Pune landslide, Uttarakhand’s cloudbrust: Natural disaster or man-made tragedy?
Uttarakhand
faced
nature's
fury
in
2013
In
June,
2013
nature
had
unleashed
its
wrath
in
Kedarnath,
Haridwar
and
some
of
the
other
districts
of
Uttarakhand
killing
around
10,
000
people.
Within
no
moment,
the
land
of
God
(Kedarnath)
had
turned
into
the
town
of
ghost.
More
than
1000
roads,
90
bridges
were
washed
away
in
the
monsoon
mayhem
in
Dev
Bhoomi.
Even,
the
holy
shrine
of
Kedarnath
barely
survived,
it
was
buried
deep
in
mud.
But
question
is
who
is
responsible
for
such
catastrophe,
which
almost
comes
every
year
and
take
thousands
of
people
in
their
grip.
Unplanned
development
and
rampant
destruction
of
forests
Though
it
is
called
natural
disaster
but
truth
is
that
the
colossal
greed
of
politicians
and
bureaucrats
are
somewhere
responsible
for
such
disaster.
According
to
the
experts,
unplanned
development
and
rampant
destruction
of
forests
is
the
some
of
the
main
reasons
behind
the
nature's
fury.
Then,
unabated
construction
of
hydro-electric
(hydel)
power
projects,
roads,
hotels
have
also
compounded
the
problem
and
made
these
States
prone
to
such
disaster.
"When
you
change
the
course
of
a
river
by
mining,
cutting
of
trees
indiscriminately
and
building
roads
in
a
haphazard
manner,
such
a
calamity
is
bound
to
take
place,"
said
PP
Dayani,
director
of
the
GB
Pant
Institute
of
Himalayan
Environment
and
Development.
The
nature
has
their
own
capacity
to
recover
and
rejuvenate,
and
humans
should
not
challenge
it.
And
if
that
is
being
done
then
destruction
of
human
lives
is
sure.
Why
Uttarakhand
prone
for
such
disasters?
Report
says,
that
there
is
no
polices,
guidelines,
rules
and
regulations
in
place
to
deal
with
such
a
catastrophe
in
the
State.
State
Disaster
Management
System
which
was
formed
in
2007
have
not
met
even
once
since
then.
It
is
really
surprising
and
agonising
that
a
State
like
Uttarakhand,
which
had
witnessed
two
earthquakes
in
1996
in
Uttarkashi
and
1998
in
Chamoli
respectively,
has
no
such
system
in
place
to
prevent
such
a
calamity.
Unauthorised
construction
of
hydel
projects,
unscientifically
built
dams
and
roads
has
really
worsened
the
situation
in
the
State.
Accountability
must
be
fixed
It's
high
time
Modi
Government
should
take
the
cognisance
of
the
issue
and
establish
proper
system
for
dealing
with
such
disasters.
Accountablity
must
be
fixed
and
if
someone
shirks
away
from
that
they
must
face
the
music.
Government
should
send
out
message
loud
and
clear
that
one
can't
play
with
the
lives
of
common
men
under
the
name
of
the
development.