Is it just a case of heavy rains and flash floods or another warning signal after the Kedar Nath tragedy?
Unprecedented rains over the past few days across the whole of the northern region has caused widespread damage, with Himachal Pradesh being the worst-hit state.
Devastating visuals of decades-old bridges collapsing, hotel buildings and houses falling and being washed away like a pack of cards in the gushing waters of the rivers that seems to engulf everything that comes its way as the rains continue to create havoc over the whole of northern India for the last few days are sort of paralyzing the mind as it fails to accept that human brilliance can suffer this kind of a backlash and failure at the hands of nature.
Incessant rains caused waterlogging and flooding in Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana too, while the water levels rose alarmingly in all the rivers including Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Swan, Chenab, and Yamuna.
In less than a month since the onset of the monsoon, 41, landslides, 29 flash floods, and one cloud burst have occurred in H.P. leaving behind a trail of destruction.
Heavy silting and debris sliding from the hills, particularly in the high-altitude region catchment areas of major rivers have disrupted electricity generation in the state with more than 24 power projects forced to halt their operations due to heavy silt.
There has been no electricity in parts of Kasauli as the Solan grid has failed.
The shutdown of the country’s largest hydropower plant, SJVNL, following silt levels alarmingly high than permissible limits in Sutlej River has triggered a power crisis in Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi too. With operations at the 1,500-megawatt Nathpa Jhakri Hydel Power project being shut down has been followed by severe disruption as generation and distribution had been hit hard.
Talking about the National Capital, Delhi, several key areas including the secretariat have been flooded, impairing normal life and traffic movement.
In Himachal Pradesh alone over 790 roads are blocked and 1468 transformers and 963 water supply schemes have been affected. And even portions of the National Highway have been swept off due to landslides and floods.
Hundreds of lives have been lost and thousands of tourists and locals are stranded in Manali, Kullu, Manikaran, Kasol, and other areas as the torrential rain continues to batter the region ruthlessly.
The estimated loss to life and property has been preliminary judged to be about 3,000 crores in H.P. alone.
The worried families of the tourists are trying frantically to get in touch with the authorities to know the whereabouts of their near and dear ones. Though thousands of people have been rescued but still thousands are stuck up in the natural prison. And the irony is that many of those stranded do not want to be evacuated, rather they want to wait till the roads clear so that they can take their vehicles along. What brilliant brains???
While every authority wants to save itself by just saying that Northern India has witnessed the heaviest rains in the last 40-45 years and no one was prepared for it but is this the real truth?
For the rain toll is pointing towards something else. It claims that this is an example of a man-made disaster in Himachal Pradesh.
Anthropogenic factors like deforestation, unsustainable constructions of hotels and resorts, too much of encroachment and tampering with the ecology of the hilly and mountainous regions, and trespassing the limits defined by nature have intensified the damages caused by such unprecedented calamities hitting us off guard once again after Kedar Nath tragedy.
The intensity of this tragedy has triggered a debate over whether this ongoing natural fury is in reality a man-made disaster that has engulfed the Himalayan region once again.
On one hand, due to climatic changes and global warming our climatic patterns, especially the rainfall patterns have become more erratic and extreme and on the other hand steps like deforestation and destabilization of mountains due to excessive blasting and drilling of the region in the name of growth have added to the region’s woes.
According to environmentalists, though this is a natural tragedy but it has been intensified due to the debris dumped along the streams and rivers and the slope destabilization due to changes in Land Use.
Land Use change points to construction activities along the river bed thus obstructing its natural flow and deforestation and digging of slopes for construction of roads, rail networks, buildings, power generation systems and other big and small constructions which lead to flash floods causing damage downstream.
Also, the fragile hydro-meteorological conditions of the state increase the possibility of landslides. According to the Himachal Pradesh landslide hazard risk assessment act (2015) hilly areas are vulnerable to landslides due to geological, meteorological and anthropogenic factors like removal of vegetation cover, overloading of slopes and other development activities such as construction of roads and tunnels and excavation for power projects upsetting the natural balance of this fragile ecosystem and which amounts an increase in pressure contributing to problems like land subsidence etc.
According to one estimate about 59% of the land in this region of Himalayas is subject to intense soil erosion making this region ecologically vulnerable to such calamities.
Such is the effect of our deeds that we end up losing our lives and property in the end.
How far is this an intelligent step towards modernization and urbanization in the name of development?
It’s high time we understand that there is no cure to this, just preventive steps that we can take to let the future of our mountain states be as beautiful and unexploited as it has been for centuries.
Though development is the need of the hour for the people residing in these regions but it should be more sustainably oriented and effective urban-rural land use policies should be framed to protect and conserve forests, biodiversity, water resources and agricultural land.
We have already played enough with nature but now mother nature is in no mood to spare us. Year after year it is giving us warnings sometimes in the form of heat waves or extreme winters and sometimes in the form of such calamities.
It’s high time we realise our mistakes and start corrective action.
Don’t you think so? Do share your views in the comment section.
The Momma Clan 
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