uttarakhand floods

Uttarakhand and the Futility of Trying to Determine ‘Carrying Capacities’ of Towns

It is a difficult concept to operationalise and apply to human and social systems.

According to a recent newspaper report, the Uttarakhand government has decided to constitute a committee to determine the “carrying capacity” of various urban centres in the state.

At first sight this seems to be a worthwhile and much-needed exercise, as many mountain towns are faced with the problem of high population growth beyond the capacity of their civic administrations to cope with the consequences. There is also the fear that some, if not most, towns and cities may have already exceeded their carrying capacity.

As evidence, reports point to the perennial problems faced by them – water shortage, non-availability of land for housing and other needs, failure to deal with mounting waste management, traffic jams etc.

This throws up the troubling question: how do we deal with this development? Should we, or can we, remove some people from these places? Should we, or can we, prevent more people from coming in and settling in these places? Do we have any legal authority or instruments to justify such drastic action?

It is useful to underline that while carrying capacity as a concept is being increasingly used to describe the situation in our towns and cities, and at a more general level to the planet earth, it is a difficult concept to operationalise and apply to human and social systems. Let us first try to understand what it implies.

To quote an oft-used definition:

“The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment’s maximal load, which in population ecology corresponds to the population equilibrium, when the number of deaths in a population equals the number of births (as well as immigration and emigration)”.

Even a cursory analysis of the concept highlights the problems in applying it to human and social systems.

Also read: Double-Engine Govt in Uttarakhand Flouted Rules To Allow River Mining: Report

For one, in human and social systems resources are not static and fixed, they are rather quite dynamic and flexible. For instance, shortfalls in local food production can be overcome by imports from outside through channels of trade and commerce that have been created over millennia. In fact the process of urbanisation was facilitated by surplus food production in the countryside and its availability to urban areas through trading systems. Where it is not possibly to import a resource there technology provides the solution. For instance, shortage of water can be overcome by conveying it over short and long distances either by means of canals and pipelines using gravity flow, or where the terrain does not allow it, by use of pumps.

Similarly, shortage of land can by overcome by building multi-storey dwellings. Technology has also been used to augment resources and also create new resources. A good example is the seed-fertilizer package, known as the ‘green revolution’ that helped to augment food grain production manifold and prevent widespread food shortages in the decade of the seventies in the last century. Thus institutions (like the market) and technology have been instrumental in overcoming the constraints of carrying capacity.

The notion of carrying capacity is best-suited for use in closed systems like animal preserves and national parks. Here the maximum number of a predator species (carrying capacity) is based on the prey base, both in terms of the number and quality. Theoretically, carrying capacity depends on the availability of resources of various kinds – food, water, land, clean air etc; but it is ultimately determined by the resource that is in least supply.

Also Read: Redevelopment Projects at Badrinath Must Respect its Unique Natural and Spiritual Heritage

For instance a closed system may have enough food, land and clean air available, but only limited supplies of water. Hence the carrying capacity of the place will be determined by the availability of water. Application of the concept to open systems is quite problematic, because as argued above, intervention of technology and socio-economic institutions like the market can modify it in significant ways.

Coming to the practical application of carrying capacity to social and human systems, I am aware of two attempts to do so in Uttarakhand.

One is a comprehensive study of carrying capacity of the Doon Valley spearheaded by the National Environmentalal Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) with involvement of a number of institutions.

The report was submitted to the Ministry of Environment, which sponsored the study, in 1996 or thereabouts. The other is a study of the carrying capacity of Mussoorie undertaken by the LBS National Academy of Administration at the behest of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee for the Doon Valley in 1997-98 and published in 2001. Surprisingly, the Mussoorie study has no reference to the NEERI study despite the fact the latter has included data from Mussoorie in its report. The NEERI study has a wealth of quantified information on various environmental domains and issues; yet it refrains from putting a value or even a range of values to the carrying capacity of the Doon Valley.

It contents itself with identifying and analysing the various factors that have a bearing on the concept. The Mussoorie study is more explicit in quantifying carrying capacity. After analysing data on population, tourist arrivals, water availability, land area it concludes that based on water availability the carrying capacity of the town comes to 46,666 persons and 9,844 overnight tourists in 1997. It estimated the population in 1997 to be 40,892 rising to 55,735 or 62,757 in 2021 (depending on assumed annual growth rate of 2,05% or 2.6%.

