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CM announces setting up of State Disaster Relief Force
Rudraprayag residents lodge police complaints against ‘missing’ ministers
Life after relief camps worries homeless villagers
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Seismic tremors may hit old landslide areas: Study
Heavy rains in June hit fruit, vegetable growers
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CM announces setting up of State Disaster Relief Force
“The state lies in the seismic zone which is prone to earthquakes and other disasters and a force equipped to handle disasters is the need of the hour. The four companies of the SDRF would play the role of the first responder in the event of any disaster. A part of the strong force would comprise men sent on deputation from the PAC and the civil force and the remaining posts would be filled by new recruitments,” said Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna while speaking to mediapersons today. He said the decision was taken at the meeting of the Advisory Council of the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) which also approved the plan to establish the headquarters of the SDRF in Dehradun. The Chief Minister said that efforts were on to set the Badrinath, Gangotri, Hemkund Sahib and Yamnotri route by September 30. “A message has gone around after the disaster that Uttarakhand is not safe. But there are other hill stations that could be explored, those that have not been touched by the floods,” he said. The Chief Minister also said the government was working towards handing over the Char Dham area that falls under the revenue police to the civil police. “The revenue police lacks the capacity to respond in emergency situations. A proposal to hand over some areas to the civil police is being worked out and it would be first brought before the Cabinet,” said the Chief Minsiter. The Chief Minister further said the Union Cabinet Minister of Water Resource Harish Rawat had been tasked to approach the Central Government for providing a Rs 500-crore package for establishing flood control measures in the state. On the issue of rehabilitating the 233 villages that have labeled as unsafe, the Chief Minister said, “We will hold a discussion with the Central Government on settling the people of these villages in degraded forest land, as most of the people living in high altitudes prefer relocation in areas nearby,” said the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister said the Cabinet had already taken a decision not to allow the construction of buildings on the river beds. “Wherever there has been perception of danger, the people who have already settled have been moved. He said by July 12, the total losses that have occurred in these floods would be tabulated and sent to the Central Government.
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Rudraprayag residents lodge police complaints against ‘missing’ ministers
Pauri Garhwal, July 9 As the Kedar valley has been the worst affected by heavy rains and flash floods, local residents led by former BJP legislator Asha Nautiyal are filing complaints at police stations for searching Cabinet ministers, who have gone ‘missing’. The people, who are quite vocal against the Cabinet ministers’ false claims that they have visited the affected areas, are supporting Asha Nautiyal and also lodging similar complaints with the police. One such complaint says that being public representatives it is the duty of Cabinet ministers like Yashpal Arya, Surendra Singh Negi, Mantri Prasad Naithani, Amrita Rawat, Indira Hriyadesh and Surendra Rakesh to visit these areas and provide relief aid. But barring helicopter sorties and visits to accessible areas where media coverage is available, these ministers have not visited far flung and remote villages. “When people of the Kedar valley are in such a crisis these ministers have gone missing. There is no disaster management, no water food supply, no transport facility and no proper distribution of ration. When it comes to elections or meetings in the Secretariat these ministers make tall claims but now they have disappeared. We are searching for them but they are visible only on television news channels and in newspapers,” said a furious Asha
Nautiyal. Police officials confirmed that they have received similar complaints from a large number of local people. SK Jatav, police post in-charge, said they had forwarded the complaints to the higher authorities as the matter was related with high profile ministers and public emotions. “We will surely teach them a lesson in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014,” said Devi Prasad Semwal and Ashutosh Kimothi, two youth volunteers who filed complaints with the police and pasted their copies on city walls.
