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Governance Modernisation has led to development, which has further given way to phenomenon that is beyond the control of man… Killer landslides along the highways and link roads are a common site in the hills.
The recent landslide at Nehru Kund on the Manali-Keylong-Leh highway near Manali on March 17, killed six persons, and injured over seven persons. In the incident, four tourists from Delhi were injured and property and 11 vehicles worth Rs. 30 lakh were destroyed. The landslide has once again exposed the fact that the travelling on the highways is not safe even though they were constructed decades a go. The government spends crores of rupees on the maintenance of the national highways or state highways every year. Even then they remain prone to landslides every year. The state highways and link roads are often blocked due to landslides and snowfall, posing hazards to the moving traffic and commuters every year during the rainy season. A senior scientist at the GP Pant Institute of Himalayan Development and Environment, Kullu, Dr J.C. Kuniyal said, “The blasting and unscientific construction activities make the fragile hill slopes shaky. The Himalayas have fragile sedimentary rocks, which can collapse any time due to unscientific methods of road construction. The various agencies, including PWD and others never involve scientists, while building roads and bridges in the eco-sensitive Himalayan region. We need an integrated approach, not the one-sided approach which is the norm today”. It could be catastrophic for those taking a dip at Nehu Kund as many tourists visiting Rohtang Pass and Solang ski resort and local residents stop here every day. But landslide occurred in the evening hours and it happened during an off-tourist season, said Ved Thakur, a local resident. GREF engineers, who maintain the highways said the rockslide site was not a glacier point or a avalanche-prone area. But the residents said the landslide had killed over seven persons near Nehru Kund on 27 July, 2003. Even avalanches had been triggered off on the spot in the past, they added. But the GREF officer commanding, BRO, Lt-Col Jaswant Sinha said, “The spot was not a known landslide-prone area. It appeared that the fissures or cracks, which were even now visible in the massive rocks, triggered the rockslide. The constant water discharge or seepage in the fissures could be the trigger factor. The highway is being widened and the landslide prone areas are being stabilised by raising retaining walls”. But Sinha claimed that rockslide spot had no recent history of landslide and avalanches as the glacier point lay slightly uphill from the site at MSP-505 point on the right face of the spur. The landslide or rockslides are not insolated incidents. On 15 June, 2006, the boulders fell on the moving bus on the Manikaran-Kullu road that killed 13 passengers on the spot. The rockslide killed six persons, when the boulders fell from the rocks on the moving bus on July 16, 2006 near Soja in Kullu district. The national highway-21 stretches between Pandoh, Hanogi Temple, and Aut and between Bilaspur and Swarghat are prone to hazards of falling boulders from the steep rocky mountain sides round the year. The cases of the Pathankot-Mandi and Kalka-Shimla-Kinnaur highways are no different at various places. “Little has been done to arrest this life hazards by the PWD so far”, rued commuters. HP PWD Engineering-in-chief Rajpal Singh said, “We repair the week road spots regularly in the state. We have asked the Police Department to give us reports and details of “accident-prone spots” on all highways to further identify the road points to make them safe for the people. The roads built under NABARD need prior approval from the scientific agency. We do consult scientists on major works on bridges”. Factors Responsible n
No integrated approach in construction activities Remedy n
Integrated approach
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Mining Ban
The ban imposed by the state high court on mining of gravel and sand from the rivers and rivulets in the state has adversely affected the construction activity making a large number of people jobless. There are a few, who are making fast buck, taking advantage of the scarcity of the building material.