Also read: Uncontrolled Construction, Ignored Warnings: How Joshimath Sank

Thus in terms of water availability the population of Mussoorie would not exceed the carrying capacity in 1997, but it would in 2021. However if tourist inflow into the town is taken into account then it would far exceed the carrying capacity, especially during the peak tourist season of April to July.

Faced with this situation the question that arises is how does one deal with the situation. This would be the situation in most of the towns of the state where the government proposes to undertake study of carrying capacity. This is likely to be most acute in towns falling on the Char Dham yatra route during the yatra season.

Depopulating these places or restricting the number of people undertaking Char Dham yatra is not an option the government would be willing to exercise. On the contrary the government has been encouraging more people to undertake the Char Dham yatra and providing facilities like wider roads and even ropeways to facilitate travel. In view of the above the sheer futility of the exercise is quite apparent.

B.K. Joshi is the founder-director of Doon Library and Research Centre, Dehradun and is at present its adviser.

This article was first published in the Garhwal Post, Dehradun, on August 27.

Six More Bodies Recovered in Rain-Battered Uttarakhand, Death Toll Rises to 52

Three people were killed and hundreds marooned as heavy rains lashed Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly and Pilibhit districts over the last two days.

New Delhi: Six more bodies were recovered on Wednesday in rain-battered Uttarakhand, taking the death toll to 52 in the Himalayan state, while Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, and areas of north Bengal were also pounded by torrential rainfall that caused landslides and closed National Highway-10, the main road linking Gangtok with the rest of the country.

Three people were killed and hundreds marooned as heavy rains lashed Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly and Pilibhit districts over the last two days.

In Uttarakhand, 17 people were injured and 16, including 11 members of a trekking team, went missing in rain-related incidents. The Kumaon region of the state, which has been worst affected by the rainfall, also reported cases of 46 houses being damaged.

With 28 deaths, Nainital alone has accounted for the highest number of fatalities.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami extended his tour of the affected areas of Udham Singh Nagar and Champawat districts in Kumaon to take stock of the situation. He travelled by road as his helicopter could not take off from Haldwani due to technical reasons.

Accompanied by Union minister of state for defence and Nainital MP Ajay Bhatt and state disaster management minister Dhan Singh Rawat, Dhami, on board a tractor, crossed vast stretches of marooned fields in Udham Singh Nagar district and assessed the damage to crops. He also trudged through the streets of Champawat to get a first-hand assessment of the damage inflicted by nearly three days of incessant rains.

Home minister Amit Shah is also likely to arrive in the state late on Wednesday night to review the situation. He may also undertake an aerial survey of the affected areas on Thursday morning, officials said.

The weather cleared across Uttarakhand on Wednesday, giving momentum to rescue operations and leading to the partial resumption of the Chardham yatra, with pilgrims allowed to proceed to Kedarnath, Yamunotri, and Gangotri. However, the yatra to Badrinath could not be resumed as the national highway leading to the temple was blocked by a landslide at several points.

Meanwhile, eight trekkers and three cooks accompanying them on a trek to Chitkul in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh went missing. The team of eleven people was on a trek to Chitkul via Harsil in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. An SDRF team is preparing to trace them in a helicopter and rescue them.

There was another report of three porters going missing along the Indo-China border in Uttarkashi district. They had accompanied an ITBP team on a long-distance patrol. They apparently lost their way, while returning, and got separated from the team.

Water has receded completely from the streets of Nainital, which was cut off from the rest of the state on Monday, with the Naini lake flooding the roads and landslides choking them at various points. Life returned to normal in Nainital on Wednesday morning as tourists were found shopping and taxis plying through the town.

Electricity and telephone connectivity which had been badly hit in Nainital by incessant rains has been restored. Villages on the outskirts of the town are still going without electricity and telephone connectivity. Haldwani and Kaladhungi roads have been opened partially to traffic restoring connectivity to Nainital.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said it has rescued over 1,300 people from flood-affected areas of Uttarakhand. The federal force has deployed 17 rescue teams in the state.

