The tunnel collapse at Yamunotri recently was a tragedy waiting to happen and more such incidents will take place unless the government of the day sees light, respecting the fragile Himalayan ecosystem and paying heed to the SC's orders pertaining to the Chardham Pariyojna (of which this tunnel was a part ) a controversial, totally misguided and dangerous road widening plan over a course of 900 kms in the Himalayas. The project envisages a 12 metre. wide all weather road connecting four Hindu shrines which cuts through pristine forests, valleys, river basins, meadows and mountains and involves cutting, blasting, felling of forests, muck dumping, destabilization of near vertical topography, tunneling and concreting in the mountains. An SC monitored high powered committee had strongly recommended that the road widening should be no more than 5.5 -7 mts, similar views were expressed by the road transport ministry, domain experts and practicing civil engineers but to no avail. The BJP dispensation follows unscientific crude notions of development in the hills flouting all environmental laws, engineering principles and advice of its own experts simply to bag the Hindu vote. 41 labourers trapped inside the tunnel are struggling to keep their sanity alive and fight almost certain death all because of a rapacious government which can't think beyond politics. The PM finds time to invade the Indian cricket team's dressing room after their World Cup defeat forcibly hugging and patting the players for the cameras but as yet he has not found time to visit the tunnel site and console the trapped workers or extinguish the fires of a burning Manipur.
