Himachal is drowning

 Himachal is drowning

Himachal is drowning. At least 81 people have died. If you see June onwards, the figure has crossed 300.In Kula, due to a landslide,8 unsafe buildings have fallen. The damage has been more than 10,000 crore. And it's the same story with Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. In the entire northern belt of India, an orange or red alert has been declared. This is a disaster. But to call it a natural disasters not right. This is a man-made disaster. This is the story of human greed, unplanned construction and corruption. This is making people’s lives difficult in beautiful mountains. But everyone talks about problems, at the end of this ; we'll even discuss some solutions. If you like our solution-based mindset, then don't forget to subscribe or follow us. This is free for you but it helps us a lot.

Chapter 1: What is happening? For the past 2 months Himachal is drowning. Because of heavy rains, all the hill stations are getting flooded. The levels of the Beas River are rising. Ganga is in the same state. On 23rd and 24th August, Shimla experienced 190 mm of rainfall. To put things in perspective, in 2020,there was 300 mm rainfall in Hyderabad. And there were flash floods there. Because it is important to understand that Hyderabad is 536 meters above sea level. And Shimla is 2,200 metres.190 mm rainfall is a lot for a hilly region. Between June to September's monsoon Himachal Pradesh gets 750 mm of rain. Which gets spread out. But this year, the rain started in June-end. Around 24th June. And from then on till now, there has already been 794 mm rain in Himachal. That's 39% extra. Until now, more than 300 people have lost their lives. More than 1,000 buildings have got washed away. And a new red alert is coming every week. Because of this heavy rainfall, it seems that the entire state is being washed away. Because of continuous landslides, in all the hill stations, buildings are getting washed away. Roads are getting destroyed, trees are getting uprooted. Many vehicles are stranded on the roads. Due to the swelling of Balad River, a bridge has been broken in Baddi, which has affected the state's connectivity to Haryana and Chandigarh. s on social media are getting viral. Where buildings are seen collapsing in a moment. IMD has declared a red alert in Uttarakhand as well. Because cloudbursts are also possible in Uttarakhand. In fact, heavy rains are predicted from the northern belt to Sikkim.

Chapter 2: Heavy price of development. Economy and environment are always found at two ends of a rope. It seems that we always have to choose one of these two. If we favour the environment, then the economy will suffer. If we favour the economy, then the environment will get affected. Which ultimately has to be borne by us in the form of floods, forest fires, and earthquakes. Let's understand what are the man-made reasons for floods. The first reason is hydro power projects. Today in this region, there are 168 hydro power projects. Which in total produces 10,848 MW of electricity. It is estimated that by 2030more than 1,000 hydro power projects will be commissioned by which this capacity will increase up to 12,000 MW. Electricity is important. But the natural flow of the rivers gets disturbed by this. Big rivers get smaller, get narrower. During high rainfall, the dam experiences pressure by which the dam overflows and increases the chances of flooding in different are as. If you see in the case of Himachal Pradesh, the Bhakra dam is filled with 1,624 feet of water. And its capacity is 1,680 feet. Pong dam has 1,360 feet of water. And its capacity is 1,390 feet. The Ranjit Segar dam is filled with 1,712 feet of water. And its capacity is 1731 feet. Think a bit about it, if these dams overflow, what will happen? The second reason is road widening. The Geological Department believes that in the process of road widening, the rocks of mountain areas get loose. Geologists say, due to vertical cutting the slopes are getting steeper. During road widening process where the angle should have been 30-45 degrees, at places it is over 60 degrees. And this sequence has been going on for the last many decades. During road widening, contractors do something else that directly contributes to flooding. While making roads, the mountains have to be broken. Explosions, blasts, or manual laborcauses loose rocks and mud to accumulate. They are called debris. To dump these debris in landfills, takes a lot of effort. And most importantly, it takes money. Because of corruption and sheer laziness, contractors dump this debris into the rivers. This increases the river level. When the level of the river increases, then during the rainy season, that river cannot bear heavy rainfall, and its levels increase to dangerous levels. Which causes flooding. While making roads in Himalayas, instead of speeding up the construction work, it is more important to pay attention to the environment and construct. Here we need to understand that Himalayas are young mountains which are still growing. The soil here is loose. And that is why it lacks stability. The Himalayan height increases every year. As a result, this area comes in the high seismic zone. Which increases the chances of earthquakes a lot. We cannot build herein a European manner. Geologists believe that the entire road construction happening here was unscientific. But NHAI has called all these allegations baseless. Who is telling the truth? Without proper investigation it will not come to the fore. Over-tourism is also a major reason. Himachal Pradesh for many years has been a tourism hotspot. And this image has been imprinted in people's minds. People like Himachal, that is great. But mountains can not cater to so many people. Every year, millions of tourists go to Himachal. In 2022, the tourist arrival increased by 62% to 1.5 crore tourists. This is just domestic tourist. The number of foreign tourists is different. Around 3.5 lakh foreign tourists come to Himachal every year. To provide facilities for all these tourists, hotels are made and roads are made. But the problem is that all these facilities are made in an unplanned way. To serve these tourists, hotels are constructed on the edge of mountains or river banks. The pollution due to these tourists, the waste produced by them, no concrete policy action has been taken on them. On the other hand, we see here people throw waste into rivers.

