Who is Accountable For Himachal Pradesh's Misery?

What the hill state of Himachal Pradesh has just experienced, with a cascading impact on Punjab and Haryana, cannot be blamed entirely on nature. It cannot be called nature’s fury as it is being made out to be. It is nature’s fury in the face of human greed.

Over the last few days there have been horrifying pictures and videos coming out of the hill state showing massive landslides, rock falls, flash floods and cloudbursts. The rivers in spate spared nothing and took whatever came in their way, with them.

The incessant and torrential rainfall that continued for two days was reportedly on account of the monsoon that got combined with a strong western disturbance. There has been resultant flooding in the foothills and plains of Punjab and Haryana.

It is difficult to describe in words what the people have gone through and its impact is going to linger on for days to come. Man’s greed and irrational interventions in a fragile landscape resulted in an unprecedented punishment being meted out by nature.

One could come across buildings collapsing like a pack of cards, cars being washed away in the water bodies, muck sliding in residential areas and roads getting caved in.

There have been multiple deaths, and the loss to property is still being evaluated. The trauma that the people have gone through cannot be quantified. Society, governments and the locals in all the impacted states have risen to the occasion and are trying their best to restore things to normalcy.

But normalcy is something subjective that is still quite far away. It will take time for drinking water supplies to resume, repair roads and other infrastructure along with resuming public services like transport.

The people have individual fights on their hands like getting back to their livelihoods, rebuilding their damaged houses or looking for new dwellings in case of having lost their old ones. All that one gets to hear at the start of every conversation is, “Hope you and your loved ones are safe in this hour of unprecedented disaster?” One can witness prioritisation of life over everything else that is material to fight for another day.

But the story does not end with the government, administration and social institutions stepping in at a time when the disaster has struck. All that one is witnessing once again like on several other occasions in the past is the reportage around who, what when and where.

What needs to be analysed is, and it is high time this is done at various levels, is the aspect of how and why. And perhaps more important than even this is the question: Who is accountable even if it is nature and its fury that are partially to be blamed?

Himachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had tweeted on Monday, “Today spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda regarding the damage caused due to bad weather and floods in the state. During this, the Prime Minister was informed about the huge loss of life and property due to heavy rains.

“Immediately demanded a special economic package from the central government to recover from the losses in the state and also urged to declare this situation as a national calamity. Together we will overcome this crisis and make Himachal a stronger state than before.”

Sukhu has been on his toes all this while moving across the state to assess the damage caused by relentless rains triggering floods and landslides during the last three days while interacting with the people and the officials. He has assured that every possible assistance would be provided by the state government.

Acknowledging the magnitude of the disaster, he emphasised that the restoration work would take some time as soon as the weather normalises. Steps were being taken to restore the roads blocked by landslides and alternative routes were being explored to resume the traffic at the earliest.

Similarly relief work has been accelerated in the flood-affected areas of Punjab. A government spokesperson said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already announced that the Punjab government will help the affected people in every way in this difficult time.

Officials under Chief Secretary Anurag Verma are constantly reviewing the situation arising out of the disaster in Himachal.

The Chief Secretary has directed the respective district administrations that wherever people are struck due to low-lying areas or water logging, they should be evacuated safely and alternative arrangements for food, drink and accommodation should be made on war footing.

“Steps should be undertaken to provide information to the people about the arrangements being made for them so that they can take advantage of the facility as protecting people's lives is the top priority of the State Government,” the CS stated.

A presentation given by the water resources department on Tuesday afternoon said that the water level in Bhakra Dam is 1624.14 feet while the capacity is 1680 feet. The water level in Pong Dam is 1360.04 feet while the capacity is 1390 feet and the water level in Ranjit Sagar Dam is 1712.64 feet while the capacity is 1731.99 feet.

The current status of the water level in the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi and Ghaggar rivers was also divulged. It was also stated that the two breaches found in the Dhusi Bunn on the Sutlej River have been plugged.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government too is maintaining a vigil on the emerging situation and directions have been given to ensure the safety of life and properties of the people.

