Suman Sahai
Many of us
who live and work in Uttarakhand have seen this disaster coming. Environmental
groups have tried, unsuccessfully, to warn of the coming tragedy but no one was
listening. Iam not sure they are listening now either. Their eyes glazed over
with the prospect of billions to be made from the rape of the Himalayas and the
destruction of the livelihoods of the mountain people, the builders,
contractors and their partners in crime in Dehradun and Delhi are not deterred
by this blip of human and environmental catastrophe .
Those in
Delhi can take solace in the fact that the Tehri dam , that swollen grenade
waiting to burst its casing, is still standing. It may not be standing in its
quiet corner for very long in the
youngest, most fragile mountain of the world,
if the relentless assault on the
Himalayas continues. The fractured rocks
of this young and still emerging mountain range, considered exceedingly fragile
and unstable by geologists, will not be able to withstand the instability caused by repeated blasting
of the mountains to make roads, resorts and installations. The day the
Tehri dam collapses, the waters, it is
anticipated, will reach Delhi, totally submerging Haridwar and Rishikesh and sweeping aside everything in its path.
A friend
described a trip to Uttarkashi where they had gone to make a collection of
botanical specimens last year . As they rattled along in their government issue
jeep, they heard a rumbling, then sounds
like thunder claps and in seconds a river of rocks and stones poured down the
hillside. They were in the way and it was because the driver practically stood on the brakes that the jeep stopped a
whisker short. What shook the travellers was the speed and velocity with which
huge boulders and rocks came down. It was the speed with which the rocks and
slush poured into Kedarnath this time
that left no time for escape.
The contractor who had nearly killed this team
of scientists came running to apologise.
He admitted that they would be blasting at several sites and was shaken enough to confess that
no safety norms were adhered to, to cut
costs. He added that by the time he had greased palms from top to bottom, to
get the contract, his operating budget was considerably reduced and if he did
not cut corners, he could not complete the work and make his (substantial)
profit . We know this modus from many
other schemes and projects where bridges and houses collapse, roads get washed
away and people lose their lives. In
this grotesque business scheme where an
unscrupulous nexus of the ungodly rake in milions , loss of human lives and
property is par for the course.
Tubewells are
being dug through the fragile geological layers in Uttarakhand in perversely designed programs to provide
drinking water. The current administration has refused to listen to geologists
who have warned that fracturing layers of
rock , going down several hundred feet in this manner was a recipe for disaster since the drilling
would destabilize the formations and cause instability.
I am filled with apprehension when I read that Rs 1000 crore have been
allocated for the rehabilitation of Uttarakhand and appeals have been sent out
in the name of the Chief minister’s Fund, the Prime Minister’s Fund and so forth. The people of this country have
begun to pour in contributions to help the people of Uttarakhand rebuild their lives. On the other hand,
speculation is already on about how much of the 1000 crore grant will be siphoned off along the chain of
bureaucrats , politicians and their partners in crime, with estimates going
up to 800 to 900 crores! Some fat
cats are going to get fatter and the lives of the poor mountain people will not
improve. Some roads will be patched up
to get washed away next monsoon, some families will get a tenth of their entitlement
to rebuild a room or two in their
houses. Fake registers will be filled up to show relief materials have been
delivered to ‘beneficiaries- that dreadful word. And the sleazy and powerful in
India will continue to build empires on the misery of the poor.
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