The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Bad weather again hampers cremations, removal of debris Tribune News Service Dehradun, July 10 Bad weather again played spoilsport, hampering cremation of bodies and removal of debris at Kedarnath on Monday, besides affecting distribution of relief in the affected areas. ''In the last two days cremation of bodies could not be carried out in the Kedarnath valley and rations could not be dropped from helicopters to the 74-member team that is still in Kedarnath and was tasked to carry out cremations, take DNA samples, remove the debris and clean Kedarnath Temple,'' said Subash Kumar, Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand. The Chief Secretary said that the Uttarakhand government had already requisitioned C-130 planes from the Indian Air Force, which could not fly due to inclement weather. ''The plane has the facility of precision dropping 15 days ration and it will again carry out the sortie shorly,'' he told reporters. Along with carrying out air dropping of food, the government has also requisitioned rock climbers from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (Uttarkashi) who would carry ration supply to Kedarnath through the old Kalimath- Chaumasi trail. ''We are concerned about the 74 members who are in Kedaranth and trying to provide supplies through various means. Around three persons in the team are slightly indisposed,'' he said. The Chief Secretary said that cremations had been carried out of 175 unknown persons, out of which 93 were locals and belonged to the Kedar valley. Further, due to inclement weather, the Chief Secretary said that sorties could not be carried out in Pithoragarh for evacuating local persons keen to go to safer places. ''Around 300-400 local persons are still stranded in various places in Pithoragarh and requiring evacuation. But from Badrinath we were able to evacuate 40 local persons. Now few persons, priests, shopkeepers and government officials are left,'' said Subash Kumar. Power had been restored to 3,618 villages and 140 were still without power.
	No clients for Yarsa Gumba medicinal herb as roads blocked Our Correspondent Pithoragarh, July 10 Dozens of villagers, situated below Chiplakot meadow in Dharchula subdivision, who depend on the collection of Yarsa Gumba, a medicinal fungus found in high Himalayan meadows at more than 12,000 feet, for their living, are a worried lot these days as the clients for their collection, who come from across Nepal, are not able to reach them to buy the commodity as the routes to their respective villages are broken. The villagers in Darma and Vyans valleys depend on sale of Yarsa Gumba, collected during this session. This provides livelihood to their families round the year. These villagers were stuck in these high valleys due to cloudburst on June 16. They were rescued by Air Force helicopters but reached their villages late, resulting in decay of some of the collected stocks. ''Fresh Yarsa Gumba gets good price and fetched Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 Lakh last year. If it gets delayed, it decays and it's price reduces,'' said Prahalad Singh, a villager from Kultham village, who has returned from the meadows with 1 kg of Yarsa Gumba. According to Prahalad Singh, not even a single client has reached even Dharchula this year to buy Yarsa Gumba stocks from the villagers. ''Till last year, the clients and their representatives reached the village before we descended from the meadows but this year the wait is painful as the stocks are decaying,'' said Prahalad Singh. According to sources, the villagers around Panchchuli Himalayas and Chiplakot meadows depend totally on the extraction of this fungus as the total turnover of this business is around Rs 45 crore per year in this area alone. '' We are worried that till the road and track connectivity gets functional, our stocks of Yarsa Gumba will be destroyed, giving us another jolt,'' said Prahalad Singh of Kultham village in Darma valley.
	Over 29,000 hit in Haridwar Tribune News Service Haridwar, July 10 Since the last month when the natural disaster affected the state, while upper reaches of Garhwal division suffered the most, the lower reaches of Garhwal were hit, too. Due to floods and soil erosion, more than 29,000 people living in the district have been affected due to the natural calamity. As per District Magistrate of Haridwar Nidhi Pandey, 29,704 people of 5,472 families have got affected due to the natural disaster, with 25 villages being the worst affected in Lakshar, Khanpur belt. Also, 0.479 hectares of land got washed away due to the rising Ganga in Haridwar district, and 23.504 hectares of crops were destroyed. After identifying the affected people, the district administration distributed over Rs1.50 crore to affected people, numbering 2, 722. The district administration also provided free food and lodging accommodation at various dharamshalas/ ashrams to 5,826 affected people. A total of Rs 4.168 lakh had been spent on providing free food and ration to the affected pilgrims and people in Haridwar. At CCR Tower a special missing centre had been formed in which till date 498 missing persons information had been lodged. The district administration had also assessed loss to the departmental property in Haridwar. Irrigation Department Rs 1207 lakh, Jal Sansthan Rs 32.95 lakh, Jal Nigam Rs 2.61 lakh, Power Corporation Rs1.31 lakh, Municipal Corporation Rs 79.80 lakh, Husbandry Department Rs 28 lakh. The total loss of government properties during this monsoonal season in the district has been estimated at Rs 4659.65 lakh with assessment report of Education, Forest, Agriculture, Public Service Commission, Food Supplies and some other departments awaited.