Coming back to Himachal, there have been five major areas of concern that are being pointed out in context of the present disaster and also a possibility of a similar experience in future if immediate steps are not taken to check them.

Primary among them is the drainage of water in areas that have been witnessing large scale construction that is often not subscribing to the norms that are there in black and white on paper.

As a builder in Solan pointed out, “Everyone whether it is a commercial builder or an individual building a house or any other facility agrees to these norms till the time his maps are not cleared by the authorities. Thereafter not an inch of land is provided for the drainage of water.

“As concrete jungles emerge and pressure on the fragile land increases, tragedies are bound to happen. On the administrative side there is no follow up in terms of visits to the projects cleared by the official to ensure that norms are followed or violators are penalised.”

The town on Tuesday witnessed the collapse of a couple of buildings in Shamti area with several others being asked to vacate their unsafe houses.

Solan along with the districts of Mandi, Kullu, Sirmaur and Shimla has been the worst affected. The above mentioned phenomenon is now prevalent statewide.

The second aspect is that of the rampant construction that has been taking place in the hills. The mountains have been subjected to a development model of assault instead of that of harmony where trees are chipped, land excavators assault the slopes in an unscientific manner and even blasting is carried out.

One has to learn by the example that an individual’s bed at home is always awaiting him or her empty whatever time of the day or week the claimant arrives. The same is true for a river.

Just because the river bed does not have water for a while does not mean that colonies can be developed over there. The river is sure to come and reclaim it at some point of time.

The third aspect that has often been highlighted time and again is that of the carrying capacity of the hills to which no one gives a damn.

Then there is the import issue of dumping of debris and garbage that is again not being addressed properly. All these combine with the rampant land use change that is being facilitated with impunity to present an ever emerging picture that is not only gory but extremely scary as well.

Add to all of these the failure of the successive governments across the states to check illegal mining in various river beds.

Manshi Asher of Himdhara Collective echoed the sentiment of the majority of the people when asked about the accountability of the state of affairs in this context.

She said that the governments, administration and the political parties are to be held accountable. “The entire elections are now on the plank of development that has come to be defined in terms of infrastructure and mega projects where there is corruption beneath.

“All this is sold as ‘acche din’ no matter whichever the party is. The fact is that development is something else that is defined in terms of livelihood, employment and sustainability. What is being witnessed over the last few years is that the issues of governance and accountability have been totally sidelined.

“Regulation has taken a backseat. This is a model that is in place all over but we have to look at it in our context,” said Asher.

It needs to be underlined here that in situations of disaster like the one that is being witnessed it is the marginalised communities that are the most vulnerable. What is being reported is largely from the areas that are urban or semi urban or those having proper communication networks.

The scenario in the remote interiors and what the vulnerable communities undergo largely goes unreported or under reported.

Akshay Jasrotia who works largely with the migratory communities drew attention to their concerns. He pointed out that there is a need to be more sensitive to the plight of such communities like those moving in the remote areas like Bara Bhangal.

“These are areas where things like even salt and daily rations have to be transported on animals like horses. At present there are around 30 to 35 groups having around 250 horses that are facing a real difficult time.

“They have been trying to draw attention of the authorities for several days on the vulnerability of bridges and other problems. The attitude of the officials simply saying that these communities have traditional means and knowledge to tide over adversities does not serve the purpose.

“While all efforts are on to rescue the tourists by choppers and other means, these people cannot be left aloof,” he said.

He pointed out that while small animals like sheep and goats can move in such conditions, the horses in particular face a lot of problems when there is light snow or heavy downpour making the soil slippery.

Some interesting facts on the issue of accountability on scientific perspective were pointed out by Dr Kuldip Singh Tanwar who has been a forester and is presently with the CPM.

“There is a need to strike a balance between lopsided conservatism that is quite often resorted to by the governments and development orientation. Development has to be looked at in totality.

