BINAYAK DATTA
The poignant visuals on the pages of a prominent daily published today—showing a lonely community dog sitting in mud-water, patiently waiting for the chaos of bulldozers, gas cutters, and ambulances to end in hopes of returning to his commu nity—amply describe the abso lute helplessness of our system. It is devastating to see over 955 fellow brethren dead and another 4,400 lost in the Hima layan wilderness in a matter of minutes, many of them Indian workmen and pilgrims, without even a warning signal. More so, you are actually seeing bank vaults full of cash washed away, a huge tree up rooted by a strange formation of a giant water-wall—a Hercules of sorts—thrown away as if by deep-seated wrath and so many trucks and motor cars being picked up wherever they were floating like toys by an unseen imprudent little child only to be scattered here and there for fun.
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Nature’s fury seen at the banks of the Bhote-Koshi near the Trishuli Bazaar in Nepal. It was not a tectonic earth quake the US Geological Survey finally told us, but tonnes and tonnes of glacial water and rocks hurtled down the slopes of Mt Langtang-Lirung hitting, block ing and exploding at the lake at the source of the Lhhende-Khola river, a tributary of the Bhote-Ko shi at 193km an hour causing seismic disturbances of 5.2 on the Richter Scale. In just 15 min utes the whole geography of the area changed into a massive pool of mud all around adding to the history, as the worst ever glacial disaster in the world.
The two previous ones in our country I can recollect were the 2021 Chamoli, Uttarakhand, and the 2023 South Lhonak, Sikkim ac cidents. But these were of much lesser magnitudes. My Take: The uncanny ques tion that comes to my mind is: “Do the Himalayas, the strong and silent ones eternally stand ing guard of our international borders desperately want to convey their serious concern to us for the umpteenth time?” I thought I’d share my views on this mega-disaster hitting humanity and lessons we can take once again on our ecosys tem purely viewed from the eyes of an ardent veteran Himalayan traveller, having travelled with eyes and ears open the length and breadth of the Indian Him alayas from Kashmir to Aruna chal. Genesis: To recapitulate, the Himalayas are not only impor tant to the people living in its hills but also to the 140 crores of Indians in the whole coun try—it happens to be the world’s greatest continental water-tow er, home to the 10 biggest rivers in this sub-continent. Second, it controls a significant part of the Asian Monsoon System. Thirdly, it is the world’s great cryospher ic laboratory outside the poles. The cryosphere stores water temporarily and releases it sea sonally. Fourth, it is a biodiver sity powerhouse along with the Hindukush in its family.
The In ternational Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICI MOD) estimates that 70–80% of the region’s original habitat has been lost since 1500, with seri ous consequences for endemic species and ecosystem services. Fifth, it is an early-warning sys tem for planetary change and therefore it is highly important for each member of the ICIMOD (viz., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan) to firmly restrict climate change from af fecting its ecosensitivity. Climate change will alter not only the quantity but also the timing, of the water-cycle in the sub-con tinent. Developments: Although we had development activities in the Himalayas in the past, in the last two decades came the in frastructure explosion! We are now four-laning our mountain highways, building huge wide tunnels, tall bridges, railways to Karnprayag, Sikkim and Miz oram, ropeways for pilgrimage airports and the Parvatmala pro ject and of course multiple hydel projects. In all this, we have also made sophisticated digital approval systems. The question in my view is about implementation and con trol. A project for example may pass its individual EIA while the river basin as a whole is be coming dangerously overloaded seemingly unnoticed.
Ten indi vidually “acceptable” projects can create an unacceptable cu mulative impact. Or, who, for example, is asking whether we need this investment in the Himalayas in the first place. A fleet of choppers for the Chaar Dham may be a convenience for the rich, but isn’t the trek itself a part of the teerth yatra? Are you not supposed to trek-and toil for the Attainment? Swit zerland has the world’s longest road tunnel but they chose to keep their trees and desist from widening roads albeit there are continuous snarls on weekends, but of course you can eat off the road surface, never a pot-holed wide road. Also what sort of soil tests are carried on if the tunnel menacingly caves in even before it’s complete? I asked a bus driv er driving us in Arunachal two years back why he wasn’t using the new 800-crore Sela Tunnel… pat comes the reply”… zaada toll aur time lagti sir!!.”…(takes more time and toll)… and truckers jam it up frequently at sunset time. Establish the need first! Are we doing that? And the workman ship and quality of the work? Add to all the projects of China and the other members of the ICIMOD. The Region: It’s not enough to see one nation in the region in isolation.
We do not live in an island. Have we evolved a struc ture for appraising each other’s projects in the ICIMOD nations? China’s investments can have a bearing on the downstream are as of Nepal for example! The Road Ahead: I would rec ommend the following: a) Stop project-by-project approval; go in for a roll-forward cumulative approval system for that particu lar risk-field, i.e., the river basin as a whole. b) Create a “Hima layan no-build zones” for unsta ble areas, c) Design-audit and transparency in dynamic climate corrections. c) A seismic glacial radar for the Himalayas at the ICIMOD in Kathmandu. d) Har monious early-warning-systems at the ICIMOD; e) No major tun nels without a mountain risk as sessment report. f) Forest cover make-good compensations must include losses in biodiversity. g): Mountain communities must re cord their comments in all meet ings in the approval processes.
At the end of the day, it’s they who are either the beneficiaries or the losers from the project! h) Form a separate Himalayan cryosphere and disaster author ity with the upper riparian na tions, viz. China, Nepal, Bhutan and India and lastly i): Establish the proof-of-need of the project transparently. And before I part: A hun dred and twenty-eight years ago, a wise sage had said, “These mountains are associated with the best memories of our race. Here therefore must be centres not merely of activities but more of calmness, of meditation, and of peace and I wish everyone here to realise this!” (Swami Vivekananda (replying to the ad dress from the people of Almora, Uttarakhand May 17, 1898). (The author is a retired Finance professional)