	Uttarakhand the challenge ahead The Tribune series on what needs to be done to rebuild the state Use local wisdom, material in reconstruction: Joshi SMA Kazmi Tribune News Service Dehradun, July 10 Dr Anil P. Joshi, founder of the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), a voluntary organisation, has been working for the past three decades in Uttarakhand and other Himalayan states for the economic uplift of the hill communities. A Padma Shri award recipient, he has worked in most of the disaster-hit areas of Uttarakhand since1990. He believes that after the large-scale devastation, emphasis should now be on re-construction which involves building roads, bridges and common services centres by the state and central governments and homes, hotels and lodges by private individuals. He said that the recent disaster of Uttarakhand and past ones, too, necessitate a total review of the construction approach. “The whole construction management depends upon the status and nature of the region, demand, resources and, most importantly, ecological dimensions. This is more important as the Himalayas is a fragile and ecologically sensitive zone. Besides its nature, the constant threat of floods and earthquakes makes its more vulnerable relatively in comparison to other geographical locations of the country,” he said. Dr Joshi, who worked with famous architect Laurie Baker after the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake in promoting low-cost earthquake resistant houses, said that in the past, local wisdom was largely used whenever a community infrastructure was developed. It was a combination of an approach involving the local masons' wisdom and the material used to decide the nature of construction within the community. “Such an inclusive approach was a sustainable in the construction model,” he added. Dr Joshi is of the opinion that advanced construction and management approaches are appreciable in cities, but in rural India and specially in the Himalayas, these are not of much use. He said the recent disaster has shown the poor construction management approach in Uttarakhand and in other parts of the Himalayas. “The construction approach should be decentralised with the use of local material and centuries-old local wisdom which was reflected in the old structures in the hills. In the recent past, the values of construction have gone down. The contractual, time-bound approach, ignorance of local conditions and wisdom, especially in public service infrastructure, have entirely jeopardised the construction values,” he said. Commenting on the large-scale damage to the road infrastructure during the recent natural disaster, he said the factors of fragility of the Himalayas and sensitivity of the hills were completely ignored while constructing these roads in a hurry. He said earlier the roads were built manually which did not cause much damage to the hills, but the use of JCB machines, electric drillers and dynamites has shaken the base rocks and hill sides, triggering landslides with every rains. “Besides, looking at the sensitivity of the Himalayas, a green road construction approach must be followed. There should be green treatment of damaged road walls. Treating the roadsides with the necessary vegetation and mechanical support, the problem of frequent road debris in every rain could be prevented. In many European countries and China, road construction is inclusive of the green treatment,” he observed. He said that in the fragile Himalayas, aggressive mechanisation cannot be allowed for longevity of roads. Dr Anil Joshi said another major problem in construction in the Himalayas in the past half a century was seen in the building structure. The most important issue that has been largely neglected while building pertains to the location of construction, particularly residential houses, which became the main reasons of huge property loss in the disaster. “Most of the damaged structures were either built in vulnerable zones i.e. close to a river or in a location where the base/foundation was poor. All these structures became the first target of nature's fury. Such caution used to be there in our ancient construction wisdom. But it is currently disregarded and invites catastrophes. There is a simple principle in mountain wisdom: rivers, streams, deep slopes and poor basic rocks were never preferred for residential purposes in the past. It was decided simply by understanding nature’s behaviour and functioning,” he said. Dr Joshi said that in construction management, material and techniques are two major components. In the mountains, wood used to be the major construction material in the past as it was locally available. The advantage of wood use was that it could withstand earthquakes, was easily replaceable and did not cause physical harm on collapse. But due to strict forest laws, wood became difficult and costly to get and was replaced by brick and mortar. Moreover, the use of local materials and stones gave longevity to the buildings. “But over the years, the local stone masons were replaced by masons from the planes and stone masons lost their livelihood in the hills. A study made after the 1991 and 1999 earthquakes in Garhwal to review the status of residential structures showed that the structures built with local skill and material remained intact while those which came with brick and mortar suffered losses. "We