For much of this week attention has focussed on the plight of the residents of Joshimath, a hilly town in the Uttarakhand state in North India. The earth under the town, that is a gateway to several holy and pilgrimage sites has been sinking and taking along with it houses, hotels and every bit of built infrastructure forcing the residents to flee from their homes for fear of them collapsing.
As a precautionary measure the State government ordered demolitions of the most precarious structures, beginning with a few hotels and have been met with protests by residents and business owners alike. And not without reason.
The commentary surrounding the developing situation around the Himalayan town has expectedly veered towards how ‘unbridled’ development of the fragile Himalayas would sooner or later take its toll and how the residents and business owners are themselves to blame for ‘indiscriminately concretizing the environmentally and geologically sensitive Himalayas.
While there is truth to those arguments, what this line of debate completely ignores is the role played by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The NTPC has also been active in the region tunnelling through the Himalayas for the power projects and in the process puncturing several critical aquifers upon which the earth rests.
It wasn't long ago that when residents approached the Uttarakhand HC seeking to stop the hydel tunnel work after a tunnel collapsed trapping around 150 workers, the HC dismissed their plea and imposed costs on them citing the national and 'strategic' importance of the projects.
Rather than own up to its role in the land subsidence, the Union government has sought to squish any reports or suggestions that it might somehow be at fault for the ongoing tragedy in the region -- a tragedy that is now not restricted to the town of Joshimath but has shown evidence in other towns too.
Central government agencies have been banned from speaking on the issue or missing reports and any semblance of a scientific explanation will now the withheld as a nervous government is eager to put a lid on any criticism of its role in the tragedy.
Spotlight immediately has turned towards the government’s flagship Chardham road projects that have already come under severe criticism from environmentalists but which have been bulldozed through -- both literally and figuratively -- ignoring legitimate concerns and stark warnings from environmentalists and geologists.
It is this attitude of the Union government that is costing the people of Uttarakhand and India in general. A government that is unresponsive to criticism and rather than dispassionately and rationally assessing its projects before embarking on them, is keen to score political points rather than be concerned with the consequences of its decisions.
Such a decision, especially the part where the government seeks to gag its own institutions, in a bid to preserve its own image, is counter productive and reeks of malice. It will cost us not just in the long run, but also for the immediate future.
To properly diagnose the issue and mitigate it and help determine the limits to ‘development’ the Himalayas can take, government agencies and local government bodies need the right kind of information and studies. To deny it to them all in the name of stymieing criticism is deeply malevolent.
As usual, it is ordinary citizen and the poor who has to bear the brunt of excesses by their own government they have elected is emblematic of the current dispensation. The residents who are losing their homes deserve an honest, transparent answer to their plight. Not a blame game and certainly not be made to feel they are themselves at fault while the government absolves itself of any responsibility.
