People who are making a hue and cry over man-made mistakes for the Uttarakhand disaster might not be aware that Ranchi hill, where the famous Pahari Mandir is situated, also comes into ‘highly unsafe’ category by geologists and environmentalists. Most of the hills are made of very old rocks which pose a danger of landslide threatening lives around them.
“The Ranchi hill, one of the most popular pilgrimage place in the Capital city comprises the oldest rocks found on earth formed some 680-800 million years back, these rocks are older than the Himalayas. They are classified as ‘highly unstable’ and posing threat to surrounding areas,” said Dr Nitish Priyadarshi, a noted environmentalist and professor of Geology at Ranchi University.
Another such popular hill top temple in Jharkhand is the Trikut Parvath with the temple of lord Shiva atop. It is also made up of dead and highly metamorphosed rocks which are at a risk of sliding. The hills of Netarhat are also considered old and dead, he said.
Thankfully, the hill of Jagannath Temple in HEC area of Ranchi is said to be stable and not as dangerous as the other hills of Jharkhand.
Paras Nath hill located in the Giridih district is a hot spot for the Jain pilgrim as 20 of their tirthankars including the 23rd tirthankar, Parashvanath attained nirvana here. “These hills are also extremely old and highly weathered. There is a greater risk of sliding in some parts also the use of stones and soil from the hill for the construction of Grand Trunk Road has led to soil erosion,” said Dr Priyadarshi.
The Capital has started taking the issues seriously, learning from the Uttarakhand disaster but solid steps are yet to be taken in other parts of Jharkhand to manage huge crowds and risk of geological disasters in these pilgrim and tourist spots.“The Ranchi hill is being grown upon, the drainage systems are being reincorporated, vulnerable areas being banned for general public and ‘guard walls’ being built in order to avoid destruction in case of slides,” said Ranchi Sadar SDO Ameet Kumar.The administration and temple management committees might boast of doing their bit to provide
safety to the pilgrims, but during huge rush like Shravani Mela it sometimes becomes very difficult to manage the crowds numbering intens of thousands of people flooding the temples on ‘unstable’ hilltops, say local residents.