For someone who was
fortunate to have had safe darshan at
the four holy sites only weeks earlier, the tragedy of Uttarkhand seems a
little bit more personal. The scenes of devastation unfolding on TV screens and
gut wrenching tales of survivors make the eight days spent on criss-crossing Devbhoomi seem so surreal now.
It is heartwarming that though the Central Government has refused to declare this tragedy a National Disaster,
the common citizens of our Nation have displayed no such hesitation and are
coming together to help the victims. At the same time, the near absence of the
‘local’ factor in the prevailing discourse raises disturbing questions. Very
certainly, the presence of pilgrims from across the country made the tragedy seem
closer to people from other states. Surely, each one of us prayed for the safe
evacuation of hapless pilgrims stuck without food and water at various
stretches of the pilgrimage route and cheered boisterously as the television
beamed images of the Indian Army evacuating the victims heroically.
But why has our concern not
extended to the residents of these lands – the ponywallah who made the trek at Kedarnath possible, the pitthoo from Nepal who carried the
infirm on his back and those dandies
who transported people in maximum comfort. Why is there little attention to
fate of those dhabawallahs, those
hotel staff who lined up the roads and those residents of those villages which
dotted the mountainside? The pilgrims lost a lot and many will probably remain
scarred for life. But that should not have, in any way, eclipsed sufferings of
the Uttarakhandi from public images. Many villagers lost everything – their
material possessions and even more tragically, their bread-earners who got
swept away by those swirling masses of angry waters, mud and rocks. The
pilgrims did not deserve to suffer and neither did the local residents deserve
to get pushed to corners of our consciousness. What is the update on those
thousands of local residents present at Gaurikund, Rambara and Kedarnath. What
about those present in Pithoragarh, at Gangotri, at Badrinath and those
numerous other villages and towns which dot the devastated landscape? They seem
to figure neither in the list of the dead nor the list of rescued. Surely, they
couldn’t have vanished overnight!
As with any tragedy,
questions on ‘could this have been averted’ started reverberating soon after
the devastation had stuck. At one end, we have the rulers claiming that the
devastation could not have been averted and at the other, the group of
environmentalists pinning the blame on unplanned ‘development’. Sadly, lack of
sensitivity seems to bind both these stands – the rulers stand indicating
brazen disregard for common sense and the environmentalists ‘I told you so’
stance being a little too smug to be palatable.
And yes, it is true that
motor cars clog the highways and leave behind a trail of empty chips packs, pet
bottles and general refuse. However, it is truer that any attempt to clamp down
the number of pilgrims the way many environmentalists are suggesting, will not
impact those who dirty the hills. The well off will still come – for their
share of darshan and if nothing else,
for fun. What it will certainly impact is that multitude from all parts of the
country which saves for years for the yatra,
that which performs arduous trek on foot simply because it cannot afford a pony
and sleeps in buses for it cannot afford hotels.
While it may not be possible
to prevent natural calamities, it is certainly possible to plan for mitigation
and even more critically, adhere to norms which will minimize casualties. One
does not need to be an engineer to realize that structures constructed on
pillars and platforms reclaimed from mountainsides and overhanging river banks
are fragile and prone to collapsing. Likewise, any person concluding that the
cumulative impact of kilometers of tunneling across mountains could lead to
loosening of rocks and soil would only be someone with common sense and not an
Einstein. Certainly, human activity has contributed to the disaster. It was not
many months back that flash floods had hit Uttarkashi or when cloudburst had
damaged Rudraprayag. The damage was high then and has multiplied exponentially
now. Sadly again, no lessons will be learnt. Across the country, the burgeoning
growth of cities and towns has made them sitting ducks for disaster. Our own
capital city has seen court sanctioned encroachment of the Yamuna floodplains
while Rajarhat has come up choking the water outlets of Kolkata. Who will be to
blame if God forbid, these cities get flooded as a result of a deluge?
That said, the story of
Uttarakhand cannot be dismissed as a tragedy compounded by human greed. The region
is desperately poor and the images of young kids hauling fodder over long
distances and running dangerously after speeding cars asking for 1 rupee are
nothing if not a testimony to the financial state of the people. Concern for
environment pales into insignificance if the trade off is a decent human
existence. The Char Dham Yatra
presented the only opportunity for many locals to make their earnings for the
year. The burgeoning of hotels, rest houses, dhabas only indicate existence of demand and where demand exists,
the human brain devises ingenious means to meet it. Add personal need to human
ingenuity and you have a situation where people will find ways to disregard
governmental norms.
It is more than likely that
the current tragedy of Uttarakhand is being seen as a god-send by those who
blast mountains, dam rivers back to back and create rickety buildings on
fragile mountain scopes. After all, a relief and rehabilitation effort in India
presents immense opportunity of both rent-seeking and legal business profits.
Is it any wonder that Indians love a good calamity?
