Uttarakhand tragedy,

1. Report by-
Garv Jain
X-E

2. In June 2013, a multi-
day cloudburst centered
on the North Indian state
of Uttarakhand caused
devastating floods and
landslides. Destruction
of bridges and roads left
about 100,000 pilgrims
and tourists trapped in
the valleys leading to
three of the
four Hindu Chota Char
Dhampilgrimage sites.

3. •Rudra prayag
•Kedarnath
•Badrinath
•Uttarkashi
•Joshimath
•Rambada
•Chamoli
•Dehradun
Though some parts of Himachal
Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Utt
ar Pradesh in India experienced
the flood, some regions of
Western Nepal, and some parts
of Western Tibet also
experienced heavy rainfall,
over 95% of the casualties
occurred in Uttarakhand.

4. The word “vulnerability” is of enormous significance as it is a
measure of man’s prudence, aiming at reducing or minimizing the
damaging consequences of the disasters.In Uttarakhand, the
“vulnerability” factor had been left at the maximum due to
indiscriminate constructions and lack of prudent practices. In other
words, any “development” measures undertaken by citizens and
governments with good intentions of removing poverty and increasing
incomes, should never lose sight of the “vulnerability” factors.

5. Indians in general never really
tend to be law-abiding, “quality”
conscious, and we go for short-
cuts. We don’t believe in
standards and want to become
rich overnight. We will have to
ingrain in ourselves ideas of
excellence and adherence to law,
which presently seems to be a tall
order. In any case, we cannot turn
away our eyes from dangers and
must use at least some levels of
prudence so that we don’t become
hapless victims when nature
strikes. So, to an extent and
partially, the Uttarakhand disaster
could be said to be “man-made”
too.

6. Landslides, due to the floods, damaged several houses and structures,
killing those who were trapped. The heavy rains resulted in large
flashfloods and massive landslides.
Entire villages and settlements such as Gaurikund and the market
town of Ram Bada, a transition point to Kedarnath, have been
obliterated, while the market town of Sonprayag suffered heavy damage
and loss of lives.

7. Pilgrimage centres in the region,
including Gangotri,
Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, the
hallowed Hindu Chardham (four
sites) pilgrimage centers, are visited by
thousands of devotees, especially after
the month of May onwards.
Over 70,000 people were stuck in
various regions because of damaged or
blocked roads. People in other important
locations like the Valley of
flowers, Roopkund and
the Sikh pilgrimage centre Hemkund were
stranded for more than three days.
National Highway 58, an important
artery connecting the region was also
washed away near Jyotirmath and in
many other places. Because summers
have more number of tourists, the
number of people impacted is
substantial.

10. India’s disaster landscape
denotes high vulnerability
requiring adequate attention
to early warning mechanisms,
mitigation, capacity building
in local, state and central
agencies and effective
cooperation in application of
the same once tragedies like
the heavy rain spell in
Uttarakhand and Himachal
Pradesh denotes. It is time we
overcome the siloed approach
to emergencies and tackle the
same with synergy and a
holistic approach.

11. The government has
announced several
measures to rehabilitate
Uttarakhand where 1500
people are still stuck and
3000 are still missing, and
thousands of houses and
roads have been washed
away in flash floods and
torrential rain. Union
minister Jairam Ramesh
made the announcements;
Uttarakhand Chief Minister
Vijay Bahuguna was also
present.

12. People in Uttarakhand will be provided guaranteed
employment for 150 days instead of 100 days under the
Centre's flagship MNREGA scheme
A statutory body named Uttarakhand Rehabilitation And
Redevelopment Authority has been set up
All commercial establishments will be covered under the
relief scheme, including dhabas or roadside eateries
School students will be given one-time relief of Rs. 500
each, college students will get Rs. 1000
Orphaned children will be put under the state government's
care
Interest on loans from central banks will be deferred for a
year
Free electricity and water will be provided to families in
the affected areas
For small industries, Rs. 50,000 to 1 lakh will be given; for
small hotels, Rs. 2 lakh as compensation
Central funds to re-establish road connectivity to 1,400
villages in Uttarakhand under PM Gram Sadak Yojana
Additional 14,000 houses to be built with central funding
under Indira Awas Yojana

13. One of the major reasons why the Uttarakhand government
was unable to contain the scale of the devastation that has
taken place in the state because of flash floods was its lack of
preparedness to deal with such disasters. The Comptroller
and Auditor General (CAG) of India had warned the state two
months ago about its dysfunctional disaster management
system.
In its performance audit report on the disaster management
mechanism in the country, submitted to Parliament on April
23, CAG had highlighted that the Uttarakhand disaster
management authority (SDMA), constituted in 2007, had not
formulated any rules, regulations, policies or guidelines for
disaster management in the state. The authority is headed by
the chief minister and has eight more members in it. The
state executive committee that was constituted in 2008 to
advise SDMA on matters of disaster management had also not
met since its creation.

14. Vulnerable villages not shifted
The CAG report highlighted that the
Geological Survey of India had identified
101 of the 233 Uttarakhand villages
affected by the disaster of of 2008 as
vulnerable. But the state did not make
any arrangement for relocation of these
villages in the past five years. CAG also
noted irregularities in the management of
the state disaster response fund.
No action plan
Worse, the state did not even have the
mandatory disaster management plan
prescribed by the Disaster Management
Act of 2005. The actionable programmes
for various disasters were still under
preparation when disaster struck though
these should have been well in place
given that Uttarakhand has a history of
being hit by natural disasters, said CAG.

15. INTRODUCTION

19. The recent cloud burst and heavy rains, India’s Himalayan
state of Uttarakhand created a nightmarish situation in
just about 20 hours. Water played with the lives of
commoners, landslides demolished homes, hotels, took
away people, cars, buses and demolished the roads and
with it paralyzed the transportation network as well. As a
result many places were cut off from the country and
people were on their own stranded, as if left to die in
solitude!
All this happened at a time when technology seems to be
controlling everything, from the way we move around to
the way we behave and communicate vehemently. How
could this happen? Or did the government let this happen?
It may take thousands of crores of rupees and years
before normalcy can be restored in the region.

20. On the technology leading front, India has been on
the global IT and services engineering and re-
engineering map for quite some time now, helping
governments and organizations worldwide implement
science and technology driven solutions for bettering
their citizen services, utility operations and weather
forecasts.
Hence, India’s IT prowess is quite well known and
India’s IT companies take pride in technology
implementation and innovation. Additionally India has
an impressive set of Remote Sensing Satellites in the
world and there are many times when other countries
take help from India when it comes to placing their
satellites on the orbit. However, all this has not
helped us in any way to be able to save lives. Lack of
better disaster management capabilities are to be
blamed here.

21. Introduction

24. Unabated expansion of hydro-power projects and construction of roads
to accommodate ever-increasing tourism, especially religious tourism,
are also major causes for the unprecedented scale of devastation.
Threat from dams
The Ganga in the upper reaches has been an engineer’s playground.
The Central Electricity Authority and the Uttarakhand power
department have estimated the river’s hydroelectric potential at some
9,000 MW and have planned 70-odd projects on its tributaries.
Roads destabilising mountains
In 2005-06, 83,000-odd vehicles were registered in the state. The
figure rose to nearly 180,000 in 2012-13. Out of this, proportion of
cars, jeeps and taxis, which are the most preferred means of transport
for tourists landing in the state, increased the most. In 2005-06, 4,000
such vehicles were registered, which jumped to 40,000 in 2012-13. It
is an established fact that there is a straight co-relation between
tourism increase and higher incidence of landslides.