“For example Himachal needs roads but cutting of hills at a steep gradient going up to 70% or 80% which is accompanied by improper management of debris does not augur well. The big hydel projects that have come up in the state along with institutions like the National Highways Authority of India have contributed to this.

“There is a need to provide stability to loose soil that can be done by roadside plantations or even developing grass patches,” Tanwar underlined.

He further pointed out that the practice of building ‘illegal’ link roads under the Forest Rights Act by over enthusiastic local legislators without following proper norms and taking appropriate permissions have been a major contributor to the present disaster. “These roads are built in haste in violation of norms and are unscientific,” Tanwar added.

Adding to Tanwar’s viewpoint, social activist Sukhdev Vishwapremi who is currently working in the worst affected parts of Mandi district said, “There is no doubt that roads are the lifeline of the state. No one feels their importance more than people who have to carry the sick and disabled for long distances on their back.

“But building roads in remote villages should be accompanied by proper debris management and construction of retaining walls. There is an immediate need for a campaign across the Panchayats on this issue. There is technology available to ensure this and proper funds should be allocated for the purpose.”

Unscientific management of debris and garbage has emerged as a major challenge in the state. This aspect was amply highlighted by Himdhara Collective in its landmark report ‘Dried & Dusted: State of Rivers – Himachal Pradesh’ where it says, “Muck generated by hydro power projects in Himachal Pradesh is being dumped along river beds, which has disturbed the natural course of major rivers in the state. In times of floods this has caused serious devastation to property, land, livestock and the riverine flora and fauna.”

The report while addressing the issue of riverine health in the state states, “Before we start looking at some of the major threats to the health of Himachal's rivers, there is a need to understand how the health of a river is monitored and assessed.

“Our regulatory agencies like the Pollution Control Board for instance refer to rivers as 'surface waters' and the health of these is measured by assessing the 'water quality' by looking at parameters like dissolved oxygen, PH, colour, temperature, presence of heavy metals etc. However, there is a need to review the definition of a 'river' which comprises not just the water, but the entire riverine landscape.

“No doubt the water quality is indicative of the health of the river, but the perspective on the river needs to be widened to include a larger body of information as well as a spatial and temporal mapping of the river and its course.”

The document also throws light on the all important aspect of urbanisation and tourism. It states, “In the causes of degradation of rivers urbanisation and the heavy inflow of tourists both are emerging as problems because of the disposal of solid waste, encroachment upon the river waterway and water extraction involved.

“The Kullu-Manali stretch, Shimla and Dharamshala are the centres which have rapidly urbanised and have large tourist traffic. To save the Beas River from pollution, the National Green Tribunal in 2013 had ordered to close 34 hotels located along river banks in Kullu and Manali as they were operating without obtaining required permissions from the pollution control board.

“The sewerage system in the urban areas of Himachal is highly inadequate and it is ultimately the rivers which become the dumping ground for untreated sewage.”

The report also addressed the issue of illegal sand mining underlining how it is posing a serious threat to the flow of rivers, survival of forests upon river banks and most seriously to the environment of river banks – a fact that was observed by the National Green Tribunal in 2013.

“Following this the issue of illegal river bed mining has come up in a major way in Himachal as well. Apart from the major rivers, almost all tributaries are faced with the threat of over mining. Some of the tributaries of the Beas, such as Neugal (colloquially called Neogal), is one such case.

“With the rise in industrialisation in the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh (BBN) area during the early 2000s, the need for construction material also grew rapidly, putting strain on the river ecosystem. The ban on mining or minor minerals inside Punjab further accentuated the already critical situation in the BBN area vis-a-vis river bed mining.

“The area borders Punjab along its southern and western periphery and Haryana along its southern and eastern part. Years of rampant illegal mining and clandestine export of the mined stone, sand and bajri to the nearby stone crushers in the BBN area as well as Punjab have decimated the area's ability to support this activity. As a consequence, the riverine ecology has undergone drastic transformation for the worse,” stated the report.