Torrential rains pounded the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim and the tea-growing region of North Bengal, causing landslides which cut off National Highway-10.

Normal life in parts of north Bengal was affected due to heavy showers in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts that triggered landslides, causing damages to roads and bridges, halting or constricting traffic in various places.

As the downpour continued, 3,800 cusec water was released from Bengal’s Gajaoldoba Teesta Barrage, causing inundation in several parts of the low lying town of Jalpaiguri. Water from the overflowing Teesta also submerged National Highway 10 that connects Siliguri with Sikkim’s capital Gangtok at Teesta Bazar area, restricting traffic.

The Meteorological Department issued a ‘red’ alert for Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Alipurduar, forecasting “extremely heavy rain at one or two places” in these districts till Thursday morning. Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rain during the period, it said.

Several low-lying areas in Jalpaiguri district have been flooded owing to a rise in the water level of Teesta and Jaldhaka rivers. People from these areas were being moved to safe places for shelter.

Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday visited the flood-affected areas in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur and distributed relief material among the people.

Instead of an aerial survey, Naqvi undertook a ground survey and even got on a boat to reach far-flung areas inundated due to the massive rains that have wreaked havoc in adjoining Uttarakhand.

In Uttar Pradesh, around 500 villagers in Pilibhit are trapped in the floodwater of the Sharda river. A couple in Bareilly’s Faridpur township and a nine-year-old boy in the Ram Nagar area were killed after their houses collapsed because of heavy rains.

The IMD, which had sounded an orange alert (heavy to very heavy rain) for 11 districts of Kerela on Wednesday withdrew it and changed it to yellow predicting ‘moderate rain’ in these areas.

Rains: Uttarakhand Reports 42 More Deaths, UP Sees 4 Fatalities, Kerala Opens Dam Gates

“Of the 42 fresh deaths, 28 people were killed in Nainital district, six each in Almora and Champawat and one each in Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar districts,” an official said.

New Delhi: Uttarakhand reported at least 42 rain-related deaths on Tuesday with many people still trapped under the rubble after landslides. While Uttar Pradesh witnessed four fatalities, heavy downpour in Kerala filled several dams to the brim and multiple districts were on alert.

In view of the incessant rains, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reiterated his appeal to Chardham yatris to stay where they are and not to resume their journeys before the weather has improved.

“The number of casualties in Kumaon region alone has crossed 40,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Nilesh Anand Bharne told PTI.

A flooded area after heavy rains in Rudrapur, Tuesday. Photo: PTI

With 42 new fatalities in the Kumaon region, the death toll in the disaster has risen to 47 as five deaths were reported on Monday.

“Of the 42 fresh deaths, 28 people were killed in Nainital district, six each in Almora and Champawat and one each in Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar districts,” the official said.

Also Read: Kerala Floods: At Least 25 Dead, Several Missing After Heavy Rain Triggers Landslides

“The connectivity to Nainital was restored in the evening after hours of struggle amid inclement weather,” officials said.

Members of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) evacuate stranded people following heavy rains at Chhara village in Nainital district, in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, October 20, 2021. National Disaster Response Force/Handout via REUTERS

Chief Minister Dhami undertook an aerial survey of the rain-hit areas and later interacted with the affected people on ground zero to make an assessment of the damages caused.

He announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in rain-related incidents across the state over the last two days.

Director General of Uttarakhand Police Ashok Kumar, who accompanied Chief Minister Dhami on a visit to the rain-hit areas of the Kumaon region, said roads, bridges and railway tracks have been damaged in Kathgodam and Lalkuan in Nainital and Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar.

It will take at least four-five days to repair the damaged tracks, Kumar told PTI.

Debris being cleared in Bhimtal on Tuesday. Photo: PTI

“Three Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters have arrived in the state and are assisting in relief and rescue operations. Two of them have been deployed in Nainital district, which has suffered extensive damage due to cloudbursts and landslides,” Dhami said.

According to a rough estimate, around 100 pilgrims from different parts of Gujarat who had gone to Uttarakhand for the Chardham Yatra were stranded following heavy rains and landslides, Gujarat Revenue Minister Rajendra Trivedi said.

“The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has rescued over 300 people from flood-affected areas of Uttarakhand,” the Federal Force said on Tuesday.