The impact of this decision has been so great that a large number of construction activites has come to a virtual halt. While the private construction has been stalled, the development works by the government departments are still carrying on. Sanjay Kumar, who is building a house and is quite disturbed at the non -availability of gravel and sand says, “This ban has definitely affected the middle class the most, since it is become very difficult to get sand and gravel and construction activity can not be continued in this situation”. While the supply of sand and gravel has stopped due to this ban it is still available at a higher price in the market as illegal mining is still continuing. Government contractor Dhrub Pramar says “The ban has led to an increase in the prices of gravel and sand and a trolley which was available for Rs 400 is now being sold at Rs 700. In such a situation, only emergency construction can be carried out.” SE, PWD M.C Sood says, “Works have been affected as contractors are demanding higher rates due to escalation of prices of sand and gravel and the road tarring work is difficult to be carried due to the non-availability of gravel.” The illegal mining is also rampant on the riverbeds and Khads. The gravel and sand is extracted during the night these days. The environmentalists blame the government policy for the present bottleneck and say, “The government had to introduce the ban as they did not have a mining
policy and they
couldn’t stop unscientific mining. Still unscrupulous contractors are minting money through illegal mining.” The Mining Department has booked few contractors in this connection recently. The slow down of the construction activity has also left a large number of people jobless. A migrant labourer from Bihar, Ram Bhaj, says, “Many of them have gone back home as very less construction work is going on these days.” State geologist Arun Sharma said “the ban is only on government land and there is no ban on digging gravel and sand from private land; we are taking action against illegal mining; the government is filling a SLP in the high court and I hope that the ban will be soon lifted.”
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Now farmers can set up agro units
The opening up of the Van Vigyan Kendra (VVK), the first of its kind in the state, to train and sensitise local village communities will come in handy for villagers, NGOs and mahila mandals and those interested in setting up their own forest-based agro industries and herbal gardens for medicinal trade, which has a vast potential. But farmers say that the plants, which have been useful for fuel, fodder and conservation of water sources and medicinal cash crops be made available at all HFRI centres so that they can be taken for plantations in their areas and use them as source of income-generation in the near future. In fact, the Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI), Shimla, has set up this VVK at Sundernagar in Mandi district recently. HFRI scientists, Dr K.S. Kapoor, Dr R.K. Verma, Dr Vijender Panwar, Dr Vaneet Jishtu and forest officer K.D. Sharma gave training to 50 farmers, Mahila Mandals members and 50 frontline officials of the Suket Forest Division. The HFRI has rehabilitated the mined area of sand stones quarries in Sirmaur and the degraded forest area of Mandhala in Nalagarh. HFRI has set up models of eco-restoration of the degraded forests in state. The villagers are now being sensitised on how to reclaim the similar degraded pockets in lower districts of the state. The large tracts of land have been rendered barren and degraded because of construction of statewide network of 30,000 km road, mining and quarrying of khads and rivers and large-scale deforestation for timber for domestic and commercial needs and expansion of population in the state over the years. The members of the mahila mandals said that they needed plant species that gave them fuel wood, fodder and help conserve water sources. They faced acute shortage of these in most villages, as the Forest Department did not allow them to get them from the forests, they added. The villagers demand that HFRI should give plants to the farmers at its Sunder centre as and when they come for sensitisation workshops. The HFRI runs its plant nursery centres at Jagatsukh in Kullu, Tabo in Spiti, Badagaon and Shilaru in Shimla, Shili in Solan and Jarhon in Poanta Sahib. The farmers can get the plant species from there, said Dr Jishtu, field botanist at HFRI. Kapoor, coordinator of the training programme said, “These research models have been successfully implemented at Sirmaur and Mandhala, where over 400 farmers have benefited. The farmers are harvesting fuel and fodder from the reclaimed forest area. It has conserved water sources, checked soil erosion in the area and greenery has been restored”, he added. Jishtu said the species suitable for the reclamation of the degraded site include babul, bel, siris, jarul, kaner, robinia, ailanthus, gulmohar, shisham, safeda, kachnar, bhiul, morpankhi and others. These species will be available at centres and as and when the workshops were organised. Verma, associated with Mandhala project, said rehabilitation of the villagers was the prime concern and it should be done right at the start. “The Pong Dam oustees have not been rehabilitated so far. The forestry without villagers’ participation is not possible, he asserted. Panwar, who delivered the lecture on various HFRI’s activities said the institute would conduct such training programme to the frontline staff, NGOs, mahila mandals and school children from time to time to encourage them to take eco-restoration work in their areas. HFRI director Mohinder Pal, who inaugurated Van Vigyan Kendra, said the Kendra was an effort to bring the fruits of research at the doorsteps of the farmers. The scientists now interacted directly with the stakeholders, including farmers, NGOs and forest front staff, so that gap between the laboratory and land was bridged. The farmers would have direct access to the research data, and other information on soil, agro climate and plantations, he added. The farmers can learn how to cultivate forestry species such as medicinal plants and oil-yielding species. “Kendra will organise regular training and exposure visit for school children, farmers and field staff of the Forest Department from time to time”. He said the farmers can access any information on plant species, soil types, climate zones and other information on agro forestry. The farmers would get online facility at the kendra and would be involved in the video conferencing facility. The farmers could set their own agro-forest-based industries for which there was a vast scope, he added.
