Environment Vs Development

Amidst this mayhem that has devastated our Uttarakhand, I hear varied voices giving all sorts of explanations without thinking about the poor soul who is living in one of the most remote place in our state. In all these discussions that are taking place in various NEWS channels the voice that is missing is the voice of this person. His necessities or his requirements mean nothing to these so called experts. These experts will discuss, mould public opinion and force the government according to their whims and will move on to something new. But this person and lakhs of other will have to live their lives according to the choices made by the government. And their lives are not any TV show that you can say and do anything for TRP. Was it a manmade disaster? When I was a small chid I used to love hearing histories of different places. If any of these experts would have heard or read history of Srinagar, he would have learned that this city has been destroyed tens of times and has been re-established every time either at left or right bank of Alaknanda. If it has happened tens of times then it can very well happen one more time. And this is Srinagar one of the major towns of Uttarakhand and hence it is well documented but there are many other places that have been devastated in past. Most of the villages and cities around the world have been developed on the banks of the rivers but in Uttarakhand most of the villages are at the top of the mountains far away from water. It was done because during flash floods the safest place in a mountain is the area near its top. So, first thing that we should understand and accept is that this tragedy is not one off incident but something that keeps happening in Uttarakhand even much before any construction work had taken place in this region. Though I do not deny that mindless encroachment of the river bed, indiscriminate use of explosives and destruction of vegetation have contributed to the colossal loss of life and property but to blame it for everything and demand blanket ban on development is something I can never agree with. I feel Tv shows and discussions have diverted the discussion from type of development for Uttarakhand to development versus environment which is very dangerous for the survival of my state and my people. If we would turn pages of history we would find that many great civilizations have perished due to natural disasters. More than 3000 years ago, the Harappan Civilization was one of the largest and most powerful in the world but it is believed to have been destroyed because monsoon in the area stopped and the whole place was converted into desert. The great ancient Egyptian civilization declined due to drying of river Nile and drought caused by it. History is full of examples of civilizations that have perished due to climatic changes. If we look at the history of Kedarnath mandir, we will find many dramatic changes have happened there over period of time. There is a shloke engraved on the stone of the wall of the temple which talks about lush green fields of rice at kedar valley and there is no mention of snow or glaciers in any of these shlokes. Geologist have concrete proof that the temple premises was covered with snow for about 400 years during 14-18th century AD. All these changes have happened when there were no power projects, no hotels or tourists polluting delicate Himalayas. Such changes have happened and will happen over the period of time. And they will happen even if we keep these mountains untouched. knowing all this should we leave future of thousands of people at the mercy of nature? Was it a manmade disaster? Yes it was but those who were responsible for this disaster were not only the government and people who did senseless construction but also those NGOs and environmentalist because of whom last year’s debris on the river was not removed. This debris was responsible for the change in the course of river in Uttarkashi which led to huge loss of property. 5-6 years back I had read a news in one of the prestigious Newspapers about hundreds of glacial lakes that are being formed in whole of Himalayan regions. I still remember how disturbed I was reading this news for I was able to visualise what havoc this millions of litres of water, confined by natural boundaries, can do. Unfortunately people who are responsible for our safety and security were not perturbed by this news. But I am not writing this article to bring out failure of government. The purpose of this article is to give a contrary view to all that is being said by so called environmentalists. We know that these glacial lakes are ticking time bombs, one major earthquake or cloud bursts near some of these lakes can cause mayhem not only to the hills but also to the plains of northern India. Should we keep these places untouched and hope that nature will show mercy on us. Or should we allow engineers to find ways that can safely mitigate this problem. I am not denying that global warming is happening. I am not saying that we should not do anything to stop pumping of green house gases. All I am saying is please do not stop development of my people in the name of environment. They do not want five start hotel facilities, all they want are the basic necessity of life. They want roads, schools, hospitals, electricity, water. Are they asking for too much? A small village called kunao which is 5kms from Rishikesh is demanding electricity for their homes. Another small village gets cut off from rest of the country during rainy seasons because there are no bridges to cross seasonal rivers. There are hundreds of such examples that I can give where people have been deprived of the basic necessities of life in the name of environment. What surprises me is the fact that people living in metros, driving most inefficient vehicles, living and working in centrally air conditioned places are deciding the fate of these people in the name of environment. They are telling us that these roads, these electricity and water connections, these schools and hospitals (actually I should call them dispensaries because they are no more then that) will do irrevocable damage to the environment. I would like to remind everyone that it was our mothers and grandmothers who first raised the voice for forests. It was our ancestors who used their body as a shield to protect trees. They were not European funded NGOs but simple villagers who understood the need for protecting environment. Children of these villagers feel cheated by governments, courts and NGOs. There life and there hope of development has been completely slashed into pieces. These broken hopes are leading to frustration and the biggest sufferers of this frustration are the speechless animals and forests whose first line of defence has now turned against them. Our environmentalists are fighting for stricter laws to protect forests. But who will implement these laws? The state forest department? The truth about this department is that every year it starts controlled forest fire to burn dried woods and leaves. Every year this controlled fire gets out of control and burns hundreds of hectare of forest lands. These fires and a new threat lantena grass(which is spreading faster than forest fire) have reduce the quality of forest to such an extent that animals are not able to find food in these forests. Hungry animals are coming to the fields of villagers and destroying all that they are producing. As a result villagers have stopped all kind of agricultural activities. But is it not more profitable? For now these young villagers are presentable, honest and cheap labour for metros where they are manning the gates, washing the dishes and cleaning the floors. Nobody ever talks about quality of forest. Is it because quantity and not quality is money spinner. We agree that forest and wild life is important but how do we explain it to the mother whose 5 yrs old has been eaten by the tiger or 20 yrs old girl whose face has been disfigured by a bear. This anger against wild life has started showing signs. Few years back a tiger trapped in a cage was burned alive by villagers. Villagers who used to rush to extinguish fire at far away forests are today much happier spreading that fire to new places. Is it possible to save forest by alienating locals? There is a need to create balance between development and environment. This balance can be made by involving locals in decision making and not enforce decisions taken by supreme court or central government appointed committees. If bridges can't be made because they will block elephants route then we have to make under pass or specially designed bridges that will solve both the problems. Humans living near forest are at least as important as forest or wild life living in that forest. While billions can be spend for tiger and elephants projects, we are not ready to even spend few thousands for these poor souls. One thing all of us need to understand is that there is a cost associated with protection of environment. Unfortunately, people dwelling near forest are the ones paying this cost.