Supreme Court appointed committee explains why the Uttarakhand floods happened

[Dipil Kumar Vasu]

Dear All

May be of your interest.

For the very first time, official report links the greedy building of hydropower projects to the floods that raged through Uttarakhand last year.

The year 2003 proved something of a watershed in economist Bharat Jhunjhunwala’s life. He had retired from his position as professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and decided to move to the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand to spend his life in quiet on the banks of the Alaknanda, a tributary of the Ganga. But things didn’t turn out as peaceful as he expected: the endless blasting for the construction of a dam for a hydropower project nearby was a problem that simply wouldn’t go away. What Jhunjhunwala didn’t realize was that it would spell years of litigation and the beginning of a long fight against the mushrooming of hundreds of hydroelectric projects (HEPs) in Uttarakhand, which faced devastating floods last year that killed thousands.
A recent landmark report by an expert committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), set up under the direction of the Supreme Court, makes this connection. It is the first independent ‘official’ report acknowledging the destructive nature of hydropower projects and linking them to the floods that raged through Uttarakhand last year. In its report, ‘Assessment of Environmental Degradation and Impact of Hydroelectric Projects during the June 2013 Disaster in Uttarakhand’, the committee recommends the rejection of 23 HEPs in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins in Uttarakhand.

Courtesy & Read full report on : https://in.news.yahoo.com/this-supreme-court-appointed-committee-ex...

Thanks & Regards,

 

Dipil Kumar Vasu | Consultant - Performance & Assurance

Environmental Resources Management (ERM)

Ground Floor, Delta Block, Sigma Soft Tech Park

7, Whitefield Main Road, Bangalore - 560066, Karnataka, India

M: [phone]| D: [phone]| Email: [e-mail]; [e-mail] | Website: www.erm.com

[Anil Kumar Gupta]

Dear Mr Vasu,

Thanks and Greetings!!!

We have developed a documentation on the Uttarakahand disaster and are finalizing, will be published soon.

Please let us know from where and which site the report you referred can be obtained?

Regards

Anil K Gupta

[Dr. Deeksha Dave]

Finally thegood news is that actually we are able to correlate the rampant developmental activities with the environmental degradation that is continuously going on. The hydel projects constructed in the eco fragile areas need to be checked and not only this but there are lot of eco sensitive zones across the country where the nature is ruthlessly butchered.

Time to take action before any more Uttarakhand disasters take place.

[Rohit Nair]

Thank you Mr.Dilip for sharing this information, I have personally been to Uttarakhand, traveled on the roads and walked my way upto the hemkunt Sahib. One thing which i noticed was the frequent land slides that happened there. It was very rampant and frequent. I feel lets keep aside the hydro electric projects and think about a basic reason why such slides can be caused? because logically such loose soil on the mountains will add to the flowing water during floods and there are chances that whole hills with people residing on it might have been wiped out! I feel its deforestation ! I observed that there were few trees on these hills! Without trees the soil will not hold onto the roots and this might have added to the floods. So can't a basic thing like planting more trees on the hills en route to such places and avoiding littering of the places with plastic and other non-biodegradable objects helped save more lives? I ask this question to all fellow paryavaran members.

[Dipil Kumar Vasu]

Dear Mr. Gupta

Thanks for taking time to respond. Its really good to know that you are going to come up with a documentation on Uttarkhand disaster.

I was mentioning about the full news report only. You can access the same in below link:

https://in.news.yahoo.com/this-supreme-court-appointed-committee-ex...

Apart from the above, I am sure you might come across the below thread in this website itself. Still copying that link below. 

http://www.paryavaran.com/forum/topics/scientific-report-uttarakhan...

Thanks & Regards,

 

Dipil Kumar Vasu | Consultant - Performance & Assurance

Environmental Resources Management (ERM)

Ground Floor, Delta Block, Sigma Soft Tech Park

7, Whitefield Main Road, Bangalore - 560066, Karnataka, India

M: [phone]| D: [phone]| Email: [e-mail]; [e-mail] | Website: www.erm.com

 
Anil Kumar Gupta said:

Dear Mr Vasu,

Thanks and Greetings!!!

We have developed a documentation on the Uttarakahand disaster and are finalizing, will be published soon.

Please let us know from where and which site the report you referred can be obtained?

Regards

Anil K Gupta

[Dipil Kumar Vasu]

Dear Mr. Rohit

You are very well pointed out, deforestation might be another add on cause to this disaster. Behind such a disaster the cause is not limited to one. Its a combination of natural and man made causes - I believe so... Your solution also very well accepted but population increases and people need space for living. How can we increase the number of trees? A lot practical issues there... 

Lets hope that things will change and in future such disaster will not arise again.

Thanks & Regards,

 

Dipil Kumar Vasu | Consultant - Performance & Assurance

Environmental Resources Management (ERM)

Ground Floor, Delta Block, Sigma Soft Tech Park

7, Whitefield Main Road, Bangalore - 560066, Karnataka, India

M: [phone]| D: [phone]| Email: [e-mail]; [e-mail] | Website: www.erm.com

 
Rohit Nair said:

Thank you Mr.Dilip for sharing this information, I have personally been to Uttarakhand, traveled on the roads and walked my way upto the hemkunt Sahib. One thing which i noticed was the frequent land slides that happened there. It was very rampant and frequent. I feel lets keep aside the hydro electric projects and think about a basic reason why such slides can be caused? because logically such loose soil on the mountains will add to the flowing water during floods and there are chances that whole hills with people residing on it might have been wiped out! I feel its deforestation ! I observed that there were few trees on these hills! Without trees the soil will not hold onto the roots and this might have added to the floods. So can't a basic thing like planting more trees on the hills en route to such places and avoiding littering of the places with plastic and other non-biodegradable objects helped save more lives? I ask this question to all fellow paryavaran members.