Travelure
By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer
Our London-returned Netas had a busy time in the misty isles. They signed contracts for
Rs 2,000 crore with Poma group for ropeways, MoUs worth Rs 4,800 crore were signed with different companies. The second (MoU), worth Rs 1,000 crore was signed with Usha Breco, which builds, operates and maintains ropeways across India.
That is a total of Rs 7,800 crore of our taxpayers’ money. What is the return we can expect on that investment? How long will it take to earn this return? Have we factored in inflation when assessing the return? Was it entirely necessary for our netas to fly to London to sign these agreements? Even the cost of their airfare to London and back could have been better used to relieve the poverty of BPL citizens. If the Agreement had been signed in India, our media would have had the opportunity to ask these questions. In Uttarakhand we have 17.52% of the rural population who live below the poverty line as does 11.51% of the urban population.
The development of any area must take into account the stability of that region. Just 2 days before these Agreements were signed in London, the fragility of our Himalayas had been confirmed by a report which said: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has formally confirmed what residents of Joshimath and geologists have been saying. The town’s carrying capacity has long crossed acceptable limits. Consequently, there shouldn’t be new constructions there. Unfortunately, even this information wasn’t shared with its citizens by the Uttarakhand Government. Why was this information kept secret? NDMA’s post-disaster report needs to be read alongside other developments that indicate we are at a crossroads when it comes to development in Himalayan states.
The Himalayas, in which we live, are the world’s youngest and greatest mountain range. They stretch over J&K, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, West Bengal and Sikkim. As a large but infant range they are still growing. They are moving at the rate of 5 cm per year. This movement is like the blade of a gigantic bulldozer thrusting under and raising the Himalayas. Because of this, the ancient Tethys Sea drained and left behind the Mediterranean. The limestone of the Himalayas was created by the remains of ancient sea creatures and some of these fossils can still be found in our great mountains. Clearly, the power of the Himalayas is enormously physical.
This physical power is manifested in the slow, implacable movement of its glaciers. The higher reaches of the Himalayas are covered in snow. When the snow piles up its sheer weight makes it slide down the steep slopes of the Himalayas in the rivers of ice called glaciers. As they move through the valleys they scrape up rock and soil which are called moraines. This moving debris sometimes crosses and forms temporary barriers. The glacial ice is then dammed and forms glacial lakes as the ice melts.
The lakes build up until the temporary barrier of rocks and mud cannot hold them. These barriers burst and release a torrential fury of water destroying everything in its path. This is referred to as a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF).
A GLOF recently devastated Sikkim where 37 people were killed, 79 persons are yet to be traced and 22 Army personnel are missing. And even greater GLOF hit Uttarakhand when the Chorabari Tal glacial lake, 2 kilometres upstream from the town of Kedarnath and part of the Mandakni River system burst. On 17th June 2013 the moraine holding back the waters of the lake gave way and vast quantities of water cascaded down to the valley below, causing catastrophic flash floods. The 4 districts worst affected were Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh. It washed away road, bridges and other infrastructure. The death toll was placed at 6,054. Of these, 934 were local residents while the others were mostly pilgrims.
Such disasters can be avoided if someone keeps watch on the satellite images of glacial lakes. But that cannot happen if your attention is diverted to STAGED EVENTS like signing jumlas in London instead of ACTING on early warning satellite images.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism
among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 half hour
documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first-person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.) (The opinions and thoughts expressed here reflect only the authors’ views!).