need to take a few measures at least after this disaster in which the magnitude of life and property losses has been enormous. Construction management is an important area on which the government needs to pay serious thought now. A construction policy based on the past experience of disasters needs to be thought out. Emphasis should be given to local wisdom, material and skill as these are time-tested,” he said. Dr Joshi is of the opinion that the use of local construction material promotes resource growth and adds to the ecology and economy of the region. Besides, low cost disaster-proof housing technologies need to be promoted. “We have a large numbers of research institutes that are working on construction management. Their involvement in rebuilding rural houses and public buildings should be ensured. The most important issue which any construction management approach will have to consider while deciding about the Himalayas should be towards it’s sensitivity. Only this could offer a stable construction approach, like we had in the past,” he said. WHAT TO DO Ban use of dynamites and heavy machinery in road building Green treatment of roads required Comprehensive construction policy for Himalayas needed Use of local wisdom, material, resources and masons in reconstruction important Adhere to local and traditional wisdom in deciding about place of buildings Don't build in vulnerable zones, like close to a river or where the base is poor
	2.6 lakh flood-hit students to get grant Tribune News Service Dehradun, July 10 The Uttarakhand Department of Education has estimated around 2.60 lakh school students who would be beneficiaries of the government's one-time ex-gratia relief for the Uttarakhand school students affected by the floods. The Chief Minister's office said that the aid would be distributed through bearer cheques and the affected student would receive one-time grant of Rs 500 that would prove useful in buying books and stationary. The ex-gratia relief for the pilgrims who belong to other states would be disbursed through the District Magistrates of districts from which they hailed from. Besides, a total of total of Rs 92 crore has been sanctioned for all the affected districts for disbursing the ex-gratia relief towards rent (six months at the rate of Rs 500 per month) for persons whose houses have been damaged. Among the notable contributors to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund are actor Amitabh Bachchan, who has contributed Rs 11 lakh. Aamir Khan donated Rs 25 lakh donated towards the PM's Uttarakhand Relief Fund.
	Residents living near river Kali shifted Our Correspondent Pithoragarh, July 10 Twenty families living on the banks of river Kali at Baluakot town have been shifted to safer places and an alert was sounded to all the residents living near the river banks of the Kali and Gori by the district administration today as the river started swelling due to heavy rains last night. "The record rainfall in Dharchula which was measured at 115 mm last evening, resulted the swelling of the river, which threatened the residents of Baluakot ." said Pramod Kumar SDM of Dharchula. According to the information given by the district administration,19 families have already been evacuated from the villages of Rathi, Gangharia and Dhapa. "We have already cautioned the residents of Baluakot who were living near the river edge, as they resisted on living there despite caution, we were left with no other option to evacuate them forcefully." said the SDM. Local villagers in Baluakot attributed it to the negligence of administration as,according to them, the river had damaged the town as wall at the river was not erected by the department."Had the boundary walls, proposed by the Irrigation Department at the river been constructed earlier, the damage would have been reduced this time, but as the department neglected earlier cautions by the river, the residents of Baluakot became the worst sufferers." said Chandrs Singh Gwal, a local resident of Baluakot.
	CM assures relief to Rudraprayag Tribune News Service Dehradun, July 10 Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna met the disaster-affected people at a camp at Guptkashi in Rudraprayag district yesterday. He said the families who lost their kith and kin in the natural disaster would be paid compensation after July 16. He said the pilgrimage to Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri would be restarted by September 30 and the PWD and the BRO were working round the clock to repair the damaged roads to these dhams. He said the foot track to Kedarnath from Gaurikund would be rebuilt after getting a report from the Geological Survey of India. He also assured those who lost their dhabas and small restaurants that they would be paid equal compensation whether they were legal or illegal occupants of the land on which they were running their businesses. The Chief Minister said that Army and the NDRF teams were working to clear Kedarnath of debris and the work would be monitored every 10 days. He also assured the residents of eight villages of Kalmath area of the district who lost their homes that they would be compensated and they would be supplied rations through helicopters. He assured that a temporary bridge would be built soon to connect these cut-off villages. Bahuguna said that all those who lost their homes would be provided pre-fabricated huts.