The Indian Defence Force rescues a pilgrim after the floods in the northern state of Uttarakhand. Credit: Sujoy Dhar/IPS

By Sujoy Dhar
NEW DELHI, Jun 27 2013 (IPS)

On the outskirts of Rudraprayag, a town in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand whose many temples draw tourists and Hindu pilgrims with magnetic force, visitors often stop for a meal at a popular hotel built right on the river Alakananda.

One of the two head streams of the Ganga, the holy lifeline of India that gushes from the Gomukh snout of the massive Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas, Alakananda is revered as a goddess.

A night in the hotel is cheap, and budget tourists from home and abroad come here for the breathtaking view from balconies overlooking the mountains and glaciers that comprise 90 percent of the state.

As idyllic as it sounds, this hotel unwittingly played a role in one of the worst natural disasters the state has ever seen when, on Jun. 15, flash floods caused by a cloudburst and glacial leaks swept thousands of unsuspecting pilgrims away in what scientists are now referring to as a ‘Himalayan tsunami’.

The state’s chief minister said Thursday that the death toll could exceed 1,000, with 300 bodies found just this morning buried beneath silt beside the largest temple in the town of Kedarnath.

Countless tourists were trapped for days in pitiable conditions until the Indian Defence Force came to their rescue in one aerial sortie after another.

Thousands are still missing and many towns and pilgrimage sites remain inaccessible, as the raging waters carried away whole strips of roads, along with homes, shops and hapless victims.

As the government scrambles to complete a haphazard rescue operation, environmentalists are taking a step back, pointing out that the disaster was not simply a freak natural hazard but a result of unbridled development in the Land of the Gods.

Hydropower projects 

For years, a booming tourist industry, made possible by thousands of illegally constructed guesthouses, has spawned massive hydroelectric power projects on the rivers, while other infrastructure development designed to accommodate hoards of visitors has proceeded at a steady clip, putting undue stress on this fragile ecological zone.

Scientists also say the damming of the Ganga, riverbed encroachment and mining activities are wreaking havoc on the region.

“There (have been) no credible environmental or social impact assessments for hundreds of projects,” Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, tells IPS.

According to Mallika Bhanot, member of Ganga Ahvaan, a public forum to save the holy river, about 244 dams are being constructed along the water channel, while only three were cancelled after a 100-km stretch, from the glacial mouth of Gomukh to Uttarkashi town, was declared an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) in December 2012.

“Even that notification by the government in New Delhi has been opposed by the Uttarakhand government,” Bhanot tells IPS, despite the fact that it was designed after a thorough assessment of the topography, and with the intention of preserving human lives in a landslide-prone zone.

Frightening footage of the recent disaster captured multi-storey buildings collapsing into the river like a pack of cards, while cars, bridges and shops were easily swept into the vortex. Activists say all of this could have been prevented if the state government had heeded the call to cease construction and encroachment on the riverbed.

The New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has also traced the link between the disaster and the manner in which development has been carried out in this unique region.

Acknowledging the economic importance of energy generation, CSE Director-General Sunita Narain questions whether or not “the Central or state government ever considered the cumulative impact of the hydropower projects on the rivers and the mountains.”

“Currently, there are roughly 70 projects built or (slated to be built) on the Ganga, expected to generate some 10,000 megawatts (MW) of power,” she told IPS.

She referred to this model as “bumper to bumper development”, with one project immediately following another.

Diversion channels and reservoirs will affect 80 percent of the Bhagirathi, the Ganga’s second head stream, and 65 percent of the Alakananda, Narain stressed. During the dry season, large stretches of the river will be completely dry.

Such activities, she said, are fantastically lucrative for developers, making it next to impossible for small environmental groups to have their voices heard.

“There is a strong construction lobby in Uttarakhand,” said Bhanot, adding that many politicians’ election funds come directly from hydropower projects.

Green alternatives abound, including electricity generation using smoke from burning pine needles to propel turbines; biomass; or mini hydro plants, capable of generating two MW of power. But these, less profitable schemes do not sit well with corporations.

Narain says this particular disaster cannot be attributed solely to climate change, but the growing trend of intense and extreme weather events – particularly a heavier, more unpredictable monsoon – is undeniable.

With climate change widely acknowledged to be the result of the burning of fossil fuels and emission of excessive carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it is clear that the ongoing tragedy is human-induced, Thakkar said.

The glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) that poured down the mountains bringing boulders and rocks is just another sign that the delicate balance of nature’s forces has been disrupted – and Uttarakhand is paying the price.

Regulation required

Tourism may form the backbone of Uttarakhand’s economy, but it is now clear that visitors and pilgrims number too many: according to government data, 42.2 million domestic tourists and 227,000 foreigners flocked to Uttarakhand in 2012.

Those numbers are expected to double by 2017, with the state gearing up to welcome 77.7 million domestic travelers and nearly 400,000 foreigners.

These arrivals will be accompanied not only by increased human waste and pollution from transport, but also by endless construction of hotels and the justification of ever more mega development projects.

Experts like Thakkar insist that the sector be regulated based on a proper scientific assessment of the region.

This will not be easy, since tourism brings much-needed revenue to the state. The government estimates that each tourist spends an average of 38 dollars a day, much of which goes directly to the government via entrance fees for religious sites.

But while this income from “religious and cultural tourism is a lifeline for many, it will not be sustainable…(unless) all development activities take into account the vulnerability of the area,” Thakkar says.

The youngest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas are already prone to erosion, landslides and seismic activity.

