Nature's Fury

Nature’s Fury

Mother Nature is all powerful and supreme. The recent nature’s holocaust in Uttarakhand stands as a perfect example of the nature’s devastative rage. It is now proven beyond doubt that if we tamper and abuse nature the damage would be irreprehensible. The country has experienced the worst form of devastation. The delicate ecological balance of the nature should be protected to maintain the environmental harmony. Time and again we are reminded of this principle but we still fail to understand the importance of conservation of nature and its precious resources.

The disaster assumes greater significance as it has affected the lives of several lakhs of pilgrims from all over the country who are on their annual pilgrimage to the sacred hills popularly known as the Chardham yatra. Every Hindu dreams of visiting these places at least once in their lifetime as the Indian Mythology regards these hills are Abode of God. The tragedy has stuck the hills at the peak period of the holy trip. Rescuing the vast number of tourists on those narrow sludgy roads on a hilly terrain is an extremely difficult task. Most of the places are inaccessible and poorly connected further compounding the difficulties during the relief operations. The first step has been to evacuate the pilgrims. The sudden cloud burst had left a gory picture and it is estimated that it will take a couple of years at least to rehabilitate the locals and restore normalcy.

The Indian Air Force along with other paramilitary forces rose to this occasion and did commendable work by showing undaunted will and courage in rescuing the trapped pilgrims. They were apt to the famous saying of Dalai Lama “It is under greatest adversity there exists a greatest potential for doing good both for oneself and for others.” But on the obverse Indian power mongers’ haven’t defied purging themselves of the cheap and treacherous political games. The situation looks much more disgusting with the ruling party and the leading opposition parties vying against each other to proclaim themselves as saviours of people. The hapless tourists who were the worst sufferers of the nature’s fury have fallen into the hands of greedy politicians who under the guise of rescue are hoarding them into their opportunistic dens.

It is disheartening to know about thousands of people, mostly the locals whose lives have been tattered by the cloud burst. The plight of the local people of the state is deplorable. They have lost everything in their lives. Though temporary arrangements for their rehab are made, the psychological stress and mental trauma of losing absolutely everything would make their lives very burdensome. Even the pilgrims who were trapped in the place during the entire tragedy would never be able to recover from the disastrous trail they have watched or might have gone through. For the most unfortunate, who have lost their loved ones; it would be a worst night mare. People’s morale seems to have taken back footing and they are psychologically affected and general mood indicates that they are really frightened to settle back in the hills.

The damage caused by the floods in terms of number of lives lost and infrastructure losses could have been curtailed had the Government machinery been little more alert. The consecutive state governments failed to heed to the counsel of the environmentalists and warnings of the geologists who strongly detested against any huge constructions. In spite of numerous advises from the scientists, government went ahead ruthlessly with construction of numerous Hydel Power plants across the rivers  putting a lot of pressure on these hills. The narrow roads and the cliffs have crumbled apart under the impact of heavy downpour during these floods. Thus, several villages were wiped off completely.

Further, the gross oversight and laxity of administrative authorities in spite of the severe weather forecasting of the looming and the impending threat looks so comical. Together the floods have highlighted the unpreparedness of nation towards a calamity of such huge scale. To top it all various government agencies started playing the eternal blame-game characteristic of India trying to veil their in competencies and in efficiencies in public.  This entire aftermath after any disaster has become so common that people failed to trust any agency. The irony in a country like India is all the higher ups having the authority and power are least affected by any of these tragedies and the poor hapless people are the ultimate sufferer’s. The corruption, red tape and the greed for the power of the rulers is taking a huge toll on Indian public.

By and large there has been tremendous response about Uttarakhand’s massive floods both in terms of relief & rescue offered by Government and people’s response in terms of physical participation and voicing out their concerns. I would broadly categorise the public opinions into two- scientific and mythological. Mythology claims the place to be having Divine attributes and hence when the people who lack the religious fervour, devotion and faith in the sanctity visit these places tsunamis of this kind are bound to happen. They view it as an act of cleansing the evil by the Lord. Scientific outlook being more rational suggests that abusing the existing ecosystem of the Himalayan terrains has resulted in nature’s fury. But the basic underlying point is very clear- when nature is abused we are bound to reap the results of the imbalance caused. Be it in terms of number of people visiting the mountainous terrain thus putting lot of pressure on the already overburdened and delicate infrastructure in place or a basic change in perception of people towards the sanctity of place. Instead of embarking on these hills with respect, people started perceiving it as adventure tourism and hence the new craze. So the answer is simple, indiscriminate modernisation and overburdening of the fragile niche of hills results in breaking the ecological balance of the place and leading invariably to complete annihilation.

 

 

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