Four dead and a child serious after massive landslide damaging several houses into rubble !

UTTARAKHAND is definitely cursed as not a day is passed when casualties don’t occur here due to natural disasters n calamities and ecological upheavals.

Deadly accidents, due to landslides, and chopper crashes, boulders falling on running vehicles, vehicles falling on gorges due to poor visibility and other unavoidable circumstances have become order of the day.

The dreaded 2013 June’s massive ecological disaster killing more than five thousand people majority of them pilgrims and collosal loss of thousands of crores and thereafter the tragedy of Rishi Ganga over flooding of rivers etc have claimed hundreds of lives.

As this wasn’t enough another tragedy occured in Tharali village of Chamoli where a dangerous landslide led to several house being badly damaged rather demolished into rubble killing four persons after getting trapped under the heavy debris.

Tragedies like this are the mis- happenings taking place every now and then, especially during monsoons.

The Garhwal and Kumaon regions of Uttarakhand are really cursed where natural calamities are unpredictable.

The NDRF and SDRF teams have reached Tharali village and the rescue operation is in full swing with dead bodies retrieved and search on, to locate others.

According to the latest news report this tragedy occured in Paingarh Village in Tharali in Chamoli district.

Several houses came down with a bang like house of cards falling with a bang with rubble all around.

While four persons have reportedly died after being buried under the rubble, condition of a child is extremely serious.

What is shocking about this mis –happening is that the local administration was very much aware about the houses of this area developing cracks and going down but they didn’t exercised precaution like shifting them to some other safer places as was the case with regard to the RAINY village of Chipko leader Gaura Devi.

An activist of Rudraprayag who had raised the issue of Helang harrasment of village women and had been bringing the woes of the local people as well as environmental degradation to the knowledge of the administration – Atul Sati has revealed that there are at least fifty houses in Joshimath which are having tremendous cracks.

He had been requesting the SDM to arrange alternative safeguards for these villagers but all in vain.

He had recently sent a memorandum to the Prime minister via the DM Rudraprayag but of no avail.

After the survey by the seismologists and earth scientists etc a report has arrived but no action whatsover has been initiated in this regard said Atul Sati.

Had the local administration alerted itself quite in time despite knowing about this area being highly seismic or landslide prone they could have averted the tragedy.

It may be recalled that the village of Gaura Devi, the legendary Chipko leader has been shifted elsewhere since the village has been reported by seismologist to be an earthquake prone zone, with houses going down and developing cracks etc.