The floods in Uttarakhand could have been much less destructive had we acted before.But if we don’t act now, there are more such disasters waiting to happen elsewhere in the country, writes Shreyas Malik
As Uttarakhand is facing one of the worst natural disasters in recent years, questions are being raised on whether the destruction was at all natural, and thus unavoidable. Or, was it man-made, as some environmentalists are claiming, citing unplanned development in the hills and illegal encroachment along the riversIJ Also in the spotlight is the State Government’s role in all this. In December 2012, the Union Government declared the
135-km stretch along the Bhagirathi river from Gangotri to Uttarkashi an ‘Eco-Sensitive Zone’; this meant that there would be no ‘development’ work in the entire stretch. The notification, if implemented, would result in the closure of hydropower projects worth 1,743-MW along the Bhagirathi and a complete ban on mining and construction works.
This, however, wasn’t allowed to happen as State politicians, along with the business class, decided to oppose the move. As recent as last month, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and submitted him a letter asking that the notification be taken back. Bahuguna vehemently forwarded the ‘development’ argument, saying the people in the State needed growth and infrastructure, and that the Eco-Sensitive Zone would discourage tourism in Uttarakhand.
It’s no one’s contention that there would not have been any damage had the State Government accepted the Eco-Sensitive Zone proposal. The fact, however, is that the extent of destruction could have been far lesser if stricter regulations were in place and authorities were awake to the impending disaster. While natural calamities such as cloud bursts and flash floods can never be prevented, deaths and damage can be contained if there are laws to regulate construction along rivers, and if authorities remain prepared to deal with the situation.
We need to realise that Uttarakhand is located in an active seismic zone, prone to earthquakes. It often witnesses landslides, given its riverine geography and mountainous nature. Also, the State is part of the Himalayas which are young fold mountains. And again, a young mountain is quite an unstable zone. All these needed a planned approach to both forward ‘development’ programmes and deal with natural calamities, which unfortunately wasn’t the case in Uttarakhand.
But then why should we just blame the Uttarakhand GovernmentIJ It is, in fact, symptomatic of a larger malaise. Even a cursory look will tell you that India is one of the 10 worst disaster-prone countries in the world. Of its 35 States and Union Territories, 27 are disaster-prone. More than 58 per cent of its landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes, and about 12 per cent of land is prone to floods and river erosion. While three-fourth of its 7,516-km-long coastline is prone to cyclones and tsunamis, two-third of the cultivable area is vulnerable to drought.
Yet, India had no disaster management mechanism in sight, until the Bhuj earthquake rocked the nation in 2001. Three years later, in 2004, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was put in place; it was empowered with requisite legislation a year later. Sadly, that was all which was done. The sorry state of the NDMA working has recently been exposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) whose findings, submitted in March this year, explain why we are always late in disaster prevention and management. First and foremost, the report says that the National Executive Committee of the NDMA, supposed to meet every three months, has not met between May 2008 and December 2012, and there has been no advisory committee since 2010. Second, only eight States have prepared emergency action plans for 192 dams as against the total of 4,728 dams in the country. Worse, only seven States have a State Disaster Response Force to deal with a calamity, natural or man-made. Then, there is a 38-year-old Model Flood Bill which determines how and where the construction should take place. The sad part, however, is that only Manipur and Rajasthan have enacted this Bill so far!
Uttarakhand should be an eye-opener for the entire nation. The disaster in the State could have been controlled had we acted before. But if we don’t act now, there are more such calamities waiting to happen elsewhere in the country.
Past experiences of natural disasters and the way we handled them, however, don’t give us much hope. We have repeatedly witnessed that all the tall claims made and lessons learnt after the tragedy are conveniently forgotten the moment the hullabaloo gets settled. Destroying nature in the name of development, tourism, energy generation and big dams is a recipe for disaster. We need to take development and nature together. The Uttarakhand Government made the mistake of ignoring this cardinal rule. A report of the Uttarakhand Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC), which studied the 2012 landslide and flash-floods in Uttarkashi, said that nearly all the devastation took place near the Bhagirathi river. The report said that landslides and flash floods weren’t abnormal in the region, but rampant riverside construction escalated the scale of devastation.
let Uttarakhand be the beginning of a new awareness regarding harmonious development in a region. We should also look at a large number of dams coming up in the Northeast. The issue, after all, is that we can exploit nature only to a point. After that comes disaster.