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Vignettes
It is not the very first account of honey that we hear from our ancient legends. K. T. Achaya tells us about the Bhimbetka paintings in the caves near Bhopal, from about 6000 B.C., in which man is shown despoiling bee-hives built on rocks. K. N. Dave in Indian Bee Journal speaks of three types of honey ‘maksika’ made by maksika honeybee, apis cerana indica; ‘bhramara’ came from large black rock bee, apis dorsata; and ‘ksaudra’ from the dwarf bee, apis florae. Both Charak and Shushrut have added other five ‘pauttica, chatra, arghya, auddhalika and dala’ to the list. Honey has always enjoyed enormous esteem in Hindu dharma. It is a component of that elixir of life, panchamrit, which one gets after a pooja ceremony and of the ritual concoction of madhuparka kalash (a round brass pot containing honey, curd, milk, ghee and water from the sacred Ganges) that a bridegroom during marriage ceremony holds and recites, “May the breeze be as sweet as honey; may the nights and the mornings be honey-sweet (pleasant) for us; and may the heavens be honey-sweet for us!” Honey remained the sweetening agent for the elite till 500 B.C. when availability of sugarcane products replaced it as the sweetener. The first account of honey in these hills by a British came to notice from the diary of Frances (Fanny) Eden, sister of George Eden, the 1st Earl of Auckland and Governor-General from 1836 to 1842. Travelling from Kolkata to Shimla in 1837-38, Fanny wrote in her diary, “Last night just as I was going to bed, they came and told me that a Rajah has brought me a spotted deer, peacocks and two pots of honey… I was not to refuse them…”. It could be the prince of Sirmaur but the town of Shimla used to get honey from Kinnaur, Tibet and Yarkand on its northern side as the District Gazetteer of Simla, 1888-89 speaks of ‘a brisk export trade exists in opium, charas (an intoxicating preparation of hemp), fruits, nuts, honey and shawl wool collected from the neighbouring hills and brought in from beyond the border via Rampur.’ The first apiary in Shimla was, however, established by Sir Louis Dane, the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab at the estate of Barnes Court in 1908. He was a lover of flowers and honey and so set up a number of hives. The bees dodged him and preferred syrupy dishes of halwais at nearby Chotta Shimla bazaar to the flowers in the estate’s garden. Pestered by the bees, the sweetmeat sellers refused to pay taxes and started making a noise. The situation turned bad and it dawned upon Sir Dane that the flavour of his honey would never carry the tang of flowers. So, the first ever apiary of Shimla had to be finally closed. The honeybees flying towards sugar then was an accident but now in the lean season, the hungry bees are normally fed sugar by beekeepers, resulting in production of poor quality honey. Is it honey at all? To motivate beekeepers to produce sugar-free herbal honey, the government has introduced a new eco-friendly beekeeping system in Himachal Pradesh. The bees will be fed on the stevia herbal plant leaves, natural sweetener that attracts bees, and are available both during the dry winter and rainy season when the bees are unable to fly out in search of food. Beekeeping, in this state, has a predominant role to play in pollination besides honey and wax production. It produces 2,200 tones of honey annually. The credits for the state, in the field of honey, are brought by a renowned entomologist, Dr. A. S. Atwal, who reared Italian honeybees for the first time in India at Nagrota Bagwan and Jagjit Singh Kapoor, a Doraha businessman, who has opened the first ever honey-hut on the Mall in Shimla in December 2007. It sells honey plus honey tea, honey coffee, chocolates, cakes and honey-flavoured popcorns.
