Change needed in thinking about living in the mountains

 First, the calamities in Uttarakhand and now in Himachal Pradesh have raised many questions about the hill life, including whether it will become impossible, or whether we will have to adopt new ways to live safely on the fragile mountains. The destruction of life and property due to heavy rains and landslides in these mountains is highly disturbing. This is, however, not the first time such devastation has taken place in the mountains. Even before this, many other such devastations have taken place in the mountainous states of the country, where not only a large number of people have lost their lives, but private and government properties are also getting damaged. In such situations, the question arises: What lessons have we learned to minimize the devastation caused by frequent natural disasters?

Is it appropriate to make developmental plans, roads, undertake heavy construction, tunnels, industrial undertakings, and allow tourism, etc., in the mountains just like in the plains? It is necessary to investigate the reasons behind the increasing incidents of landslides. Hydro-power projects in the mountains are the major reason for frequent landslides. During the hydropower project, blasting is done to make the tunnel. The use of heavy machinery causes strong vibrations in the mountains. The ecosystem of Himachal Pradesh is still very sensitive. Due to the continuous cutting of trees in these states, the age of existing mountains also decreases, thereby increasing the number of landslides. Apart from this, climate change can also be considered one of the major reasons for the increasing number of landslides.

In February last year, NASA released a report saying, climate change can increase landslides in Himalayan glacier lake areas from June to September. Also, it may have to face the disaster of a flood. But why didn’t our governments learn from such predictions? Today, the Himalayan mountains have become the Himalaya of worries. Over the decades, there has been indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources in the name of development, especially in the states of the Himalayan region. Not only this, such a construction is being erected against the scientific rules, which have brought destruction with cloudbursts, floods, and landslides. This question also persists: What should be the correct scale of development in hill states? If construction activities are necessary somewhere in the name of development, they should be capable of withstanding disasters along with the planning. It is generally seen that, in the name of promoting tourism in these states, such huge buildings were erected that not only proved incapable of withstanding sudden floods and landslides, but were also harmful to the ecology and environment. In such a construction, the expectation of vigilance at the government level was ignored.

We have handed over the mountains to marketism, the kind of infrastructure from the past area to the residential area, hotels, etc., has been constructed indiscriminately, and we have dug the mountains on one side and on the other side by making concrete construction work on them. The burden has increased, due to which the appearance of these beautiful places created by nature is changing. Recently, we saw the condition of Joshimath, the base town of the Badrinath pilgrimage, and how this city has started to crack. Earlier, I had also seen the destruction caused by a sudden flash flood in Shri Kedarnath Dham in June 2013. All this is the result of increasing the burden on the mountains and of cutting and digging the mountains in an unaccountable way. If landslides happen at ten places on the Kalka-Shimla highway till Solan, then we have to think about where the mistake has happened. If houses start collapsing on the hills of Shimla city itself, then we have to think: what are the rules for the construction of buildings in such places?

The incidents in Shimla have caused even more concern. Due to being the capital and a more active, populous, and touristic city, the scenes seen in Shimla were more scary, worrisome, and terrifying. On August 15, several houses collapsed due to a landslide in the Krishna Nagar area of Shimla. Neighbours could not stop their screams after seeing the houses of the people living near them collapsing for decades. After the landslide, the whole country witnessed an outcry. But when the ground subsides and everything is destroyed before your eyes, that helplessness questions criminality in government schemes, developmental neglect, and callous thinking. A landslide occurred after the cloudburst in the Summer Hill area of Shimla itself. The Shiva temple in the area also came under the grip, where the crowd was bigger due to the day being a Monday in Sawan month. The ground sank so fast that no one could get a chance to do anything. A total of 25 bodies have been pulled out of the debris of the temple so far. On August 14 itself, another landslide occurred at Fagli in Shimla, in which five people died. There is news of the deaths of seven people in Solan district, too.

In the manner in which the heavy rains have wrought destruction, question marks are being put on the various developmental activities being done for the hilly areas, and geologists are also giving warnings that the scale of development for the hilly areas should not be on par with the plains areas. According to Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, a gigantic loss of 10 thousand crore rupees and a huge loss of life and property have been caused by the natural calamity. These painful and tragic incidents are the result of ignoring the fury of nature. This is the reason why the people of both the hill states have to be prepared to avoid the rush of indiscriminate development in the future. Nature is giving us this signal and message with disasters that a lot needs to be done at different levels. It is the responsibility of the government and the people to maintain the dignity, restraint, simplicity, and purity of the delicate hilly life. Everyone wants to achieve happiness and prosperity in life, but there is a need to control indiscriminate construction activities. There should be balanced development without disturbing the nature of the mountains.

According to environmental experts, mountains are being cut from above to widen the roads in Himachal Pradesh. Due to this, the incidence of landslides is continuously increasing. Human and tourism activities are continuously increasing in hilly areas. Because of this, the balance of the mountains is continuously deteriorating. In the rainy season or after the rains, the foundation of the mountains becomes weak. Because of this, mountains start falling apart. Deforestation is also a major reason for landslides. Actually, the roots of the trees have a firm grip on the soil. Along with this, she also binds the stones of the mountains. This grip gets loosened by cutting down trees. For this reason, when it rains, big stones start falling from the mountain. This is also the reason for the accidents happening in Shimla.

Man’s greed and insensitivity have increased to the extent of tragedy in the mountains, which has become a major cause of imbalance and destruction of mountain life with its wildlife, birds, nature, and environment. India will have to prepare a development policy for its mountains. Only geologists can have a major role in this work. The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Mr. Sukhu, is himself admitting that he himself has invited this trouble by making indiscriminate constructions on the mountains in a completely non-scientific way, and by cutting the mountains indiscriminately in the temptation of widening the roads. It should be considered: what can be the result of exploiting nature without knowing it?