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Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2774 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
Instead of trying to point fingers and take a narrow parochial stand - let us read this with an open mind...and change how we use WATER, ELECTRICITY etc on a daily basis. The efforts of these journalists would have borne fruit. | ||
Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2773 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
Meanwhile, Bahuguna is determined to make Uttarakhand power surplus by 2016. “It is childish to suggest that the cloudburst at Kedarnath happened because of wrong construction on the riverbeds. Without tourism, there will be poverty, unrest and migration. We have clearance for 53 run-of-the-river hydro projects and we will roll out 36 for bidding by December. If you take a decision, then stick to it, don’t scrap it because of some activists,” he asserted, repeatedly, over the past week. It may yet take more lives for Uttarakhand to realise how far down the suicide slope it has come. | ||
Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2772 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
The race against time took its toll even on those who toiled round the clock to save lives. On 20 June, Rudraprayag District Magistrate Vijay Dhaundiyal suffered a heart attack. At least 20 rescue personnel perished, adding to the official death toll of 5,000, which, locals and eyewitnesses claim, will be in the range of 10-20,000 if those who have gone missing are also accounted for. | ||
Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2771 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
At Gaurikund, where the trek for Kedarnath begins, walking the 20-feet-wide road along the 200-odd metres of the main bazaar is like moving through a tunnel with airless three-storey buildings on both sides. It is not a coincidence that Garhwal suffers heavy loss of lives and property year after year while neighbouring Kumaon reports far less damage. All major shrines of the state are in Garhwal and these destinations are all by the rivers. Since pilgrims have to access the ghats, hotels have cropped up on the edge of the rivers. The result is an unbearable load on the Garhwal mountains that are anyway much steeper compared to the rolling hills of the Kumaon. With this lopsided burden alongside rivers prone to flash floods, it was only a matter of time before the overhanging structures were swept away. | ||
Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2770 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
Unbridled tourism and construction of dams on rivers had one common demand: newer and wider roads across the state. Uttarakhand started widening its roads in 2002. Till then, all roads here were two-lane, except for the Tehri road, which was widened up to the dam site in the 1990s. The story was to repeat under BC Khanduri, the then surface transport minister. | ||
Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2769 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
According to Yatra Rotation Samiti member Sanjay Shastri, around 1 lakh vehicles — 50-60 percent of these not from the state — do three trips of the Char Dham Yatra each year. Since 2005-06, the number of taxis and jeeps registered in the state has jumped tenfold. Since 2010, the state has added 4,500 km of road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) alone. Its total road length nearly tripled in the past decade. “People became greedy. Everyone went overboard. How long would the mountain suffer thousands of jeeps and buses crawling up and down and accommodate thousands of tourists? All along the banks of the river, there is construction of houses. Where we used to have tents a few years ago, we have five-storey buildings. At some point or the other, nature had to hit back. This was it,” says Gaurav Singh, who runs a tea stall in Guptakashi village. And this is when things have gone to plan. After an emotionally-charged political struggle, the creation of the Uttarakhand state in 2000 promised its people their right over the hills, forests and water. At the time, many professed that the new state could build its economy without compromising its pristine hills, by focussing on it and other soft-skill industries. Instead, Uttarakhand decided to go big on tourism, the only industry it had known until then. In 2001, the state constituted the Uttarakhand Tourism Board and chalked up its tourism policy with the vision to “make Uttaranchal synonymous with tourism”. The focus was on drawing higher numbers of tourists and bigger investment into the state. From 1 crore in 2001, the number of visitors to the state grew to 3 crore in 2010. | ||
Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2763 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
Heroism and Treachery in DEVBHOOMI http://tehelka.com/heroism-treachery-in-the-devbhoomi/ | ||
Dada Side Hero Username: Dada Post Number: 2762 Registered: 12-2006 Posted From: 180.151.127.210 Rating: N/A |
http://tehelka.com/uttarakhand-a-model-of-disaster-2/?utm_so urce=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=first_news_letter 5,000 dead/missing. 100,000 homeless. Jay Mazoomdaar, Avalok Langer and Ushinor Majumdar on why this was inevitable |