Tailpiece
What does a honeybee say when it returns home after a tiring day? “Honey, I am back home.”
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18 years on, bus stand lies incomplete
Water logging at the local bus stand during rains has become a matter of concern. Despite the fact that over Rs 2 crore was spent on the construction of a new bus stand two years ago, the situation has not improved. It becomes quite difficult for passengers to approach the ticket counters because of waterlogging in and around the area, especially during the rainy season. Senior HRTC officers are aware of the situation but no efforts have been made in the past two years to solve the problem.
Thousands of passengers board buses from here daily. The construction of the bus stand was taken up in 1991, when Shanta Kumar was the Chief Minister. In the past 18 years, no serious effort was made to complete the construction as per the original plan. The government acquired 75 kanals of land in the heart of the town. According to the original blueprint, there was a plan to construct booking offices, clock room, guesthouse, a complex to house HRTC offices, banks along with a greenbelt around the bus stand. Besides, there was also a proposal to set up a shopping complex under the self-financing scheme. The HRTC had declared that the bus stand would be modern and the biggest one in the state. However, even after 18 years, it is still incomplete. Only one portion of the bus stand was completed, with and the remaining work left half way. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who recently visited the town, announced that steps were being initiated to improve the bus stand complex. He announced that there was no shortage of funds for the project. Dhumal expressed concern as to why the Congress government had deviated from the original plan and constructed the existing buildings in gross violation of the rules. He said he had already received complaints about the bus stand complex and the government would look into these.
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Admn accused of favouring cement mafia
The Sundernagar Sangarsh Samiti accused the administration that it was favouring the cement mafia and ignoring the wishes of public and all this is being done in order to please some of the political persons. According to Amar Singh Raghwa, president Sundernagar Sangrash Samiti, more than 90 per cent of the population around Sundernagar was in favour of shifting the cement plant and more than 70 per cent land owners were not willing to give land to the cement factory. But still the administration was favouring the repetitive of cement lobby. The Sundernagr Sangarsh Samiti today handed over a memorandum to the SDM Sundernagar and stated that the Sangarsh Samiti was running its agitation peacefully to shift the site of the plant but the administration was ignoring wishes of the public. It further criticised that the administration has falsely implicated Ravinder Ravi, general secretary of the Youth Empowerment and Social Welfare Society, in a false case. His organisation had launched a poster drive against installation of the cement plant, but the cement lobby did not like it and he was implicated in a case for defacing the public property. It was further told that such type of case was lodged for the first time in Mandi district. The samiti further criticised the administration that it had convened a meeting of representatives of the panchayat without any agenda and without taking it in confidence in order to oblige the cement lobby. The samiti demanded that name of landowners be made public as the public was facing problem as to whether their land was being acquired or not. A large number of farmers today tendered objections against setting up of the cement plant, many organisations had also lodged protest against the present site of the cement plant.
