disaster Management, Kedarnath was the most affected area. Due to heavy rains, the Chaurabari Jhali had collapsed, due to which a huge amount of water was released. In such a situation, there was another flood in Kedarnath town and there was heavy destruction in the low-lying areas.
Fear increased due to dam construction
After the 2013 floods, experts and activists pointed out that a series of dams were built across the upper reaches of the Ganga and its tributaries Mandakini, Bhagirathi and Alaknanda in Uttarakhand, which increased the magnitude of the disaster. Environmental historian Tilak Tiwari talked about this. He told, ‘After the formation of Uttarakhand in the year 2000, construction was done without any hindrance in the sensitive areas of the state. The construction of dams and unplanned complexes near the courses of the rivers was one of the main causes of the disaster, which made the floods of 2013 more devastating. However, the governments did not pay attention to the disaster and are still working on the same policies. This only benefits the contractors. At the same time, the government’s preparation to deal with any such incident has always been poor. Now we are facing this even in the bad condition of Joshimath.
Three government projects were going on in Joshimath. After the disaster, their work has been stopped. These projects include widening of all-weather Chardham road between Helang and Marwari, construction work on NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugarh Hydro Electric Project and Joshimath-Auli Ropeway.
12 thousand crore rupees were being spent on the project of widening the 900 kilometer long all-weather Chardham Highway, even though a case was filed against this project in the National Green Tribunal.
History of Natural Disasters and Government Response
The geography and geology of Uttarakhand is such that natural upheavals are inevitable in the region. Small landslides wreak havoc almost every day in different areas of the state. At the same time, the severity increases significantly during the rainy season. One such landslide happened on 18 September 1880 in Nainital. About 150 people had lost their lives in that accident.
The ever-growing Himalayan mountain range is also extremely sensitive to earthquakes. India is divided into five earthquake zones, out of which two earthquake zones fall in Uttarakhand. Dehradun, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts come in sensitive zone four. At the same time, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Almora, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh and Champawat have been kept in the highly sensitive zone five.
Uttarakhand is a very sensitive area in terms of earthquakes.
If we talk about the cases of earthquakes in the region, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Dharchula during August 1968 and the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Chamoli during 1999 are two big examples. Tilak Tiwari explains, ‘The state is facing many disasters , Including many small disasters. The information about these small disasters does not come in the news, while scientists and activists often give information about it in advance.
Administrative departments working under different political parties have failed to solve all these problems. Even after all the disasters, no plan has been made so far to limit the construction work in the state and to take appropriate steps to prevent the disasters. Due to this the area was ruined. Tilak Tiwari said, ‘Now it is necessary that the government should go ahead and learn from this failure. Keeping in mind the problems of the area, get the development work done and protect the ecological balance of Uttarakhand.
: Language Inputs