Shiva's thandava causes devastation, destruction in the Himalayan towns

The Himalayan mountain ranges, and places of pilgrimage, mostly Shiva Temples, which were above 10,000 ft above the sea level were witness to furious floods, torrential rains, unbelievable inundation, destruction of life, limb and the very infrastructure built for the development of Uttarakand, Himachal Pradesh and nearby state, throwing caution to the winds. Now, the so called ‘development’ has taken a back street in view of the large catastrophe that engulfed Charm Dharm, Badrinath, Kedarinath, Gangotri, Yammotri and other mountainous cities of pilgrimage by the angry flow of Alakananda, Bhagirathi, downstream Ganga, Yamuna. The temples will take 3 years for opening, claims the Government. Tourism Development will stand still, for 3 years. Development has paid a heavy price for callousness destruction of eco destruction, and ecological destruction, wantonly, knowing full well about the disasters.

The whole of the mountainous holy cities are fuming with the anger of Lord Shiva, who is in a thandava dance. Shiva says, you cannot have money economy, compared to spiritual wealth and paying no heed to mother Alakananda and Bhagirathi, which promoted purity?

Himalayan tsunami was due to Himalayan indifference of men in authority who worried about material pleasures, compared to the spiritual pleasures. Kedarnath, the epicenter of the tragedy had the 8^th century Shiva temple and the Samadhi of Adi Sankara, which remains even though the entire stretch has been covered by slush and mud brought by the river and deposited. Bodies were washed ashore. Thousands of people are reported stranded, large number of them are marooned, many dead, while a few have been rescued.  Some are said to be in ‘pithoragrah (safe location)’A disaster of Himalayan proportion could not be averted and thousands of innocents who paid it with their life cannot be brought back to life by a few proponents of development model who had suicidal economic models. This is the lesson we have to learn from this monumental tragedy.

India has a poor record of anticipation. We react and act only after a calamity has occurred. Why?

Ministry of Environment & Forests’, New Delhi is said to have issued a notification dated Dec 18, 2012, declaring a distance of 130 Km from Gormukh to where Alkanka begins as ‘eco sensitive zone’. This was flagrantly disregarded by state governments who feel that once elected they are accountable to nobody. The assertion of the Government is that vested interests in the name of environmental activists try to impede activities with ulterior motive to rob the people of area from infrastructural development and deal a blow to the tourist interest with ulterior motives. See the tragedy and remember the warning of environmentalists.

The zoning of the river should have been in a manner that loss of life and destruction to building and installations, in the event of flooding, could have been prevented, echoes Union Water Resources authority which had sent many dossiers to the State Government, the covers of the letters which had remained unopened.

When Science has grown much, why was apparatus which would forecast, inundation forecasting, through digital elevation maps and bathymetric surveys do be done in the flood vulnerable areas, which had planned funds in the 12^th Five Year Plan was not spend and sophisticated materials purchased and professionals put in place. What is priority for the Government? Is it the well being of the people sans people themselves? We need to have flood forecasting network linked to rain forecasting, if we need to make little headway in saving people in anticipation of destruction. If we cannot take people to safer surroundings even in the case of natural calamities, what will we do, if something happen to our nuclear reactors?(a fear apparently expressed by the people of TN over a nuclear power plant?)

The meteorological department had warned the centre and the states about the impending rain, cloud bursting, and devastation around the Himalayan areas, yet why no action of evacuation and halting pilgrimage to embark yatras not done? The Comptroller and Auditor General of India had warned the state government about the improper construction of infrastructural projects without putting in a mechanism of caution. The Report was simply ignored as partisan.

After a grave lesson learnt from the present tragedy of immeasurable gravity, the Government should come out with a safe mechanism of history not repeating itself.

Preparation for a catastrophe by putting in place warning systems before the occurrence;

Put in place technology, which will not cause callous indifference?

Study the impacts of devastation, even though to some extent such impacts are inescapable in a difficult mountainous terrain.

How does Carbon emissions, global warming affect these events which may become more frequent, aggressive, petulant.

Let us not see phantasmagoria  recover calamity costs from those who were involved in developmental works for the loss of limb and life caused by their carelessness.

Himalayan ecosystem have experienced faster rates of warning in the last century compared to European Alps and other mountain ranges. Land use changes will definitely hurt ecology. Deforestation cover was one of the importat causes for the devastation of the rivers Bhagirathy. Vegetation covers arrests the fury of river spree during rains. The areas need to go in forestation and the river basin and land cover through which river flows need to be protected from soil erosion. Coir Geotextiles, which are used in India for landscaping could be used effectively as it is damn cheap. The Coir pith can be used elaborately as it has the capacity to absorb water and retain 45% with it, which will provide improvement in ground water for vegetation. These people who say that hydro power projects are the only answer should take a leap out of the countries in the Pacific region who beget electricity from Coconut shells. India is the country producing maximum coconuts in a year. They are not even aware of the various alternate modes of energies that can produce power and calls ecologistical destruction as the only method to create development. Development economists should look at alternatives.

“These mountain rivers are like daughters, you never know, how quickly they grow up”..

“The present Himalayan disaster is triggered by natural forces but the catastrophe is

manmade”.

“Floods are the result of indifference to the human mentality”.

Some of these quotes are most relevant in the present context.