The Flooding in Uttarakhand
I don’t know if the news from Uttarakhand has made it to the
States, but there has been a lot of damage in the state where I am living due
to pre-monsoon rains which took place on June 16. I was staying in Sabli
village during this time. It rained for about 40 hours straight, and it was not
just a sprinkle. It fluctuated between downpour and heavy rain. Unfortunately,
this meant I spent my entire last day in Sabli inside hoping the rain would
stop or at least slow down. I did get some time to catch up on my writing, pack
up my belongings, paint a picture (just a fun watercolor with some of the kids),
and play some cards. Rakesh said the rain was like nothing he had ever seen
before. The morning when I left, we walked down the path (the rain had
stopped), and there was water pouring down the terrace fields like waterfalls.
It was unbelievable.
The Current Situation
I made it safely to Dehradun from Sabli although there were
a few landslides along the way which had been cleared off. We were lucky
because this area got a lot of rain but not the damage that the rest of the
state is experiencing. Because the monsoon came early, pilgrims were traveling
to the Himalayas at this time of the year to visit sacred temples at the Char
Dham – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri, and Gangotri (four sacred points from
which the major rivers in India begin). This means that people from all over
the country were in Uttarakhand during this flood. Kedarnath experienced the
most publicized damage. At least 30-40,000 people were at the temple (which was
demolished by the flood) and were stranded because of the flood that hit. This
pilgrimage is supposed to be closed at least for a year while rebuilding takes
place. The chief minister of Uttarakhand believes that the damage caused across
the state will put them back three years in terms of development. In a state
that is already lagging behind in roads and infrastructure, this is a huge blow.
[Uttarakhand officially became a state in 2000, and partially because it is a
mountain state, there is still a lot of infrastructure being built.] The
central government and state governments throughout India have been reaching
out to respond to this “Himalayan tsunami.” According to the newspapers, the situation
of the stranded pilgrims is now under control. The Indo-Tibetan border police
and the military have responded on the ground. Rations of food, blankets, and
other supplies have been flown in to meet their immediate needs. Because one of
the state’s biggest industries is tourism, this is obviously their first
priority. However, it has taken over a week to ten days, and there still
remains a lot to be done.
Evidence of Climate Change
As to be expected, the news has focused on the people who
were traveling on pilgrimage to these various temples and were caught off-guard
by this storm. However, what is not in the news as much is the local impact and
the people living in villages. Many of the pilgrims – the documented toll is up
to 58 – have perished as a result of the disaster. However, the numbers in
villages and undocumented Nepali workers must be much higher. I have no idea
what a good estimate is, but a local from the Uttarkashi area at one point told
me the toll could be between 5 and 15 thousand people. Unfortunately, for the people
of Uttarkashi, they had a similar problem last year. In and around Uttarkashi,
they suffered from a cloud burst (flash flood) which cut the village off from
road access for at least a month and a half. They were running out of food
rations which had to be flown in. This year, the same situation is happening not
just in Uttarkashi, but also in the Valley of Flowers, Kedarnath, Badrinath,
and Rishikesh. All of these places are along rivers where people have lost
their homes, crops, and livelihoods. To top it off, they are also now cut off
from an easy source of back-up supplies because the roads have been destroyed.
What is very scary is that so many of the people affected or those who have
been killed will not be documented. For example, when the Nepali workers in the
Uttarkashi flood in 2012 died, it was impossible to estimate the numbers. They
come to this area to do construction work and require no visa to get into the country.
They live in make-shift settlements which are not sturdy and are sometimes on
the banks of rivers which make them more vulnerable.
The newspapers are pointing the finger at climate change as
the cause for this catastrophe. This is an accurate description as the state of
Uttarakhand (and the Himalayas as a whole) has been experiencing shifts in
precipitation patterns over the past decade. Unseasonal rains, floods, and
droughts are not just documented from the meteorological departments. Farmers
and locals know this better. Their crops are being affected because they rely
entirely on rainfall and have very little “back-up” irrigation. In addition to
the lost homes and lives, the crop loss as a result of this flooding has been
enormous.
