Five months after devastating floods hit Kashmir and turned capital Srinagar to ruins, the authorities are yet to fix responsibilities or initiate thought process to counter the looming threat in coming years. Experts say that the unprecedented September flood was manageable and devastation could have been minimised with timely interventions and precautions.
In a 52-minute documentary titled Kashmir: Into the murky waters', experts have warned that perpetual environmental degradation has catapulted the Himalayan State of Jammu & Kashmir into a danger zone where natural calamities can become a repetitive phenomenon. Massive depletion of glaciers, poor management of natural resources and lack of expert intervention have been cited major causes for looming natural disasters.
Unprecedented floods hit Jammu & Kashmir in September 2014 killing around 300 people and devastating many inhabitations including summer capital Srinagar. Thousand of houses and building structures were destroyed in Srinagar, a rarest happening in human history. Noted filmmaker Tarique Bhat, who has expertise in agitating environment issues in his documentaries said that the film is aimed at creating awareness among the public and policy makers on crucial environmental challenges. “The 2014 flood was a wake-up call. It is not the question of how it happened. It is time to identify mistakes. Otherwise, there is nothing to guarantee that one day we won't be up to our necks in floodwaters again”, he told The Pioneer.
The documentary contains rarest footage of the floods -crumbling houses, floating corpses and carcasses, struggling survivors and hapless, surrendered victims. It highlights the contradictions in official responses and brings the officers on record with their faulty arguments on flood prevention. The State machinery was untraceable in Valley for 10 days after the city was deluged in the afternoon of September 7. Experts on hydraulics, water management and flood control say that Srinagar city could have been saved or extent of devastation minimised if timely State machinery had acted professionally.
The investigative documentary examines why Government agencies completely failed to prepare, coordinate and communicate before and after the floods. The experts blame the shoddily built flood control system and its poor maintenance as a major cause puncturing the notion that the disaster was exclusively a natural disaster.