The region has seen many disasters, and most of them are directly related to massive engineering projects planned in the area
After unabating rainfall which triggered cloudbursts, landslides and road blocks, over 60 people have died in three days in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Earlier this year, several houses in Joshimath (Chamoli) were damaged due to land subsidence and since the onset of the monsoon, the problem has only aggravated.
It is important to understand these recurring calamities in the context of increasing developmental activities and the naturally fragile position of the Himalayan ecosystem.
Being the youngest mountain range in the world, they are highly prone to erosion. Due to continuous upliftment of the mountain, the region also falls in a very high seismic zone.
Together, these factors form a setting extremely susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides, subsidence, floods, snow avalanches and even cloud bursting and forest fires.
The Himalayan states and Union territories account for 18 per cent of the country’s geographical area, but have experienced 35 percent of the major disasters over the last 110 years.
A closer look at the data shows that in recent decades, these disasters are occurring more frequently and getting more severe, causing a significant loss of life and damage to property.
Back in 1976, a report by a committee led by MC Mishra had noted that Joshimath was sitting on an ancient glacial deposit and had warned that the town could “sink” if development continued unchecked.
Today, developmental projects worth about Rs 12,000 crore continue to proceed around Joshimath town. Had we measured the carrying capacity of the region and monitored the subsidence, we could have identified the factors responsible for the situation and averted the damage from the land subsidence.
Additionally, poor drainage due to population pressure in the Himalayas has impacted the surface runoff disposal and the consequent pressure exerted by the percolating water, could cause fissuring and sinking.
Across the world, groundwater depletion is recognised as a cause for subsidence. The Himalayas are home to many rivers, steep slopes and forests. The kind of infrastructure built in the plains cannot be built here.
The region has seen many disasters, and most of them are directly related to massive engineering projects planned in the area. Such projects impact the environment and destabilise the slopes.
The government argues that infrastructural development will increase employment. But the impacts seen now are leading to the opposite; people are losing livelihoods and their homes.
The best course of action is to suspend all current massive infrastructural activities in the Himalayas, until a proper impact assessment is made and vetted by independent experts.
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