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Life after relief camps worries homeless villagers
Pithoragarh July 9 They have also lost their land they used to cultivate to grow cereals and cash crops to the swollen Gori river. “We are worried as the government has announced to open schools from July 11 and we are living in a Government Inter College with our families after the Gori river washed away our houses on June 18,” said Lalit Singh Rokaya, who along with families of 50 other villagers of the Darma valley, is living in the college for the last 18
days. Saraswati Devi, another Darma villager living in a camp at Government Inter College, Dharchula, said they were getting sufficient food and clothes at relief camps but where would they go after these camps were winded up as the Gori river had washed away their houses and all belongings. “Until we are given land to cultivate crops and houses to live in permanently, we cannot leave these camps,” said Saraswati. Some of the affected people living with their relatives are also worried about the impending struggle to rebuild their future. These families are being supported by people who are themselves poor and have BPL ration cards, which fetch 35 kg of cheap ration every month. “Our relatives are helpless as we have overstayed with them. They are not well off enough to provide space and food to us for a long time,” said Rudra Singh, a resident of Suva village who is living with his nephew at Jauljibi. The administration is calling villagers of the Baram valley from a distance of 10 to 25 km to receive relief at Madkot. “We reached Madkot after travelling 25 km from Jhapuli village, near the Tomik glacier area, to get relief. We were stranded while returning from Madkot as the route was blocked due to a massive landslide,” said Sher Singh, a resident of Golpha village. Most of the villagers living in camps near Baluakot are businessmen who had shops near the Gori but lost them in the flash floods. They have been rendered helpless. They are now worried how will they start their businesses again. “After losing our big house situated near the Gori at Madkot in the flash floods my family is living in quarters of a private company. The government has given me Rs 1 lakh only as compensation. How will I rebuild a house,” said Pradeep Rawat, a businessman living in a relief camp in the Madkot area. Several other villagers like Rudra Singh Mahra, Sher Singh and Rukmani Devi of Kultham, Ramu Ram and Chandra Singh of Sabila village and Chandra Singh of Jaloth village in the Drama valley have been rendered homeless
and landless. They lost their land on which they used to grow potato and rajma (local varieties of bean). “The Gori river has also washed away hill slopes the villagers used to grow Himalayan herbs that are used as local medicines to earn a living,” said Mohan Singh Kutal, a resident of Golpha village in the
Madlot valley.
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Seismic tremors may hit old landslide areas: Study
Dehradun, July 9 A recent study of September 2012 cloudburst-triggered Okhimath landslides in Rudraprayag by Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre
(DMMC) had pointed that the earlier generations never settled on old landslides as they knew that howsoever stabilised the old slide material may be, it is likely to be reactivated by excessive precipitation and other factors like seismic shaking and, thus, only used these old landslide areas for agriculture. However, with the passage of time these traditional practices of landslide management were forgotten and more and more people started to settle in areas vulnerable to landslides. Review of the habitation pattern of the hills brings forth the fact that despite practising agriculture over stabilised old landslides, the inhabitants deliberately settled down over stable rocks at locations that were in the middle and upper hill slopes. This clearly implied that they had to negotiate long distances daily for both mending fields and fetching water. They, thus, preferred safety over comfort and this is the simple underlying fact that saved them from the fury of both landslides and
flash floods. DMMC points out that today unplanned construction of roads on the vulnerable slopes in the recent times and unscientific disposal of the excavated debris have induced instability in the hill slopes, and many areas in the proximity of the roads have became chronically prone to landslides. It stressed that deterioration of hill agriculture and concentration of economic opportunities and other facilities in close proximity of the roads encouraged people to settle down by the roadside. The study called for scientific treatment of landslides at the very initial stages so that the problem does not become chronic. DMMC study also calls for looking into the possibility to develop a predictive model for landslides with a close network of automatic rain gauges in the region and data being collected on various rock parametres and slope characteristics. A clear-cut policy for the disposal of excavated material is immediately required for the hills, said the study, asserting that the cost of planned disposal of the excavated material must be part of the routine budget of the developmental initiative. The catchment area of Mandakini river, that has its confluence with Alaknanda at
Rudraprayag, on Sept 13 and 14, 2012, induced landslides and debris flows around many villages. These inflicted heavy loss of human lives, property and infrastructure in
Jua, Kimara, Bamankholi, Premnagar, Dangwari, Mangoli, Chunni, Salami and Giriagaon villages of Okhimath tehsil of Rudraprayag district. It was followed by landslides in Kirora Malla and Timli villages in Jakholi tehsil in the morning hours of Sept 16, 2012. As many as 69 human lives were lost in these
incidents.