The NDRF has deployed 15 teams in the state.

Rainfall was reported from other parts of the country as well including Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, according to the Indian Metrological Department (IMD), which forecast an intense spell of rain over east and northeast till Wednesday, and south peninsular region during the next four-five days.

Authorities in the national capital said Prof Joginder Singh Marg in the western part of the city had been closed after the road caved in.

A 35-year-old woman and her mother-in-law died in Uttar Pradesh’s Fathepur after a wall of their house collapsed following heavy rains.

In Bareilly, also in UP, two labourers died of electrocution in Bisalpur road after coming in contact with a solar panel following heavy rains, police said.

A house damaged due to heavy rain at Jumma village in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. Photo Credit: PTI

In West Bengal, the Met department said heavy rainfall is very likely to continue till Thursday morning even as the low-pressure system that developed over the Gangetic Basin in the southern part of the state moved to Bihar, parts of which received heavy rains during the day.

The weatherman warned of extremely heavy rainfall over Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Alipurduar till Wednesday morning and downpour till Thursday over all sub-Himalayan districts.

The IMD forecast more rain on Wednesday in Odisha, which has already been battered by low-pressure area-induced downpour for the last three days. Fishermen were advised not to venture into the Bay of Bengal for the next 48 hours.

Down south in Kerala, after a relative respite of two days, the IMD Tuesday issued an Orange Alert for 11 districts of Kerala indicating heavy rainfall. The weatherman has also put 12 districts in the state on Orange alert on Thursday.

Commuters wade through a waterlogged street after heavy rain in Thiruvananthapuram, Monday.Photo: PTI

The IMD sounded an Orange alert for Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Kannur districts on October 20.

An Orange alert has been issued for all districts other than Kannur and Kasaragod on October 21.

Idukki, Idamalayar, Pamba and Kakki, four major dams among the total 78 dams in the state have been opened to release the excess water.

Shutters of Cheruthoni dam, part of the Idukki reservoir in Kerala, were opened on Tuesday to create more storage capacity in anticipation of the heavy rainfall predicted in its catchment area over the next two days.

Various district administrations have issued alerts to the people living downstream and shifted them to relief camps set up in the state.

The IMD said a low-pressure area lies over Bihar and neighbourhood. Also due to strong southerly/southeasterly winds from Bay of Bengal, a heavy spell of rainfall activity is very likely to continue over east and northeast India till October 20.

(PTI)

Incessant Rain Claims 23 More Lives in Uttarakhand, Nainital Still Cut Off

The overall death toll now stands at 28 with the Kumaon region being the worst hit.

Dehradun/Nainital: Twenty-three more people were reported killed in Uttarakhand on Tuesday as houses collapsed due to incessant rain in various parts of the state, leaving many trapped under the debris.

The death toll now stands at 28 with the Kumaon region being the worst hit. Five deaths were reported on Monday, according to the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC).

Eighteen deaths were reported from Nainital, three from Almora and one each from Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar districts on Tuesday, the SEOC said.

In Nainital, five people went missing after three houses, including a hut, collapsed following landslides in Kainchi Dham, Chaukhuta and Ramgarh villages. One person went missing in Almora and two in Champawat district, it said.

Director general of police Ashok Kumar, who accompanied chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on a visit to the rain-hit areas of the Kumaon region, said roads, bridges and railway tracks have been damaged in Kathgodam and Lalkuan in Nainital and Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar.

It will take at least four-five days to repair the damaged tracks, Kumar told PTI.

Nainital remained cut off from the rest of the state for the second day as landslides blocked three roads leading to the district.

The district’s Mall Road and the Naina Devi temple located along the banks of the Naini lake were flooded, while a hostel building was damaged due to landslides.

Around 100 people were stranded at the Lemon Tree resort on the Ramnagar-Ranikhet route after water from a swollen Kosi river entered the resort. Electricity, telecom and internet connectivity in Nainital have also been hit badly.

Three Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters have arrived in the state and are assisting in relief and rescue operations. Two of them have been deployed in the Nainital district, which has suffered extensive damage due to cloudbursts and landslides, Dhami said.

The third helicopter is assisting in rescue operations in the Garhwal region, he said.

