The loss of lives of hundreds of people due to global warming and ecological disasters taking place in various parts of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir a d Punjab has indeed become a very important question, which needs to be resolved quickly with the active participation of the central and state governments, which should include intellectuals, environmentalists, seismologists, earth scientists, writers, journalists, thinkers and above all the leaders of all political parties representing different ideologies.
You will understand that the increasing pollution of Ganga, and the degradation of Himalayas due to global warming is a concern of all of us, the entire country and the world. Therefore, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that the massive forest fires in Uttarakhand, which is destroying and disturbing the flora and fauna and increasing the global temperature, including large-scale deforestation, unfriendly development, construction of resorts, hotels and residential luxury accommodations along the river banks, that include violating all prescribed government norms and falling easy prey to flash floods during excessive rains and cloud bursts, causing human and animal deaths and huge losses to the government exchequer.
Uttarakhand has witnessed massive landslides due to cloudbursts, excessive rainfall, bursting of glacial lakes, internal aquifers during road or tunnel construction activities and dynamite blasts during road widening activities thereby hollowing out the already weakened mountains from inside, involving construction of 75% tunnels inside the hills for the underground railway from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag and massive cutting down of lakhs of full-grown trees, which has actually disturbed and destroyed the already fragile environment and ecology of the mountains of Uttarakhand and other states as well.
Ecological destruction on a massive scale in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir is another recent outcome of angry nature due to massive man-made nature invasion where hundreds of innocent people have fallen prey to nature’s fury.
If we take the case of Uttarakhand in particular, apart from massive landslides and more than three thousand villages turning into ghost villages, the recent natural disaster that struck Dharali, Harshil and Tharali, which wiped out many houses, hotels, buildings and human lives, are all clear signs of massive ecological destruction that is going to happen in the near future, especially since Uttarakhand is under Zone 5.
Glaciers in Uttarakhand Himalayas are melting rapidly, Gaumukh glacier has also melted rapidly and has moved back by 40 kilometers, landslides have occurred at 1500 places on the routes of all-weather roads which are being built in the most environmentally unfriendly and unscientific manner, where the entire highway to Kedarnath including hilly areas has been completely washed away at many points and two thousand people were stranded for hours during the rains.
Additionally, Uttarakhand has 1,266 glacial lakes, according to a 2015 list. Of these, 13 are considered highly vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF), and their risk level is classified as A, B, or C.
Satellite data from 2011-2013 revealed 1,266 glacial lakes more than 500 metres in size in Uttarakhand.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has identified 13 of these lakes as high-risk (level A) and is further studying their vulnerability.
In addition, the most dangerous ecological disaster occurred on 16 June 2013, in which more than ten thousand people died and many villages of Garhwal were destroyed, the Rishi Ganga disaster in which the dam under construction was damaged and 200 people died, reconstruction and rehabilitation of about 200 damaged villages was not carried out, although assurances were given by the then Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand that reconstruction and rehabilitation would be carried out.
Despite this, construction work was carried out around Kedarnath and Badrinath Dham with a budget of thousands of crores of rupees, whereas our seismologists, geologists etc. had clearly warned that no concrete construction should be done in the Kedarnath complex, rather the entire town should be shifted to some other safe place of their choice to avoid losses in case of future ecological disasters.
They had clearly stated that if, God forbid, in the future, another environmental disaster similar to the one that happened in Kedarnath in 2013 occurs, given the increasing construction and human presence in the Kedarnath complex, even more disastrous issues will emerge, because the number of tourists increases manifold to about 6 – 8 lakhs in every season, and vehicles, four wheelers and two wheelers emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases, which include noise pollution due to frequent flying of commercial helicopters, which destroy and pollute the environment.
Unfortunately, Uttarakhand today is also a victim of a large number of road accidents, including deaths caused by attacks by man-eaters.
And similarly the glacial burst and cloudburst incidents in Dharali, Uttarkashi and Tharali Chamoli, which led to the destruction of hundreds of houses and buildings, 70 human deaths including Mandi, Himachal Pradesh and Kishtwar, the ecological disasters witnessed massive destruction and human deaths, sending a huge warning signal to Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the entire North Eastern region for the near future.
In conclusion, the subsidence of Joshimath, massive pollution, increase in global warming, melting of glaciers, massive forest fires during summers and the use of plastic water bottles by millions of Kanwar Yatra travelers, pilgrims and tourists, the old clothes and garbage left behind, the threat of environmental disasters has raised the concerns of our ruling party governments, opposition parties and intellectuals.
Therefore it should be made mandatory for earth scientists and environmentalists etc. to come on one platform and work out a credible policy to control the massive increase in pedestrian movement including huge number of vehicles in the Himalayan regions, including strict monitoring of developments harmful to the environment and a legal ban on construction along the river banks. And the government of the day should place a proactive role in this regard.
What is even more surprising and shocking is that we have five Loksabha, 3 Rajyasabha MPs from the ruling political dispensation, the saffron party(BJP) has been elected for the third time, but instead of raising the important issue of the massive devastation in the Uttarakhand hills in Parliament, they are busy attending receptions in the national capital and accepting garlands and bouquets.
Apart from this, the allocation of only Rs 315 crore last year and only Rs 1066 crore for six states this year to deal with the situation after such a huge disaster by the central government seems very less.
Everyone is appreciating the PM’s foreign trip, but neither the PM nor a single Union Minister has taken any step to heal the hurt feelings of the victims of the Himalayan state except one, the union state minister of transport Ajay Tamta who did visited disaster affected areas and lend his hand of support and cooperation.
PM Narendra Modi should take the entire opposition into confidence and come forward to stop the rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions and melting glaciers to save our humanity from extinction.
According to Dr VK Bahuguna, former Director General, ICFRE, Ministry of Environment and Forests and a prolific writer on environmental issues, climate change has increased the intensity of monsoons, because warmer air is holding up to 7 percent more moisture with every 1 degree Celsius temperature rise. Warming of the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea has increased atmospheric moisture, leading to sudden and intense rainfall.
The retreat of Himalayan glaciers and melting permafrost have further destabilized mountain slopes, increasing the incidence of landslides and flash floods.
The already grave situation has been further compounded by unbalanced unplanned development and degradation of natural forests and environment.
Unregulated urbanisation, deforestation, and hydropower projects, ongoing four-lane highways, underground railways, improper cutting of slopes and faulty infrastructure projects such as large-scale building construction near rivers and on sensitive slopes without geographical consultation and the absence of drainage systems have led to further worsening the vulnerability of the area, leading to massive ecological disasters, landslides, falling of rocks on moving vehicles and most devastatingly, floods.
