The Flooding in Uttarakhand

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!

Supplies going by train for the Uttarakhand disaster.