State of erosion: Despite repeated natural disasters, why is Uttarakhand still prone to damages from them?
The state of Uttarakhand is known for its pristine natural beauty. This beauty comes at a cost, a cost which the administration of the state has been aware of, but often refuses to acknowledge. It nonetheless has to pay this debt to nature, but instead of making wilful payments, the cost is often incurred forcefully and becomes aggravated.
New Delhi: At least four people were killed, and several others went missing after a cloudburst in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand resulted in flash floods in Dharali village on Tuesday. Two separate cloudbursts in Dharali and Sukhi Top triggered widespread chaos across the region. Flash floods are becoming extremely common in India, with an estimated 5,000 people dying due to them every year.
The problem is extremely prevalent in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, where despite repeated incidents of cloudbursts and accompanying flash floods, management of the problem still seems wanting.
Not the first time
The current cloudburst event in Uttarkashi is not an isolated incident in the state of Uttarakhand. The state has often been subject to similar extreme weather events.
The Joshimath disaster in 2023 comes to mind, where land subsidence and structural damage was experienced in the Himalayan town of Joshimath. The town, situated in a high seismic risk area, suffered from cracks in buildings, roads, and other structures, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of families. This was due to a combination of both natural events and human-induced problems.
Perhaps the biggest such disaster that wrecked the region was the Kedarnath disaster that occurred in 2013. July 16 morning to July 17 evening in 2013 spelled a black day in the history of Uttarakhand as landslides and flash floods killed more than 5000 people in the state.
The Kedarnath disaster occurred due to heavy rainfall, leading to 375 per cent of the benchmark rainfall during a normal monsoon. This caused the melting of Chorabari Glacier at the height of 3800 meters and cresting of the Mandakini River, which led to to heavy floods near Gobindghat, Kedar Dome, Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand.
The heavy downslope floods levelled entire settlements such as Gaurikund and the town of Ram Bada, a popular spot that is a part of the journey towards the holy Kedarnath temple. Sonprayag was another town that saw massive damage. The disaster caused national grief and outcry, despite this much seems to not have changed in the state.
Ignoring a fundamental problem
Habitation in the Himalayas involves coexistence with the natural events that occur in the hills. Compared to lowlands, living in mountainous regions puts the population in close contact with extreme weather events. Sustained living in such regions that made hilly populations accustomed to combat the vagaries of nature.
Heavy rainfall, cloudbursts and flash floods are not new to the region. What is, is the encroachment into nature, done by consciously ignoring all that has been learnt by living side by side to nature for centuries.
The natural aspects of the problem are old and solutions to them have also existed since old. It is the newly added aspects to the problem, the man-made ones, which have led to a search for new solutions. The question fundamentally becomes one of balancing progress and tradition. In the hills, this translates into the battle between development and nature. Everything arises from this, and until this eternal dilemma is resolved, despite repeated natural disasters Uttarakhand will be prone to damages from them.