Uttarakhand catastrophe-whom to blame, nature or our reckless endeavors towards development?

Its a shame that we again get into this autopsy mode amidst the chaos in Uttarakhand. Official verdict says close to 500 people dead thus far in what our politicians proclaim to be ‘nature’s fury”; but the unofficial death toll could be well above 5000 with 70,000 odd people missing. Kedarnath was the worst hit area. Apparently, the major cause of the unprecedented devastation was the crumbling of the Kedar Dome (a glacier) This breaking of this enormous ‘glacier’ following the cloudburst and the eventual landslides caused a major rupture in the Charbari Lake that is situated just over 5 km from the holy temple of Kedarnath, situated at an altitude of 3600 meters. But that’s not the ONLY reason for a disaster of this magnitude. Humans have had their hand too in this tragedy.

So you must be wondering how humans inflicted this predicament upon ourselves. Natural calamities are common in Uttarakhand, which lies in the fragile mountain belt of the Himalayas and has experienced tectonic turmoil several times in the past. Widespread and unregulated expansion of giant hyder-electric projects in the this region, the incessant construction of roads to serve the ever increasing tourist population, and the adverse effect on the fragile ecosystem in the region due to growing human presence and pollution are the major causes for such catastrophes.Sudden increase in anthropogenic activities like unplanned cutting of slopes, blasting of highly jointed rock mass for road construction and unplanned disposal of the slope cut debris added to the fragility of the Himalayan mountains and made this region vulnerable to massive natural disasters.

Are there any lesson learnt from such disasters yet? No doubt development is imperative, more so in these neck of woods since 3 districts — Chamoli,Pithoragarh,  and Uttarkashi fall on the McMahon line, which demarcates India and China. But there needs to be a balance between development and causing irreparable damage to our ecosystem. emphasis on disaster management, afforestation and efficient disaster management bodies.