Accompanied by disaster management minister Dhan Singh Rawat and the DGP, Dhami conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas and said there has been extensive damage.

He said the focus is on evacuating stranded people to safety.

The chief minister appealed to people not to panic as every step was being taken to save the lives of those in danger.

He said the meteorological department has predicted an improvement in weather conditions from Tuesday evening onwards.

Dhami also reiterated his appeal to Chardham Yatra pilgrims to stay where they are and not to resume their journeys before the weather improved. He also asked the district magistrates of Chamoli and Rudraprayag to take special care of pilgrims stranded on the Chardham Yatra route.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke to Dhami on the phone to take stock of the situation and assured him of all help.

The SEOC said that most rivers in the state are in spate. The water level in the Ganga in Haridwar has reached 293.90 metres, just a notch below the danger mark of 294 metres.

Kali and Saryu rivers in Pithoragarh have reached the danger marks of 890 metres and 453 metres respectively. The Gori river is flowing close to the danger mark at 606.75 metres, it said.

Nainital received 90 mm of rainfall, Haldwani 128 mm, Koshyakutoli 86.6 mm, Almora 216. 6 mm, Dwarahot 184 mm and Jageshwar 176 mm, the SEOC said.

For Seven Hydropower Projects in Uttarakhand, Environment Ministry Twists Facts

The affidavit turns its back on important submissions and deliberations in 2019, and paints an oversimplified picture twisted in favour of hydropower development.

The unprecedented floods that ravaged much of Uttarakhand in 2013 and killed over 4,000 people in the Kedarnath Valley alone brought into focus the adverse impacts of the rampant construction of hydropower projects in the Himalayan state.

In response, backed by scientific studies and driven by “pain, anguish and outrage”, a “concerned” Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on December 5, 2014, stating: “any decision on developmental projects especially hydropower projects should … be on very strong and sound footings with scientific back up”.

Yet, in a drastic change of stance from 2014, the MoEFCC filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on August 17, 2021, saying a consensus had been reached between the MoEFCC, the power ministry, the Jal Shakti ministry and the Uttarakhand government to continue work on seven hydropower projects:

Tehri II (1,000 MW)
Tapovan Vishnugad (520 MW)
Vishnugad Pipalkoti (444 MW)
Singoli Bhatwari (99 MW)
Phata Byung (76 MW)
Madmaheshwar (15 MW), and
Kaliganga II (4.5 MW)

According to state data (valid at least until 2016), the Uttarakhand government had planned more than 450 hydropower projects, with a total installed capacity of 27,039 MW. At the time, 92 projects with 3,624 MW of installed capacity had been commissioned and 38, with 3,292 MW, were under construction.

But the government’s plans were stalled after the Supreme Court intervened following the 2013 floods. The court is still hearing the matter, and its verdict, whenever it is pronounced, will decide the future of hydropower projects in Uttarakhand.

The MoEFCC filed its recent affidavit vis-à-vis the same case. And it is important because the ministry has claimed that this affidavit consolidates all its past presentations in the same matter.

The Wire Science has reviewed the Supreme Court orders, affidavits, counter-affidavits and the reports of several committees filed in relation to the case. The conclusion is clear: in its new affidavit, the MoEFCC has misrepresented facts to push for the seven projects, and has left out information that may call into question the ministry’s decision.

Seven projects may pave the way

In August 2013, the Supreme Court directed the MoEFCC to form an expert body to assess whether hydropower projects had aggravated the 2013 Uttarakhand floods.

The ministry formed an 11-member body – called EB-I, chaired by Ravi Chopra – in October 2013. This committee’s report stated that hydropower projects had indeed aggravated the impact of the 2013 floods. However, two dissenting EB-I members – one each from the Central Water Commission and the Central Electricity Authority – also submitted a separate report supporting the construction of hydropower projects.

After reviewing both reports, the MoEFCC endorsed the majority report. The ministry’s December 5, 2014, affidavit states: “it is pertinent to conclude that there has been a direct and an indirect impact of the [hydroelectric projects] in the aggravation of the flood of 2013”.

But MoEFCC’s new affidavit makes no mention of the 2014 affidavit.