Environmental Justice
What is disheartening to me about this damage is that the
people being most severely impacted by this so-called climate change are those
who know the best about living off the land and causing little damage. Although
it is argued that the grazing of cattle and cutting of trees done by villagers
causes deforestation and barren lands, which increases erosion, siltation, and
causes landslides, their impact is relatively minor. When I came to India in
2010, I was studying the Tehri Dam, built under a joint partnership with the
government of India and the state government of Uttar Pradesh. This dam is
built on an earthquake fault line, displaced 100,000 people, and created a lake
(reservoir) which is 42 square kilometers large. In addition to the loss of
flora and fauna from the region and the increase in erosion, dams are known to
cause micro-climate change. They interrupt the hydrologic cycle and change the
terrain. Many of the locals cite the Tehri dam as one of the causes to this
climate change. Frighteningly, the warnings against the negative effects of dams
are not being taken seriously. The government of India continues to commission
and build dams in the Himalayas.
One article from the New York Times explains that the government of India plans to
respond to its “electricity crisis” by building more dams in the Himalayas. The
projection is 292 dams, which is roughly one dam every 30 kilometers. Most of
these projects fall in the range of large dams (which have a height of 100 m or
higher) and also cause the most disruption. Locals are getting pushed off their
land and their livelihoods are being negatively affected because of these “development”
projects.
When you talk with the locals about these projects, they do
not want them. They understand the value of their environment and maintaining
it for the long term. For example, the Chipko movement, which was started in a
village called Reni (about a kilometer from Lata where I went in April),
counters this very notion. Women began hugging trees in order to prevent
deforestation to their immediate surroundings. They wanted to save the
environment for future generations because they understood the connection
between humans and nature. Although there was significant success from this
women’s movement to save forests, the same villagers are still being impacted
by projects outside their control. These people used to travel with their sheep
to graze and used them as their source of livelihood. However, the lands they
formerly relied on have now been closed off in the name of environmental
protection. The Nanda Devi (highest Indian Himalayan peak) biosphere was
created in 1992 and shut them off from medicinal plants, fodder, and fuel. Now,
right below this “protection zone” a dam is being built to provide this
electricity that we all “need.” Talking with people who live near the Tehri dam
and those living near Lata, I get the same story. They do not want the
electricity.
It sometimes seems so hard to connect to nature living in
cities with well-manicured lawns, architecturally designed parks, and all this “created”
nature. We think we need electricity 24-hours a day, all the latest technology,
and the “conveniences” of modern life. However, we don’t really know what it
means to live off nature and connect to things that really make us happy.
Although I could be working all the time, I find myself much happier in these
mountain settings around people who take time to talk and spend time with me. I
am not saying that we all need to return to this way of life, but I think we
should at least value it and recognize that our actions do have consequences.
The people living in Delhi who get their drinking water from the Tehri dam do
not think about the damage being caused to what was once the pristine
Himalayas. However, if we connected to people and realized that they have much
the same thoughts, desires, and feelings as us, we would probably not want to
cause them so much harm.
Going Forward
For my research, this flash flood will be an interesting
twist, and one I can write about in my report. It will bring together my
research from 2010 with my current research. I will be able to ask more people
what they see as the cause and how they want to respond. It will also bring
some much needed money from outside back into the state. However, I doubt it
will cause policy makers to look at their own projects as one of the factors
causing this extreme destruction. The good news is that the local communities
although they do not have a lot of resources are coming together. People throughout
India know what happened and are reaching out to offer help.
My friend (who was living in India until June) is putting
together a fund to collect money for the impacted villages which have lost
bridges, roads, and infrastructure as a result of the flooding. I also have
another friend who is trained in disaster relief who will be traveling to some
of the affected areas. If anyone else wants to help, I am sure your prayers are
greatly needed!
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| Supplies going by train for the Uttarakhand disaster. |
I wore a sari to the wedding. I did pretty well for the first couple hours and then everything started slipping. No, I did not tie it myself.
Dosas - Delicious wedding food.
Pench National Park
Mecca Mosque, Hyderabad
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