Dehradun, June 24
The magnitude of death and destruction caused by massive landslides in the mid-Himalayan region of Uttarakhand during the past decade points to the alarming rise in human interference in a fragile mountain eco-system that happens to fall in a seismically active zone.

The release of national guidelines for the management of landslides and avalanches by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, which was prepared by the National Disaster Management Authority on June 23, has again highlighted the recurring problems of landslides in the entire Himalayan region of the country.

Malpa, Ukkhimath, Uttarkashi and the recent Tawaghat landslides in Pitthoragarh in Uttarakhand are a grim reminder of the increasing pressure of developmental needs of the people and the fragility of the Himalayan mountains.

To compound the problem, there is a marked lack of proper scientific studies on the phenomenon of landslides which, in geological terms, can be described as the outward and downward movement of earth material under the influence of gravity.

A common phenomenon in mountainous regions, landslides are particularly frequent in active belts like Himalayas which are the youngest, tallest and most fragile mountains in the world.

Geologists say that seismic movements are constantly taking place in the Himalayas. On an average, nearly 200 earthquakes of smaller magnitudes occur every year in the Uttaranchal region alone. Most of these are undetected by local communities.

The seismic activities lead to landslides. Thousands of landslides of medium to large dimensions have been occurring in the Himalayas every year. But they become noticeable only when accompanied by death of human beings and destruction of property.

A major part of the Himalayas, particularly in Uttarakhand, usually receive heavy monsoon showers and also some rain in the winter months. The uncontrolled, downhill flow of water after heavy rains, particularly along barren slopes, remain one of the major causative factor of landslides.

Apart from geological factors, changes in the land-use pattern in the mountains has also led to the increase in the frequency and magnitude of landslides.

The most obvious of these changes has been the rapid destruction of forests which has left large tracts in the entire Himalayas region with denuded slopes.

The destruction of forests and the vegetative cover that binds the top soil has been going on at an ever-increasing pace because of various developmental activities in the region, including the expansion of the road network, construction of a large number of hydro-electric projects, underground tunnels, the establishment of new townships and the expansion of the existing ones and the conversion of forest land into agricultural and horticulture holdings.

The Himalayas are a notoriously poverty stricken region. In a desperate bid to get better returns from land, local communities have taken recourse to creating more and more terraced agriculture fields in a bid to grow cash crops like paddy - a switchover that has made the area more ecologically fragile.

Scientists feel that changes in the cropping pattern has also increased the seepage of water into the rocky surface of the mountains. This could, in the long run, break up the inter-locking eco-systems which binds the mountains.

The use of explosives to blast surfaces of the mountains while making roads has wrought its own brand of havoc. A study conducted in 1984 on the relationship between the building of the Mussoorie-Tehri road and the landslides occurring the region, revealed that landslides caused more devastation in deforested rather than forested areas.

The study found that 148 landslides took place on slopes where the tree cover was less than 40 per cent and 118 took place where the tree cover was more than 60 per cent. It was found that the landslide debris in the afforested area was only 12 cubic metres as compared to 26 cubic metres of debris in deforested areas.

Similarly, 30,000 to 40,000 cubic meters of soil is excavated in carving out 1 km of road in the Himalayas - a figure that eloquently reveals that extent of damage that even relatively ‘harmless’ activity like road construction does to the local ecology.

To make matters worse, most roads are built without proper surveys. These invariably cause new landslides or reactivate old ones.

Sadly, no holistic approach is being evolved for developmental process in the hills to measure the geological fallout of the developmental and construction activities despite the fact that each hill district has a government geologist to advise the administration.

Unbridled urbanisation has also done its bit in making the region more unstable. Changes in the architecture of the houses in the hills - the increasing use of brick and concrete instead of the traditional mud and wood - has resulted in higher casualty figures when disasters strike.

The country needs a separate institution dealing with mountain hazards in general and landslides in particular. Despite hue and cry raised by the scientific community, the proposed centre for landslides study and control is yet to come up.

The National Disaster Management Authority has claimed that the Ministry of Mines will set up a Centre for Landslides Research, Studies and Management in a landslide-prone state to deal with the problem in a comprehensive manner.

In neighbouring China, which has more than 60 per cent of its land mass under mountains, excellent work has been done in studying and taking remedial steps to prevent landslides and rehabilitate victims.

The Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment at Chengdu, China, set up as early as 1965, has done tremendous work in identifying landslides-prone areas and taking measures to check and prevent further landslides.

A proper geological and geo-technical survey is vital before launching any developmental project in the hills, including the preparation of landslide-hazard zonation maps, so that prior knowledge about the status of the area to be undertaken for development is available.

True, landslides can also occur anywhere at any time, but unlike earthquakes, their occurrence can be predicted and planned for.

The tragedy is that despite a wealth of data and numerous experts in the field, there is very little planning going on.

The tragedy is that it is the construction lobbyists and the mafias dealing in Himalayan timber and stone, working in league with politicians and administrators, who finally get to set the agenda for the development of the region.

The forgotten people of the Himalayas continue to die as their land slips from under them and their houses collapse over them. There has been an urgent need to change this all.

Dehradun, June 24
The Uttarakhand Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre (DMMC) has dispatched search and rescue equipment costing around Rs 1.1 crore to all 13 districts in its disaster preparedness effort ahead of monsoon.

These equipment come as part of the UNDP Project and includes high-cost cutters and spreaders.

Facing shortage of manpower, the DMMC ambitious plan to come with a Centre of Excellence to deal with natural disaster have failed to take off. “The centre would have been of great help to Uttarakhand and other Himalayan states,” said Piyush Rautela, Executive Director, DMMC, who added that adequate manpower was needed for the purpose.

“We have also suggested the constitution of a consortium of Himalayan states,” he added.

The DMMC has trained as many as 800 personnel and holds a regular 20-day training programme at the National Institute of Mountaineering, SSB Gwaldam, and Himalayan Adventure Institute, Kempty.

Nainital, June 24
Forest Department officials and rangers of Jim Corbett National Park have arrested three persons on charges of setting fire in the forest for scaring away the bees from the hives to collect honey.

"Our staff members saw smoke coming out of the forest. When they went out to check they saw two persons sitting under a tree and another one on the tree, who was extracting honey from the beehive. They then held those persons," said DS Rawat, superintendent, Corbett National Park, Ramnagar, Uttarakhand.

Admitting their guilt, one of the arrested persons said that the smoke emitted by the fire would keep the bees at bay and let them collect honey from the hives.

"We take some green leaves and then light them, after which smoke comes out, which chases the bees away and we take out the honey," said Lalan, one of the arrested persons.

Officials also recovered three kilograms of fresh honey from the nabbed persons. In the recent past, there had been several instances of fire raging in the forestlands posing a grave threat to the flora and fauna of the Jim Corbett National Park. —ANI