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Heavy rains in June hit fruit, vegetable growers
Dehradun, July 9 While apple farmers face the prospect of apples rotting in fields, vegetable growers and other farmers, too, face a bleak prospect. According to an estimate by the Department of Agriculture, 1,600 hectares of agriculture land has been either flooded or washed away in the rains and another 13,000 hectare of fertile land has been completely covered by debris and silt deposited by the surging rivers in the districts of Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh. “We are collating all reports from the districts. However, the loss to property, land and crops (horticulture and agriculture) in the affected districts may be more than Rs 150 crore. The estimated loss may climb upwards in the range of Rs 1.000 crore- Rs1.500 crore if now the standing crop of apple and later, the potato crop do not reach the market due to the lack of connectivity," said Dr BS Negi, Mission Director, Horticulture. Last year, the apple production was around 1.25 lakh MT and it was expected to go much higher this year. Along with apples that are grown in Chamoli, Uttarkashi and in the Ukhimath and Guptkashi areas of Rudraprayag, the potato crop that is ready to harvest, too, may face difficulty in reaching the market in the absence of road
connectivity. In Haridwar alone, around 11, 000-12,000 hectares of farm land under vegetable cultivation was inundated with floodwater. Similarly, the ginger and turmeric plants grown in Pithoragarh, Chamoli and Uttarkashi, too, remained under water for several days. “The moist condition gives rise to all kinds of fungal diseases while heavy rainfall has also damaged fruiting in citrus fruits that are usually ready to harvest in November,” said
Dr Negi. Besides damage to property, the rains have also damaged departmental nurseries set up as repositories of mother plants
for fruits.
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Awards, certificates given to passing-out forest trainee officers
Dehradun, July 9 These included 2 from from Andhra Pradesh, 4 from Karnataka, 11 from Madhya Pradesh, 5 from Maharashtra, 4 from Meghalaya, 2 from Himachal Pradesh and 13 from Jammu and Kashmir. Chief guest Additional Director General of Forests (WL), Ministry of Environment and Forests, SS Garbyal recalled when he first joined forestry profession 36 years ago, asserting that forestry then was a whole lot different than what it is today. He said: '' The role of trees and forests in general that we perceived then is not how we understand of it today. We never looked at trees as the sequester of carbon. Concern then was how to maximise the return from the forests. Today our concerns are entirely different. Today global warming and climate change are the biggest concerns all over the world. We have just witnessed in Uttarakhand how devastating it can be if corrective and timely actions are not taken,” he pointed out. “Today we do not look for financial and economic returns from the forests. Rather, we look at the forests as something on which the very existence of the entire humanity is dependent,” he added. He said forestry profession was one of the most important professions and added that in fact many believe it to be as a profession of the future. He also noted that the passing out batch comprised a good number of lady officers and expressed his happiness over induction of women in the forest service, which was earlier considered to be the domain of men. Earlier, Ashish Rawat, Principal, Central Academy for State Forest Service, presented the annual report. He informed that during the two years' training course, the officer trainees were taught 19 academic subjects apart from the field exercises on working plan, road alignment, forest survey and engineering. In addition, 150 days of study tours are essentially conducted to different forest areas of Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern India. All passing out officer trainees were given diploma certificates. Meritorious trainees were given special awards. Sunny Verma of Himachal Pradesh won three medals - Ministry of Environment and Forests Gold Medal, Silver Medal of ‘Best All Rounder Officer Trainee and Most Practical Officer’ and Silver Medal for ‘Proficiency in Forest Management and Working Plan.’ Khalid Amin Mehta of Jammu and Kashmir was awarded Silver Medal for ‘Proficiency in Ecology’. Uday C. Dhage of Maharashtra won the ‘RC Kaushik Prize for Proficiency in Soil Conservation and Land Management’ and the Central Academy for State Forest Service Association Prize for ‘Proficiency in Forest Engineering and Survey,’ and Harishchandra S. Waghmode of Maharashtra won ‘P Srinivas Prize in “Forest Protection and Tribal Welfare.’ RK Goel, Director, Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, PP Bhojvaid, Director, FRI, and Dharmendra Verma, Director, Forest Education, Dehradun, were prominent among those present on the occasion.
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Residents donate blood for flood-hit
Haridwar, July 9 The Jugat Niwas Ashram head, Dr Swami Gang Das Udasin Maharaj, has also lauded this social effort and urged local people to
donate blood. Shamsher Bahadur said that as thousands of people had got affected during the char dham pilgrimage, he thought it better to contribute by voluntary blood donation and urged some of his friends to do so too. The response to the cause has been overwhelming, he said. Dr Sanjay Shah of the Indian Medical Association also urged people to donate
blood and dismissed some misconceptions associated with it.
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Dehradun, July 9