Myopic planning

The contractors who lift sand and boulders from the riverbed appealed against the court ban and secured a partial stay on it. The stay order allowed lifting of sand and boulders from sites 100 metres from forest land. Local geologists are mystified over how thisparameter was arrived at and point out that a scientist, G.D. Bhatt, was deputed by the UP Directorate of Geology and Mining a year ago to survey the area. Bhatt’s report said lifting of sand and boulders should be prohibited in the Srinagar area.

The issue figured during talks between the District Magistrate and the local MP, Maj-Gen. B.C. Khanduri, who visited the area after the March 29 earthquake. The DM reportedly told Khanduri that he was helpless as, were he to forbid lifting of sand and boulders, he would become guilty of contempt of court in view of the stay order.

In neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, the practice is to have a geologist, known as a “mining officer”, accompany a prospecting contractor. The site for lifting of sand and boulders is selected on his advice.

The case of Srinagar underlines a recurring scenario in Garhwal. The loss of life and property due to earthquakes and landslides in these hills would not be as high as it is if experts’ guidelines on, for instance, house-buildingand site selection for houses were followed. However, this is possible only if the government, which is the implementing agency which brings the experts’ data to the people, takes its role seriously.

But geologists in Srinagar complain that their advice and expertise, available for the asking, is hardly sought. “The data has existed for years, but the administration is hardly aware. It takes little interest,” they say.

Kedar Kutir, the earthquake-resistant house designed by the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, was built two decades ago in wood, then modified into steel and tin, but there has been no consistent effort till today by the administration in the hills to increase its use.

CBRI experts were in Chamoli and Ukhimath after the March 29 earthquake to educate villagers on house building. The rudimentary theories were simple: light roofs supported by strong bases; walls of stones packed together by reinforcing bands at plinth, lintel and ceiling level; and reinforced corners. But,as scientist R.K. Garg pointed out, “What is needed is a policy of training in these construction techniques. Besides, the materials should be available at block level. The administration has to take these steps. Until then, houses here will continue to be built as they are in the plains.”

Geologists are willing to join hands with these designers and the administration to offer hazard zonation maps which would enable selection of relatively safer sites or low-hazard areas for house construction. Hazard zonation maps define safer areas by taking into account factors such as lithology (rock type), structure (e.g. existence of faults and thrusts), relief (height component), slope (angle), hydrology (surface drainage), and land use (barren or cultivated).

Srinagar geologist H.C. Nainwal completed an extensive survey based on these factors in the Ukhimath and Guptkashi area in 1997 but the data, which could have prevented last August’s loss of life in Ukhimath, might as well not be there for all the use theadministration has made of it.

“When half of a hillside fell into the river in Ukhimath last August, it must have been due to movement of rock masses underground. That entire area is very unstable and the villagers are right in asking to be moved to safer ground. The administration should act fast. Now, after the latest tremors, the situation is even more dangerous. The ground has been ruptured. When the rains come, water will flow into these cracks and the core water pressure will rise. In the plains the water table is very high, but it is not so here. When the water pressure increases, it will be released upwards. So there will be seismologically-induced landslides,” warns Nainwal.

Geologists also point out that there is a widespread misconception that deforestation alone causes landslides. “This is because botanists have had a monopoly in government institutions,” alleges geologist S.P. Sati. “In Ukhimath, the scarp is steep so the soil cover there is thin. The solution there would not beto grow more trees.”

Sati is particularly irate over the lack of government initiative. “On August 18, the day it rained the most in Ukhimath, the government rain gauge there was stuck at zero. The government does nothing, it has no policy, no awareness campaigns, no monitoring. We scientists have suggested to the authorities that they can rope in Inter colleges for these things. The colleges can collect data from simple instruments and sell it and get some income, too. The youth can be part of the awareness campaign, which is insurance for the future also. The colleges can also keep buffer stocks of relief materials.

“In deforested areas, we drew up a list of trees to grow, like utis (Alnus nepalensis) and rwins or salyx. These are fast-growing, have broad leaves, which generate humus, water-retention capacity and provide low-grade fodder. But the government prefers eucalyptus, from which oil is derived, and chir, which is used for pinewood and the paper industry,” he says.

Damage already donein building roads is about to be repeated in construction of dams. “The roads are not scientifically planned. They should be along contours but they just follow the rivers. It helps the contractors to build roads where the rock is hardest, then they can show a bigger budget. As for the dams, it so happens all our dams have been built on thrusts. The Tehri Dam will be on the North Almora Thrust and the Koteswar dam’s axis is close to the same thrust. Koteswar is small but Tehri will be big enough to cause reservoir-induced seismicity,” says Nainwal.