Chapter 3: The issue of landslides. The most landslides in the world happen in Asia. How many? Out of the four landslides in the world, three happen in Asia. Of them, the major landslides happen in the Himalayas. This is a fact. The meaning of landslide is the sudden movement of rock or debris on a slope, where soil or rock from a hill becomes loose and slides. There may be many reasons for a landslide. In which, heavy rainfall, earthquake and human activity-caused disturbance are included. Whenever there are flash floods in India, then landslides also happen. Data says that 20%of the world's landslides are just in India. Monsoons are a boon for us as well as a curse. Because India's 70% rains are from June to September end and not the rest of the time. Because of these four months of rain, on one hand there is stability in agriculture, forms a predictable pattern. But the chances of flash floods also increase. Because in some areas of India, it rains a lot in these four months. In Himachal Pradesh, three major heavy rainfall spells were seen. On 9th and 10th July, which damaged Kullu and Mandi Districts. The second spell was on 15th August, which spread destruction in Shimla city. The third rainfall spell is now, on August 23rd and 24th.If seen in a way, it is not numerically high. But due to high rainfall at a time, our hill stations cannot cope. Government data says Himachal Pradesh has 17,120 landslide prone sites. Out of which, 675are near critical infrastructure sites. These are district-wise landslide-prone sites. Making these sites public knowledge is an important task. Now even in Kullu, something like this happened. Due to unplanned construction, heavy rains, and corruption, we go to see a man-made disaster.

Chapter 4: Solutions. No country is perfect. We have to make it perfect. No problem is born without solutions. And the solution for flooding problems is connected with the three fields of science, leadership, and environment. Floods can be stopped by smart engineering. People often make mistake and believe that the construction of national high ways is responsible for floods. But how sensible is this logic? Problem is that rivers are not widening, but getting narrow. Because of development on river banks, there's no outlet left for the water. So what can we do? We can divert flood water, Can make artificial channels. We can make water outlets, so that water avoids the residential area, and passes through a different path. And then go ahead and get back in the river. We have to make dams. What nonsense? In chapter 2, we had said that building dams increases the chances of floods. So how can dams be a solution? Often in India, dams are built to generate electricity or to store water. But dams can also be made to stop floods. Which usually remain empty, and only fill during floods. Then from there, water is gradually released into the rivers. By this, the volume of water doesn't decrease, but the time increases. Same water is gradually released into the rivers. So floods can be controlled. Second solution is leadership. We often see on the riverside hotels, bungalows, and restaurants being constructed. These areas on the riverside are sold as premium areas. And even builders pay money to corrupt municipal officers and get these projects passed. We are making nature a concrete jungle. If municipal officials are not corrupt, then many builders approve the drainage plans and precautions. But in the process of saving costs, while doing the project, ignore the precautions. Later, there is no follow up nor is any penalty levied. Often many riverbeds dry upend for years they don't get water. So corrupt officials sell them to builders and colonies are built there. The river that is about to dry, due to the garbage and debris there, the riverbed becomes thinner. Having a gap between the environment and settlement is necessary that is gradually decreasing. After this flood, the CM of Himachal has asked for national relief. But it is important to think whether this money will be used only to compensate for the loss of this crisis. or will this also help in preventing future disasters? Will the system be improved or even next year the same floods will come back? Good governance can bring a good future. And it doesn't matter which party runs the government. But yes, what action it takes, does matter for sure. As harsh as it sounds, one solution is to examine all the buildings. And the buildings that are unsafe should be evacuated and relocated. Same for hotels. If a hotel is unsafe, then a board should be installed on it. Unsafe for tourists. Third solution is environment. In 1976, the MC Mishra Committee had warned India about Josh math. This year, similar cracks developed in Josh math. And still, projects worth 12,000 crores are being developed around Josh math. We have to take nature's warning signs seriously. Unfortunately, the Himalayan regions will feel the impactor climate change more. Because by melting snowfall, they will have water problem sat the same time, due to landslides and cloudbursts the numbers of natural disasters will also increase. It is important that we consider climate changes a national responsibility. And take every step by which we address this problem. There is also one such solution, which you can apply as a tourist. If you are going to mountains, then don't take your urban city lifestyle there. Because your trash is your responsibility.  Because floods happen every year and every year our media and our governments cry. But no one talks about solutions. No one implements them.