Fear in the mountains

It was a chronicle of deaths foretold. If the authorities had learnt their lessons from the devastating landslide that had wiped out enti...

It was a chronicle of deaths foretold. If the authorities had learnt their lessons from the devastating landslide that had wiped out entire villages in the Ukhimath block of Rudraprayag last week that took an estimated 105 lives, the death toll of yesterday8217;s landslide in Pithoragarh over 200 at last count need not have been so high. It reveals once again the chronic inability of this country to take proper preventive action; the inability to utilise the experiences of one tragedy to ensure that another does not occur. While it is true that landslides are a natural phenomenon, which can happen at any time, anywhere, especially during this season of incessant rain, there are certain regions that are more vulnerable to such phenomena. Areas near swift flowing rivers or those straddling deep gorges, for example. Malpa village that was swept into the Kali river early on Monday morning was one such. These regions require to be closely monitored so that people can be evacuated in time, should disasterstrike.

This fatal flaw in administrative conduct seems to mark the organisation of pilgrimages as well. If the authorities had bothered to talk to those who had just returned from the Kailash-Mansarovar yatra, they could have, perhaps, made the trip safer for those who followed 8212; including the pilgrims in the tragic 12th batch now reported missing. One of the participants, Vishal Gujral, had reported on the harrowing nature of their return journey to this newspaper just three days ago. His batchmates had experienced a landslide as they were trekking along the Kali river and had narrowly escaped with their lives. But Gujral may as well have been talking in the wilderness, there was not one person in the government or the administration who was listening.

The recent landslides also raise larger questions about development in the hill regions of Uttar Pradesh. One of the major reasons for the Uttarakhand movement gaining the popular support it did was the widespread feeling of neglect that thesechronically underdeveloped regions have long been experiencing. Rampant corruption coupled with the most cynical indifference to people8217;s needs have led to a general lack of essential infrastructure.

Bureaucrats who have served in the area have pointed out that, on an average, only one rupee in every hundred marked for road construction is actually used for the purpose intended. Local communities, anxious to better their lot, have sometimes undertaken measures that have worked to the contrary. The large scale clearing of forests to carve out more and more terrace farms on the hillsides has led to the erosion of top soil. Trees, after all, help retain both water and soil. The need to eke out a sustainable livelihood from fragmented land holdings has also prompted local farmers to give up the cultivation of traditional produce like soil-binding millets, for more lucrative, though water-intensive, crops like paddy. To compound the problem, politically powerful stone and timber lobbies have thought nothing ofhelping themselves to the timber and stone deposits of this area rich in forests and mineral deposits. Their activities have rendered it even more fragile than it already is. Natural disaster and human apathy truly make for a killing combination.