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Plan to tame monkeys may go kaput
Indeed four troops comprising 112 monkeys released in the newly set up primate protection park at Tara Devi have been no match the firmly entrenched resident troop in the forest. The challenge posed by the 40-odd wild monkeys, which assiduously protect their territory is proving too much for the new inmates, who have been living on the streets of Shimla for generations. In just three weeks, more than half of them have fled to nearby villages on the Shogi side adding to the woes of the local farmers. Vice-president of the Shimla Zila Parishad Satya Dev Sharma maintained that the park has been set up without taking the villagers into confidence and that it should be shifted to a forest, where there were no human habitation around. The monkeys released in the park were making frequent forays into six villages in its vicinity, damaging crops and creating nuisance. While admitting that some of the monkeys released by the department had moved out of the park and entered into the neighbouring villages, additional principal chief conservator of forest (wild life) Vinay Tandon asserts that there was no cause for alarm. It would take a few months for the new troops to settle down in the park and establish their own territories. Troops without a strong leader usually prefer to leave the forest area, rather than engage in constant battle to guard its own territory with stronger rival troops. Moreover, the new inmates are used to roadside feeding by the people and not accustomed to living in forests. They are more familiar with human settlements and running to villages is their instinctive behaviour. The monkeys, who have wandered into the neighbouring villages would be recaptured and released in the heart of the park. However, this time, they would be fed in cages for a longer period so that they get used to the new environment and also to the set feeding timings so that they do not move around in search of food, Tandon explains. An encouraging feature is that one of the troops has been able to establish itself in the park at some distance from the temple area, which is controlled by the original troop. The simians would be fed troop-wise for which feeding stations were being set up at different corners of the park so that they could establish their territories. The department also plans to engage researchers to study the behaviour of each troop so that useful data could be generated for effectively addressing the problem of monkey nuisance in the state. The villagers have been provided with sticks and “gulels” to scare away the invading monkeys. The department has on their request decided to sterilise the monkeys of the original troop. Even before the setting up of the park, they were damaging crops and creating nuisance in villages. If the teething troubles are overcome and the pilot scheme is a success, the park spread over 232 hectare of forests will serve as a natural habitat for the urban simians to be released after sterilisation. It will have room for about 800 monkeys. A similar park is proposed to be setup in Hamirpur district. So far, 2,009 monkeys have been sterilised at the Tuti Kandi centre. As per the census conducted by the department four years ago, the total number of monkeys in the state is 3,19,188, of which, 65,000 are located in the urban areas and vicinity of temples, which are creating a nuisance. In Shimla, Rampur and along the Shimla –Parwanu highway there are 5,000 monkeys, which are to be sterilised in a phased manner.
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STEP OUT Yana Banerjee-Bey THE end of winter and the short Indian spring is the best time for rock climbing. The daytime temperature outdoors is pleasant; it’s not too cold or windy, and you can enjoy climbing with the sun on your back as you swarm up an easy rock face or muster strength and technique to surmount a difficult one. In the middle of a day of rock climbing, you can take a break and unpack your lunch. After picnicking on a boulder, you can rest a while and even snooze on a mat before resuming climbing. Or, the latter half of the day can be given over to rappelling (lowering yourself down a rock face quickly via a rope) which is less strenuous and more fun for beginners and the less accomplished climbers. Most people get introduced to rock climbing either by enrolling for a course organised by an adventure club or through friends who are already skilled climbers. The mountaineering institutes in Manali, Uttar Kashi and Darjeeling also teach rock climbing. You need no special gear: They will provide all the hardware (metal equipment that is used to provide safety while climbing), harnesses and ropes. You should wear stretch track pants that allow you to bend, crouch and stretch freely. It is not a good idea to wear shorts as a beginner because you can scrape your knees against the rock. Your T-shirt can be short-sleeved though a long-sleeved one will protect your elbows. Sun protection through clothes, creams, hats and dark glasses is vital. However, don’t be rigid about this. As a beginner, you might find the going easier when you are learning technique on a rock face if you take off your sunhat and dark glasses. If this is so, take them off by all means. Falls