A disaster that was waiting to happen

The colossal tragedy that has struck Uttarakhand was waiting to happen. It is a tell-tale of total apathy of an insensitive administration under various state governments and nexus among mining mafia, forest mafia, administration, police and forest officials that did not spare even ecologically sensitive zones to satiate their greed.

Not that the Mother Nature did not give any timely warnings. Through the years, since the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake that left nearly 2,000 dead and thousands without shelter in the Himalayan state, there have been several warnings such as abnormal rise in temperature, reoccurring landslides, cloud bursts and flash floods in vast regions of Tehri, Pauri, Chamoli, Uttarkashi and Almora. But nobody, barring a handful of environmentalists, ecologists and local people, paid heed to the warnings.

A place that is prone to disasters because of fast-occurring climate change should be guarded with utmost sensitivity towards ecology and environment, but the administration closed its eyes to all illegal constructions, including the ones that came up on the banks of pristine and revered rivers such as  the Mandakini, Alaknanda and Bhagirathi.

Ganga crusader and environmental engineer GD Agarwal said it is now evident that the constructions along the Ganga certainly cost a lot and much more if one includes the damage to the environment.

Since the formation of the Uttarakhand state in 2000, no government, be it of the BJP or the Congress, barring two brief spells of Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, did anything to rein in land and forest mafia and prioritise eco-sensitivity over unbridled construction.

Incidentally, the state was indicted by the CAG last year for a non-functional disaster management authority that still remains on paper.  Even now there is no state disaster response team in Uttarakhand, while there is total absence of critical infrastructure such as trauma centres for giving immediate medical treatment to affected population.

The television images of houses, hotels and commercial establishments cracking, collapsing and then getting washed away in flash floods bear testimony to the scale of corruption that the Uttarakhand state is submerged in.

Massive landslides that hit thousands of unsuspecting pilgrims and travellers with tonnes of boulders and rubble in Kedarnath and Badrinath speak of the large-scale nexus between the wood mafia and forest officials that has stolen away millions of trees spread over thousands of square kilometres. The lofty green mountains, that would inspire even a deadpan to break into a song earlier, have become barren and denuded.