Recurrent disasters in the state of Uttarakhand are warnings that time to address the Himalayan region’s ecological issues is running out fast. Every passing year brings some calamity such as flood or landslides. The authorities deal with them in isolation in a routine manner. In one such action, the state government last week ordered evacuation of about 600 families living in and around Joshimath town, whose houses had developed huge cracks. There were cracks on roads too. In some places groundwater was gusting out. Residents of the area had been agitating for days, demanding steps to protect their lives. But the state government moved only after the Centre intervened. The Centre also set up an expert team to study the situation and make suitable recommendations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an opportunity to acquaint himself with the state’s climate problem in 2013 when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. Several thousand pilgrims from his state were stranded in Uttarakhand following flash floods that year. He rushed there and personally led the efforts to rescue them. Uttarakhand’s ecological problems are partly the result of unscientific developmental activities undertaken in the past and partly the result of climate change.

The state, with a population of only about 11 million, is studded with pilgrim centres, which attract Hindus from all over India. Forests constitute as much as 71 per cent of its geographical area. It was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000 to facilitate hill-centric development of the region.  But such a development paradigm is yet to emerge. Joshimath is sinking. The cracks in buildings in the area are attributed to land subsidence. A temple collapsed on Friday, aggravating the people’s fears about their safety. Responding to the people’s demands, the authorities have stopped work on all ongoing mega projects. These include the Char Dham all-weather road, the National Thermal Power Corporation’s hydel project and the Auli ropeway, conceived as Asia’s biggest.  

The stoppage of work appears to be a temporary measure to mollify the people. The Centre must order fresh, credible environment impact assessments before allowing resumption of work. The Himalayas have an honoured place in Hindu lore. But few people have a fair idea of their ecological significance and the role they are playing in sustaining life. The region that includes the Hindu Kush range and the Tibetan Plateau is sometimes referred to as the Third Pole as, like the North and South Poles, it is rich in ice fields that hold huge reserves of freshwater. Ten major river systems originate there. They and their tributaries supply drinking water to 1.9 billion people, which is nearly one-fourth of the world’s population. They also support large irrigation and power systems.

Experts attributed a flash flood that occurred in Uttarakhand  two years ago to the breaking away of a big chunk of ice and frozen mud from a glacier under the weight of a suspected avalanche. The ice and mud fell into a lake that had formed following the melting of ice in the wake of climate change. As rocks and sediments at the extremities of the lake collapsed, water rushed out, causing a flash flood in the Rishi Ganga river.

Ten persons were killed in the flash flood and more than 150 people working inside tunnels to build two hydel projects downstream were missing. That disaster was clearly the result of climate change. It came after temperatures rose to the highest levels in six decades.

Mud and boulders brought down by the flash flood smashed into the dams being built for the hydel projects. The mud engulfed the tunnels.  Safeguarding the ecology of the Himalayas is not a matter that can be left to any state government.  The Centre must give serious thought to the creation of a reliable mechanism for it. Uttarakhand’s experience holds a lesson for “development fundamentalists” who are well entrenched in the corridors of power and are pushing environmentally disastrous projects in different parts of the country with ulterior motives.