Victims of the Himalayan Tsunami who have been deserted by their own loved ones in this devastation, would pick up the threads of their lives one day, but with only the marketing sector showing a loss of over Rs 1,000 crore during this rainy season due to devastating
natural catastrophe, it won't be so easy for the Vijay Bahuguna-led State Government to put back the State economy on track, as the natural calamity has hit the hill State's financial health where it hurts the most — the small and micro industry based marketing sector. The small and micro industry sector is today the backbone of the hill State's economy as it has not only paved the way for self-employment, but also boosted the service sector strengthening the household economy.
More so, huge inflow of devotees and tourists on the Chardham Yatra has come as a driving force of late to boost the hill economy by creating demand for basic services. So the engagement of a majority of the people from different districts of Garhwal region in hospitality industry catering to the needs of the tourists during their Himalayan sojourn only gives that impression.
Therefore, loss to human life also turned out to be huge only because most of the locals from the Garhwal region were also accompanying the devotees on the Chardham Yatra as service providers. Otherwise, most of the villages of the disaster-hit district would not have worn a deserted look, as the reports suggest.
To explore self-employment opportunities by way of promoting small and micro scale industries in the hill regions under the much-talked about Hill Industrial Policy has been the top priority of the present State Government and more importantly, the efforts taken in this direction has also started showing results of late.But with the huge loss to lives and basic infrastructure on a massive scale, the Himalayan Tsunami also hit this sector in different hill districts, particularly in the Garhwal region badly rendering many others jobless.
For example, there were bakery shops in Srinagar (Garhwal), Karnprayag to name a few places, but most of them have been washed away, SC Nautiyal, Additional Director, State industry department, told The Pioneer in an exclusive interview.Since large scale industries can't be set up in such high altitude, small and micro sector industries and various service providing agencies have suffered a lot in hilly regions due to this natural calamity, he added."Therefore, we are of the view that given the increasing number of tourist and devotees, the loss alone to the marketing sector is definitely huge i.e. about Rs 1,000 crore," he further said.
"Though estimation of losses to the industry sector continues and it will take some more time now, as per our preliminary estimation, loss to different industrial units could also be around Rs 50 crore or so, besides huge loss to the marketing sector." Besides, as the officials concerned have claimed, the tourism sector, which is also part of the industry sector, has also suffered loss worth over Rs 60 crore in this disaster-hit district. Given the basic infrastructure badly ravaged, now only time will tell how long the Government takes to instill a sense of confidence among the people to invest in Uttarakhand.