Noted environmental activist Vandana Shiva on Sunday called for community assessment of the damage due to cloudburst in Uttarakhand to prevent anomalies in compensation disbursal.
Alleging that a corrupt Government is handling relief, compensation and redevelopment processes for disaster-affected areas, she said that desired result will not be achieved if affected communities do not take an active role in assessing damage and deciding the direction of redevelopment. She said this after representatives of various organisations and spheres formed a body named Friends of Himalaya and chalked out an action plan for immediate relief and long term strategies for rehabilitation of the affected people in Uttarakhand.
Shiva stressed that the community should also provide direction to developmental efforts to prevent the Government from facilitating dam-based destructive development in stead of positive development. "The development model being advocated by the Chief Minister is 50 years old and will lead to no good. Anomalies like dumping of soil on riverbeds and banks by companies constructing dams has played a major role in exacerbating the impact of floods in areas like Agastyamuni where dumping of excavated material by a multinational caused the level of river to rise by about 30 metres," she said, while also pointing out that the large population of ex-servicemen in Uttarakhand should be formed into a massive eco-task force to afforest the areas denuded of trees in the State.
"luxury consumerism has replaced pilgrimage in Uttarakhand, where tourists go on weekend picnics to the shrines. This has to be corrected and pilgrimage should be regulated without provision for consumerist luxuries," she said, adding that by solely focusing on tourism as a means of employment generation and revenue, the State Government had affected the self reliance in agriculture. "During the initial stages of the Chipko movement, women in the mountains used to say that they were happy walking and didn't want roads because roads destroyed the mountains and agriculture. The detonations for construction of roads and building of dams should be stopped and micro-hydro power plants should be encouraged at the various water sources for decentralising power supply."
Maj Gen(retd) Chander Nandwani said that there were many people and organisations willing to donate funds and materials for the relief efforts in Uttarakhand but were not doing so for lack of faith in the Government's surety of using it for the intended purpose. Members of Making a Difference (MAD) group, Society of Pollution and Environmental Conservation Scientists (SPECS) and village representatives were among those present on the occasion.