Political Diary

New Delhi, 22 August 2023

What’s The Big Deal?

DISASTER WAITING TO STRIKE

By Poonam I Kaushish 

It’s been a catastrophic season of anger and anguish, despair and desperation, morbidity and mortality burying everything under debris of rock, silt and mud in Himalayan Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand over the last two months. Overflowing raging rivers, incessant downpours, flash floods, massive landslides tightly embraced the States in a devastating hug flattening whatever came their way, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Be it Simla’s famous Shiva temple, parts of Chota Simla, Solan’s market, cracks in Badrinath highway, floods and water-logging in Rishikesh, landslides across Manali et al.  Punjab too is facing the brunt as flooding has submerged many areas of Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Rupnagar districts following release of excess water from Pong and Bhakra dams.

Thanks to man-made reasons: unplanned and runaway construction of houses, hotels, multi-stories, sub-standard drainage, roads, tunnels, hydropower projects in the ecologically sensitive region and dams alongside overpopulation are increasing pressure in hill towns of States beyond capacity, unchecked tourism, shift in cropping pattern and destruction of forests. Worse, located in a seismic zone Himalayas are subject to earthquakes.

In Himachal 314 people have died in rain-related incidents since onset of monsoon in June while 38 are still missing. So far 1,731 people have been rescued from flood-affected Kangra district. Uttarakhand has recorded over 7,750 extreme rainfall events and cloud bursts since 2015, states Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority. Till date over 1,400 houses have been damaged and hundreds lost their lives.

Alas, as people grapple with this calamity our netas cursorily go through their ritual political circus. All lament the deaths, parrot grief and vouch to help people. State Governments set up crisis management teams. Babudom analyses the flood situation and its aftermath over official lunches. Their ideas and remedies as water-logged as the floods under discussion.  Everyone is satisfied that they have done their bit, while military, Air Force, NDRF and ITBP carry out rescue operations. 

Everything is kaam chalao! See the absurdity — food grains and fodder arrive at their destination days after the calamity has struck, thanks to cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. Rations are air dropped. Never mind if half land in water and the remaining spark off food riot and killings.

Trust our leaders instead of acknowledging their mistakes, some like Himachal Chief Minister Sukhu blame Bihar’s migrant construction workers for bad design and construction quality of houses. Clearly, politically immature and dangerous, as workers freely follow supply and demand for labour across States.

Questionably, does anyone really care?  Given that cloudbursts, landslides and flash floods are an annual affair in hill States wherein thousands die, lakhs are rendered homeless and property worth crores is lost. Why does the Government only react after people have lost their lives?

Shockingly, most leaders are unaware that the Himalayan area is the least monitored region which only underscores how vulnerable we could be. So why can’t they implement basic suggestions? Why do they not develop a long-term response to cloud-bursts, earthquakes and floods, which are annual predictable crisises?

Moreover, why do politicians feel that merely sanctioning monies will solve the problem? Little do they realize that, neither the Central Disaster Management Authority nor State Disaster Boards implement any project properly. Who will be held accountable for the Administration’s ineptitude? And which head will roll?

Worse, it is a tell-tale of total apathy of insensitive Administrations under various State Governments that do not spare even ecologically sensitive zones to satiate their greed thereby making them more vulnerable to climate change. Of rulers who ignore experts who in turn, blame it on lessons not learnt by successive Administrations, given Himachal and Uttarakhand’s history of natural disasters. 

Undeniably, the trauma of living in India's sinking Himalayan towns is getting worse every year. Last year’s cracks in Uttarakhand Joshimath and flooding of Bengaluru’s elite tech parks have not taught us any lesson. Scandalously, new flyovers remain louder priorities than more drain works or sewage treatment plants.

A new study by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found mountains globally, including Himalayas, are now seeing more rainfall where it has mostly snowed in the past. The change has made mountains more dangerous, scientists say, as increased temperatures not only bring rain, loosens soil resulting in landslides, rockfalls, floods and debris-flows accelerating melting of snow.

“Dominance of rain vs snow is a recent phenomenon whereby dwindling snowfall and increased rainfall mean there are now many flash floods after extreme rainfall and rivers that were once glacier-fed have now turned into rain-fed. Also, Himalayas are warming at three times the global average rate thereby thinning glaciers and destabilising mountain slopes”, said a scientist.

Scandalouly, Himalayas mountains hardly have any weather stations, which often leads to lack of accurate data on precipitation levels. Few stations located in the lower elevations of mountains do not show whether the precipitation recorded is rain or snowfall.

Besides, there is mismatch between haste in commissioning projects in the ecologically fragile zone which has rung alarm bells among glaciologists as there is every chance such incidents will become more common in the Himalyan region.

In fact, scientists accuse the Central and State Governments of transforming the whole region into a resource frontier devoid of any ecological value, treating it as a barren wilderness that could be the source of supposedly low-carbon energy. Discounting that infrastructure and power projects affect the region first when they are constructed --- and then when they come in the way of powerful natural forces. Plainly, high-velocity flows turn into disasters when they have to mediate with the built-environment present in the way.

Happily, the Uttarakhand Government plans to conduct a carrying capacity assessment of hill towns like Nainital and Mussourie after conducting a ground survey of Joshimath town where geological instability and cracks have aggravated.

Undoubtedly, Governments need to highlight its priorities, formulate policies based on needs and find solutions. Time it spent more resources in monitoring the region better so that it has more information about the change process whereby it could develop better adaptation practices. 

Our leaders need to involve experts and environmentalists to evaluate the ecological problems in the Himalayan region, rethink the current development model, study its context and be involved in decision and policy-making. With special emphasis on problems created by burgeoning population and its impact on the local eco-system, growth of hap-hazard housing, environmental  insanitation and decay.

Time our netagan acknowledge their development model is faulty. Underscored by a Parliamentary panel report which advised a one-size-fits-all approach to environment clearance for projects should not be followed. Given our infrastructure has fallen far behind today’s needs, let alone tomorrow’s. We all know what happens if one unduly eggs on the goose that lays golden eggs.

The writing is on the wall. Development cannot happen at the cost of environment. Our polity needs to pull up their bootstraps and focus on long-term not short-term planning. One needs neither a bleeding heart nor blindness to know what should be done. For if we still elect to do nothing about disaster it only holds out promises of more misery, more wrenching news and more cries. Bringing words from an old comic: We have seen the enemy and it is us. -----  INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)