Tragedy like Joshimath will not stop without punishing inefficient system

In Uttarakhand’s Joshimath, nature is less responsible for the natural calamity of cracks in thousands of houses and more the governance system. If the provision of punishment is not made to the inefficient system which is turning a blind eye to playing with nature, then nature will continue to punish in the same way, due to which the common people will continue to suffer. Joshimath has a total of 4,500 buildings and of these, 610 have developed major cracks. Due to which they are not fit to live. A scientific report of the year 2006 also said that Joshimath is sinking one centimeter every year. At that time, if serious efforts had been made to avert environmental and geological hazards by taking this report seriously, then perhaps this disaster would not have happened.

In fact, uncontrolled construction is also believed to be responsible for the landslide in Joshimath. The haphazard and unplanned construction that Joshimath is facing today, the story of every small and big hill town in Uttarakhand is more or less the same as Joshimath. Environmental and geological experts have already warned of other types of natural disasters, including earthquakes, in the hilly states located in the Himalayan region. Despite this, fearing the politics of votes, the states and the central government did not take drastic measures to prevent it. Thousands of people have had to pay the price of this in the past by giving their lives.

The Disaster Management Department of the Government of Uttarakhand and the World Bank had conducted a study in the year 2018. According to this study, more than 6300 places in this state have been identified as landslide zones. In a related report, it has been said that the ongoing development projects worth thousands of crores of rupees in the state are being built by cutting mountains or destroying forests and for this reason the number of landslide zones is increasing. According to a study conducted by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority from August 2022, geological factors are playing an important role in the Joshimath landslide. Extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall and floods have also contributed to the subsidence of Joshimath. The flood events of June 2013 and February 2021 have also increased the risk of land subsidence in the area.

A panel headed by Garhwal Commissioner Mahesh Chandra Mishra submitted a report in 1978 which stated that major construction work should not be carried out in the city and in the Niti and Mana valleys as these areas are situated on moraines. Moraine means a pile of rocks, sediments and rocks. Joshimath, according to the book Central Himalayas by Heim, Arnold and August Ganser, is built on the debris of landslides. In 1971 some houses reported cracks, leading to a report which recommended some measures. This includes preserving the existing trees and planting more trees as well as preserving the boulders on which the city is built. However, there are claims that these measures were never implemented.

Not only this, Uttarakhand is considered very sensitive from the point of view of earthquake. Due to its location in the Himalayan terrain, the possibility of earthquake remains strong here. According to geologists, the Himalayan mountain ranges were formed as a result of collision of the Indian landmass with the Eurasian landmass. Geologists believe that even today the Indian landmass is continuously moving in the north-east direction, due to which the rocks of the Himalayas remain under pressure. When this energy stored in rocks is released, an earthquake occurs. For the last two centuries, an earthquake of more than 8.0 magnitude has not occurred in this region, due to which a large amount of accumulated energy in the earth has not been released and due to this there is a possibility of increasing the sensitivity of earthquakes here in the future.

Himalayan states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are entering a stage of irreversible decay due to loss of their ecology and frequent occurrence of landslides may become inevitable. The initiative is expected to positively impact the livelihood and well-being of people in China, Myanmar and Afghanistan, apart from these five countries located in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region and its mountain range. It is also known as the Third Pole, because it contains permafrost outside the glaciers, the largest ice cover in the world, apart from the polar summit region. According to an assessment by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, an intergovernmental knowledge and learning center based in Nepal, the temperature of the Hindukush Himalayan region, already severely affected by climate change, compared to pre-industrial levels, in the year By 2100, that could rise to five degrees Celsius.

The amount of water in 60 percent of the water streams coming out of the Himalayas is decreasing day by day. Environmental experts have warned many times before about the melting of Himalayan glaciers due to the effect of global warming. Due to which the water in the rivers will increase and as a result many towns and villages will be submerged in water. On the other hand, due to the destruction of the umbrella that stops the rising temperature of the earth, there will be terrible drought, flood and heat. Obviously, in such a situation, there will be a crisis on human life too.

The Himalayan mountain is not only growing every year, but geological upheavals keep going on in it. Here trees play a big role in binding the land, which is the only way to prevent erosion and mountain collapse. Due to the change in the structure of the Himalayas, sometimes there is a water crisis in the Yamuna. In fact, by stopping more tunnels or continuous flow, the mountain is not able to remain in its natural form and its far-reaching consequences are coming in the form of various natural calamities. The Himalayas and surrounding areas are experiencing widespread side effects due to rock fall, landslides and heavy rains, which should be understood as nature’s fury. Landslide in Joshimath is another new warning, if governments do not pay serious attention to it rising above petty political interests in time, then it will not be possible to prevent the fury of nature from wreaking havoc on the common people in the coming times.

– Yogendra Yogi