“Development cannot come at the cost of the environment in any region of the country; but particularly not in the Himalayas,” Narain stressed.

Image of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers, which merge to form the holy River Ganga at Devprayag in the Himalayan Uttarakhand state in India. Credit: Sujoy Dhar/IPS

By Sujoy Dhar
HARIDWAR, India, Jul 19 2012 (IPS)

Every year Yogesh Mudgal treks miles through the mountainous roads of the Indian Himalayas during the holy Hindu month of Shravan, in July.

The 54-year-old pilgrim hails from Alwar in northern India’s Rajasthan state. For the last 27 years, he has joined the millions of other Kanwarias – devotees of Lord Shiva –entering Uttarakhand state on the uphill trail of the holy river Ganga, to collect or take a dip in its soul-cleansing waters.

But this July, Mudgal is more than just a devoted pilgrim: he is also an environmental activist, visiting village after village in an effort to spread awareness about the severe pollution of the Ganga, and the destructive impact of big dams that environmentalists claim are destroying India’s “lifeline”.

“We are a group of 12 people visiting each village on our way and raising awareness about pollution of the Ganga,” Mudgal tells IPS in the holy city of Haridwar.

Mudgal is a strong supporter of Rajendra Singh, a Ganga activist popularly known as the ‘waterman of India’ who is using his prestige to mobilise countless Kanwarias to save the sacred river from the impacts of hydel power projects that discharge enourmous amounts of pollutants into the water.

Running for 2,510 kilometres, the Ganga is India’s longest river, irrigating 40 percent of the country’s land and providing fresh water to 500 million people who live along its banks.

But a study conducted by the Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB) in 2011 slotted the Ganga’s waters into the most polluted “D” category, owing to the steady flow of human faeces, urine and human and industrial sewage into the river.

Activists say ‘no’ to dams

India’s leading Ganga activists believe big dams are to blame.

“Dams on the Ganga are destroying the river and pollution is changing its very character,” Singh, who heads an organisation called Ganga Mukti Sangram (Struggle to Save Ganga), tells IPS.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of activists like himself, pilgrims are now arriving shouting slogans like, “Ganga ko bachana hai” (We have come to save the Ganga).

The River Ganga at Gangotri in Uttarakhand state in the Himalayas. Credit: Sujoy Dhar/IPS

“The dams cause an excess of silt deposits upstream, leading to algal growth that changes the character of the water,” he says.

People who live around the confluence of the river with the sea, at Ganga Sagar in West Bengal where the holy river empties into the Bay of Bengal, are extremely concerned about the situation.

“The Ganga Sagar islands, which are already threatened by climate change, are now more vulnerable than ever because there is no longer enough silt in the waters to buttress the landmass,” Singh tells IPS.

He says construction of the Tehri Dam for a hydel project in the Bhagirathi river, one of the Ganga’s two headstreams, has almost killed the river.

“Even the river Alaknanda (the Ganga’s source stream) could (suffer) as a result,” says Singh.

Green activists have already challenged government clearance of a hydel project on the Alaknanda river, three kilometres downstream from the Hindu pilgrimage centre Badrinath.

Singh says the campaign will continue until the Indian government stops the proposed building of 39 dams across the sacred, ancient river.

“It is going to be a long journey,” he predicts.

In March this year Singh and other key members of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGBRA) resigned in outrage over the government’s insensitivity towards Dr. G. D. Agrawal, an environmental engineer who started a fast-unto-death in protest of proposed hydel projects on the Ganga’s Himalayan tributaries.

Agrawal was eventually taken to hospital and force-fed by the authorities.

“The government has neither political will nor any executable plan. Though the NGBRA was convened three and a half years ago and tasked with restoring ancient pride and respect for the Ganga, it has met only twice,” says Singh.

Massive pollution

According to India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Ganga is unfit even for bathing in cities like Kanpur due to industrial effluents and human sewage.

According to the control board, chromium levels in the water have reached a staggering 248 miligrams per litre (mg/l), against a permissible level of two mg/l.

Surveys undertaken by government agencies say the concentration of chromium at Kanpur is 124 times the permissible level.

India’s environment ministry estimates that 2,900 million litres of sewage flow into the Ganga every day from towns along its banks but the existing infrastructure is only able to treat 1,100 million litres per day.

In April this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured swift action to save the river, but activists are sceptical and have taken matters into the own hands.

“We will go from village to village to raise awareness,” Singh swears.

Pro-hydro activists push back

Just as determined as India’s leading Ganga activists are the environmental groups who support hydel projects over other, more harmful alternatives like thermal, gas or atomic power projects.

Avdhash Kaushal, who heads the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a non-governmental organisation based in Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun, says the government called off several projects at the behest of “foreign-funded” monks and activists.

“In 2012, state and central governments succumbed to pressure tactics of individuals (with personal agendas) and abandoned other hydro power projects in Uttarakhand purely on religious and political grounds,” he tells IPS.

“We shall not allow the state’s environment and natural resources to be degraded by thermal, gas or atomic-based power projects,” vows Kaushal, who has moved court against the suspension of dam projects.

He says countries like the United States and the UK are putting tremendous pressure on the government to pursue power projects that will devastate the environment.

Furthermore, “People in the state are facing severe shortages of water and power. Those responsible for this include state and central governments, (holy men) and these foreign funded agencies who, in the name of Nadi Bachao (Save the River) are hell bent upon the closure of these hydel power projects,” he says.

(END)