in rock climbing, when you are learning, are not that frequent. The big falls will occur at a later stage, if and when you decide to take up the sport in a big way and become an accomplished rock climber. In both rock climbing and sport climbing if you are not falling frequently then your strength and technique are not increasing because you are not pushing the frontier of your endurance. Of all the popular adventure sports, rock climbing is the one that requires the most dedication and perseverance. You must develop a passion for rock climbing over time otherwise its unique element – the pitting of oneself against oneself, with all one’s strengths and weaknesses, physical as well as mental – will remain obscure to you. But, once you taste it, you will be hooked for life. (This column appears fortnightly) The writer has authored India’s first handbook of adventure sports and is available at y.bey@excite.com
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Shimla diary The three-day theatre festival here not only gave an opportunity to budding artistes to perform, but it was a treat for those who crave for good presentations, as they have become a rarity these days. In the absence of an auditorium in the town, the festival was held at Portmore School. Credit goes to the Shimla Federation for Theatre for bringing all artistes and organisations together. The Department of Language, Art and Culture also extended support for the holding of the festival in which troupes from all over the state participated. The endeavour is to provide a platform to the artistes to showcase their talent and create a congenial atmosphere for performing arts by making a concerted effort. The artistes also want that the government should take some concrete steps to promote various performing arts, especially folk dance and music, which is dying in the absence of support. They want that the government should at least construct an auditorium, where theatre activities can take place. “The charges at Gaiety Theatre are unaffordable for small organisations and it is only by having a government auditorium or theatre that the performing arts will get a big boost,” said one of the artiste. Now residents nabbing cable thieves
With even the police failing to check theft of cables, the Telecommunication Department has heaved a sigh of relief as the people have now decided to tackle such anti-social elements on their own, in public interest. One such incident happened near Bedmandhar village, when the locals came out in large numbers to nab the cable thieves. It was after midnight that the cable theft alarm in the Durgapur exchange rang. The phone mechanic, Narayan Dass, immediately rushed to the spot and found that 300 m of the cable had been stolen. He raised an alarm and called the police as well as the villagers, who managed to nab three thieves from the nearby forest, where they were trying to burn the cables. While one thief managed to run away, the other three were arrested with the help of villagers. Even in the past, cable thieves have been caught in Baldian and Durgapur area because of the alertness of Narayan Dass. The telecommunication authorities have urged to people to come forward to save public property because it ultimately affects services.
Bharat Excellence Award for officer
State services officer, D.K. Gupta, has been chosen for the Bharat Excellence Award-2008 by a renowned social and voluntary organisation, the Friendship Forum of India (FFI). Gupta, who has held various positions in the administration is a well known literary critic. He is the founder member of the HP Creative Writers Forum and is currently its president too. These awards are given to persons, who have made a mark in the field of science, education, literature, fine arts, social works and industry. The presentation function will be held at New Delhi on April 25 at the India International
Centre.
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CITIZEN FIRST Kotgarh Civil hospital caters to the panchayats of Kotgarh, Mehlan, Jarol, Khaneti, Mangsu and Madhawani. Around 7,000 population is being treated by only one MBBS doctor in the region. He handles all the maternity cases. The paramedical front is also understaffed and one more doctor is urgently required to relieve the workload of the doctor. Dheeraj Bhaik, Shimla Water crisis
As Shimla is reeling under water crisis, adjacent hamlets too don’t showcase a rosy picture. There is hue and cry for potable water in Pahal village of Sunni tehsil. Protracted lift water schemes are still hanging fire following apathy of the IPH Department. In the wake of non-availability of water, villagers have to trudge a long distance to fetch water from a nearby pond. The department concerned should look into the problem at the earliest. Dr Himender Bali Him, Shimla
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‘State Tax be such which should not prove to be a burden on the subject; the King should behave like those bees which collect honey without causing harm to the flowers’, says Sage Vyas in Mahabaharat (see sketch).
The Forest Department’s pilot scheme to combat monkey menace by setting up primate protection parks has run into rough weather with the highly urbanised simians losing out to their counterparts in the wild in troop warfare.