Uttarkashi tunnel disaster raises many questions

The Silkyara tunnel disaster has once again highlighted the fragil topography of the Himalayan state thereby necessitating a long overdue scientific survey of the state to regulate developmental works involving large scale drilling of the mountains which makes the region vulnerable to frequent landslides, writes, R P Nailwal.

Hyderabad: The trapped labourers crisis in the high altitude sub -Himalayan district of Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand has kicked up a row whether the current post disaster management apparatus in the country is equipped well enough to tackle a crisis of this nature and scale faced by experts at this point in time. The fact is that even after thirteen days of unsuccessful attempt to save the lives of some forty one trapped tunnel labourers from across seven states, experts on the ground are facing various kinds of difficulties.

Top experts ,Union Ministers and state Chief MInister Pushkar Singh Dhami are continuously monitoring the situation but of no avail. It may be mentioned here that the Silkyara bend tunnel where the labourers are trapped under a heavy debris since November 12 is being built under Engineeering Procurement and Construction (EPC)mode and forms part of ambitious Char Dham project funded by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

The entire country is now eagerly awaiting, with baited breath, the eventual rescue of the poor distraught labourers. However, this crisis has brought to fore once again the urgent need for setting up a very well equipped post -natural disaster management organisation dealing exclusively with sudden disasters, both man-made and natural, and rescue and relief operations.

No doubt, there are state disaster management departments in the states and field manpower troops such as National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to help the victims on the ground. But their operation begins only when the need arises and the working of the related departments is handicapped by various factors.

It is a well known fact now that Garhwal Himlayas are very fragile and fall under Zone 5 of seismesic map of the country, as such, big and small tremors have hit the region in the past. Landslides, specially during the monsoon season, have often paralysed the normal life in the entire region. In the last centuray at least three major quakes and scores of big landslides have caused enormous damage to life and property in the entire area.

In the latest October 1991 and 1998 earthquakes hundreds of lives were lost and hundreds were rendered homeless. It is also a fact that developmental needs have further accentuated the gravity of the situation. The two major rivers, Ganga and Yamuna, emanating from the Garhwal Himalayas have tempted the planners to exploit them for hydro- power production.

Over the decades, hundreds of tunnels have been built cutting the fragile hill slopes to set up hydro dams. The 2400 MW Tehri Dam launched by the Union government decades ago has led to the displacement of hundreds and thousands of people from a very big area and submergence of an entire hill station in the water.

Besides this, 61 tunnels and 59 newly built bridges have also been built under the ongoing Chardham Rail Project by Union railway ministry. Moreover, the the cliff cutting work has also been in progress in the fragile mountains of Garhwal. It is said that in addition to railway tunnels, some 750 km long tunnels have also come into existence in then region by drilling the hills.

It may be worthwhile to recall here that the sinking of Joshimath town in Chamoli district some months ago was attributed to the construction of 12 km- long underneath tunnel for 300 MW Vishnuprayag hydro power project launched by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) there. Some former scientists of the Wadia Institue Of Himalayn Geology (WIHG) here including Dr N S Virdi and Dr A K Mahajan said that some 150 kms tunnels have been proposed for the hydro projects in the Gnga basin alone.

Some o these have already been constructed and some are in the process of being drilled. It is, therefore, very obvious that as to what extent such indiscriminate blasting of the mountains will continue and what implications such an activity will have on the eco system of the sub Himalayan region. Already much damage has been done to the local topography, forests and indigenous wildlife, according to a report by the IUCN ( Internationl Union for Conservation of Nature).

Such a development can not be taken lightly and there seems to a urgent need to ponder over the seriousness of the worsening situation. It is high time that a technical survey of the entire Uttarakhand region is done by a team of experts involving engineers and earthquake scientists at the earliest to evaluate the entire situation.

Soon after the mega earthquake which had hit the Uttarkashi district on October 22 in 1991, the then Prime Minister Mr Narsimha Rao had promised that such a survey would be done in the entire region to understand the innate problem. However even after over three decades no such comprehensive survey has been done.