This microcosm from a lesser-known mountainous region such as Kumaon represents the macrocosm — where humanity wears a macabre face and ravages the nature
The seasonal stream that rolls down along the north-western boundary of our century-old house in Bhimtal became turbulent following continuous downpour since October 18 morning.
Our house is situated in the lower-most terrace of an orchard. By 10 pm, it had rained enough for the stream to swell to the dimension of a roaring river, loaded with boulders, trees, soil and water-pipelines.
I don’t remember seeing this fury ever. Memories of watching the cascading flow of crystal clear water over a century-old series of bunding- walls constructed by my grandfather are still green to my mind.
But it was different on the night of October 18. Armed with a searchlight and umbrella, I watched, just watched the muddy water laden with stones and vegetation flowing over these walls, effecting their collapse one after another.
The old sturdy silver-oaks held fast the area they had grown on. A few avocados planted by me 10-12 years ago, now tall enough to pop above the wallowing waters, struggled hard to stay. Those barely five-six years old had all been flushed away.
We could not sleep the entire night.
As the dawn cracked, much of the vertical slope on the other side had been sliced by the roaring stream. The pathway meandering uphill with a motorable tailend was nowhere to be seen. The house of a new-settler, adjacent to the motorable stretch, had its foundation exposed to the very root.
Luckily, the structure stood erect. Our Kiwi vineyard and the patch of plums and lime above it looked more like a moraine in the mellow morning light. But thank god, we all were safe.
Torrential rains in the second half of October, when the sun otherwise shines bright in azure skies, is an aberration caused by climate change, a fallout of our consumer culture.
Just half-a-kilometre uphill on the mountain, at the foot of which a centuries-old cluster of houses is there, a road is being cut. The excavation is being done with earth movers — all rules and norms at an arm’s length.
Who is making this road, why is it being made, who are the beneficiaries and where will it go? Nobody knows.
A few henchman of the ruling party are reported to have managed the allocation of government funds for cutting this road following a bulk purchase of land from poor villages at dirt cheap rates.
These lands now have tremendous value and are all set to be sold to new settlers at lucrative prices.
There is no point opposing road construction because it has been the harbinger of development. Cutting a road without any survey and proper layout and alignment and any assessment of its impact on close-by human habitations, however, is bound to let loose a train of destruction.
Interestingly, the mountain being bulldozed has a number of aquifers and subterranean water channels. Old gazetteers and writings from colonial era speak at length about it.
The base of this mountain, where the human habitation is, is full of freshwater springs. It is unfortunate that the bounties of nature have been sidelined to ensure immediate gains of a handful of people.
The stage is all set for the contractors to break boulders offloaded by flash floods into small stones to be carried to the new construction site. Some of it will be used in erecting walls, check-dams, cobbled pathway, etc.
But these walls and the cobbled bed will be swept away the next monsoon. Natural calamity will take the blame. The vicious circle will continue.
This microcosm from a lesser-known mountainous region indeed represents the macrocosm — where humanity wears a macabre face and ravages the nature. We made tall claims at summits — from Stockholm to Rio — to save the planet.
These purportedly small incidents in non-descript places do have a prognostic importance in reminding us that a pinch of deadly poison renders a seemingly sumptuous dish waste.
Caring for small issues lets the bigger ones fall at the right places. Unfortunately, we haven’t learnt it yet.
Views expressed are the author's own and don't necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth
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