Lessons of successful rescue mission
THE rescue operation in Uttarkashi ended successfully. All workers trapped in a partially collapsed tunnel for 17 days were evacuated by Indian and foreign experts. This is not the first time that an accident involving a major development project has occurred in the Himalayan region. The Silkyara tunnel disaster has raised many questions relating to large-scale projects being undertaken in the fragile hill regions and also about safety of operations in a difficult terrain as well as disaster preparedness required for such projects.
The tunnel cave-in is yet another wake-up call to save the Himalayan ecology from irreparable damage.
The tunnel was being built as part of the ambitious Char Dham programme aimed at constructing an all-weather, four-lane highway to connect important religious shrines such as Badrinath and Kedarnath. The project has been criticised by environmental groups and has also been the subject of a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court. Several government committees have gone into various aspects of the project and given it the go-ahead, but the tunnel incident has revived all the doubts and apprehensions about taking up such projects in the Himalayan region.
While tunnelling appears to be a good option that can avert the destruction of forests and minimise damage to the environment, the size of the tunnel matters a lot. Can the hills cope with the damage that long tunnels cause? Maybe, project teams need to think of constructing smaller tunnels. The environmental impact of tunnelling has to be properly assessed before long structures are constructed, whether for highways or hydel power projects. Ill-planned tunnelling is known to affect underground water sources and cause landslides. Blasting for making wider tunnels has dangerous environmental consequences. Another unanswered question is about disaster preparedness and safety precautions taken by construction companies. Only a full-fledged inquiry can reveal if there were lapses on the part of the companies and government agencies involved in the Silkyara project.
The issue of developing massive hydropower projects, highways and tourism-related infrastructure in the hills has been under discussion for almost two decades now. Following a prolonged agitation by environmental groups during the tenure of PM Manmohan Singh, a couple of large projects were shelved. And no new major projects were taken up. But in the past decade, there has been renewed construction activity in the hills, ignoring safety concerns and calls for environmental reviews. Various laws and regulations, such as the mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA), have been severely diluted or bypassed by the agencies and governments concerned.
Meanwhile, environmental hazards have grown due to climate change, which is resulting in extreme weather events and related disasters.
The other major issue that needs to be addressed fully is of safety and disaster preparedness for projects in the hills. It is critical to pay attention to the causes of tunnel accidents and ensure the safety at construction sites. This has been amply demonstrated in the past by incidents in Uttarakhand as well as the GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood)-related disaster in Sikkim recently. Accidents are often caused by below-par technical and safety management as well as natural calamities such as cloudbursts, landslides, etc. Adequate attention has to be paid to training and safety management at all levels.
Many technical and scientific issues have to be studied and addressed at the planning stage itself. Europe-based Bernard Gruppe, which has been providing planning and consultancy services to Navayuga Engineering Company for the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel, has said: “Since the start of tunnel driving, the geological conditions have proved to be more challenging than predicted in the tender documents, thus confirming the results of the further exploration measures carried out at the beginning of the execution phase.” This points to the need for thorough geological studies before such projects are approved.
The trapped workers could have been rescued much earlier on had the safety rules and regulations been followed by the construction agencies, such as the availability of a rescue tunnel. Now that an accident like this has occurred, systems should be in place for swift rescue operations, given the fact that the state has faced several disasters in recent years. All agencies concerned should share their experience and knowledge on how to handle the situation.
It would be wrong to treat the Silkyara tunnel disaster only as an accident and carry on with business as usual in the Himalayas. It is yet another wake-up call to save the Himalayan ecology from irreparable damage. We will have to ask uncomfortable questions about the so-called development projects in the region. The 900-km express highway, railway projects in the region (involving the construction of at least one dozen tunnels), unabashed promotion of tourism (which goes beyond the carrying capacity of the hills), large-scale development of hydropower projects — all need a rethink. This does not mean that people in the hills should be deprived of electricity, employment or other facilities that people in urban areas enjoy or have access to. It is only a question of how we achieve all this without causing any damage to the environment and do it in a way that is compatible with the challenge posed by climate change. A piecemeal approach to tragedies like the one in Silkyara will not take us anywhere.
