The recent havoc due to rains in Himachal Pradesh cannot be called just a natural disaster, say expert geologists, architects, and environmentalists who have been closely following changes in Himachal Pradesh’s climate, urbanisation patterns and environment for the past few decades.
They say it is a “policy induced disaster” due to change of land use which led to urbanisation, fourlaning, etc and only technological intervention combined with good governance and policy can help curb such devastation in the future.
Manshi Asher, Himachal based environmental justice activist and researcher, says: “This disaster did not occur suddenly. It has been induced through policies implemented over recent years like the change of land use, infra-structural changes like four laning, dams, and haphazard urbanisation especially for mass tourism, which has caused deforestation, muck dumping, soil erosion and slope instability beyond capacity.”
She adds that the solution is not fixing the nuts and bolts but long term work on governance and policy.
Rakesh Prajapati, director, industries department in the Himachal Pradesh government says: “We cannot pinpoint the reasons that led to such mayhem but there cannot be one single reason for the havoc that struck us. In Kullu and Manali, the reasons are different such as four-lane muck dumping, etc. In Shimla, the natural drainage system was obstructed due to heavy construction. So there are different reasons which led to it and no one solution is applicable to set things right.”
Kangra-based Romi Khosla, one of the top architects in the country, says: “In a state like Himachal, one size fits all urban/rural policy does not make sense. The state has a var- ied topography. Kangra is dif- ferent from Shimla and with in Shimla, there are valleys, slopes, and plateaus. There- fore, we need to have a different set of bylaws for different zones. In fact, each panchay- at should have separate bye laws.”
Till now Himachal Pradesh has seen construc- tion through the use of frugal innovation which is to “cut the slope into a horizontal ridge and then hold the hill back with a retaining wall and the water trickling down gets obstruct- ed. In a nutshell, this is the problem.”
Mr Khosla noted that had it been a one off rainy season, we could have said we were just unfortunate. But as per the scientific predictions global warming has led to these
weather patterns. He says this development model of self-sustenance is wrong. “Right now we are putting surplus money into real estate, such as build- ing hotels, four lanes, etc. whereas we have to move towards agro-based tourism.”
Tikender Singh Panwar, author of ‘Cities in Transition’ and convenor of Cityzens says: “Earlier extreme weather events happened once in 100 years. Now they will happen often enough. And these events have taken place due to our own greed. The Centre wants the state to exploit natural resources such as water, tourism, hydropower, etc. Four-laning is being carried out indiscriminately. And this has led to the devastation.”
He warns, “If we do not take remedial measures, be assured it is just the tip of the iceberg.”