Also in December 2014, the MoEFCC formed a second committee – with four members and chaired by Vinod Tare – to study the viability of six hydropower projects:

Lata Tapovan (171 MW)
Jhelum Tamak (108 MW)
Kotlibhel IA (195 MW)
Alaknanda (300 MW)
Khirao Ganga (4 MW), and
Bhyundar Ganga (24.3 MW)

These were among the 23 projects that the Chopra committee had suggested dropping.

In its February 2015 report, the Tare committee wrote that considering the negative impact the projects would have on Uttarakhand’s ecology and biodiversity, they “may not be taken up”.

In its May 2016 affidavit, the Jal Shakti ministry (then the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation) submitted an affidavit supporting the Tare committee’s stance.

But despite two committee reports recommending dropping the six projects, in June 2015, the MoEFCC formed a third committee – with 11 members and chaired by B.P. Das, a.k.a. EB-II. Its principal mandates were to suggest design modifications for the six projects, to conduct a cumulative impact assessment, and to assess the carrying capacity of the upper reaches of the Ganga river vis-à-vis hydropower projects.

The EB-II, however, stepped beyond its mandate, reviewed 70 hydropower projects, and suggested going ahead with 26 under-construction and proposed projects.

The seven projects the MoEFCC has proposed to implement in its new affidavit are among these 26.

Now, deliberations on February 25, 2019, in the chamber of the principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, superseded the EB-II report. At this meeting, the government decided that no new or proposed projects would be considered on the Ganga and its tributaries in Uttarakhand. It also determined that only the seven projects assessed to be “more than 50% complete” could proceed.

A January 2019 submission by the Jal Shakti ministry, to the MoEFCC, also only supported the implementation of the seven projects considering the substantial sunk costs. The submission also stated, unequivocally, that the ministry was “not in favour of construction of any other hydro-electric project in the Ganga basin”.

But the new MoEFCC affidavit simply forgets the January 2019 submission and the high-level February 2019 meeting, and states that the seven projects “also form part of the 26 projects recommended by EB-II for implementation”. Even the deliberations in the prime minister’s office find no mention in the text.

“The MoEFCC mentioning that these projects form part of the 26 projects goes to show that if these seven projects are approved for implementation, they will also pave the way for the implementation of the remaining 19 projects,” environmentalist Hemant Dhyani, who was a member of the Chopra committee, said.

Ravi Chopra, who chaired EB-I, said, “From the affidavit, it appears that the ministry has been very keen to push through these projects, even if it means misrepresenting facts and hiding the truth.”

The Wire Science emailed the MoEFCC secretary R.P. Gupta for the ministry’s response on Chopra’s characterisation of the affidavit, and its ‘forgetful’ nature. This article will be updated as and when Gupta responds.

Five aggravators

Of the seven projects that the MoEFCC has proposed for construction, five have been damaged in previous flood-related disasters. The 2013 floods damaged Phata Byung, Singoli Bhatwari, Madhmaheshwar and Kaliganga-II – all in Rudraprayag district. Tapovan Vishnugad, in Chamoli district, was damaged in disasters in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2021.

The Chopra committee report said that while these projects were damaged by the 2013 flood, they also made its impact worse.

The MoEFCC is arguing that the seven projects should go ahead because work on them is more than ‘50%’ complete. But environmentalists are not convinced. The NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad project is a case in point.

On February 7 this year, a flooded Dhauliganga river damaged much of the Tapovan Vishnugad project, which was under construction. At least 139 workers were killed at the project site. The MoEFCC affidavit says that the project was ‘75% complete’ before the deluge and that a post-disaster assessment is still pending.

“Without the post-disaster assessment, how has the MoEFCC assumed that the project currently stands at least at 50 percent completion?” Dhyani asked.

In addition, while the narrative in the new affidavit suggests that work has been stalled on the seven projects since 2013, the concerned developers have in fact been continuing work on most of them. This raises troubling questions over environmental clearances for disaster-hit power infrastructure.

“The projects damaged in disasters must apply for fresh environmental clearances since the basis on which clearances were obtained change after the disasters,” said Atul Sati, a CPI-ML leader from Joshimath town, Chamoli district, who is one of the petitioners in a case in the Supreme Court against the Tapovan Vishnugad project.

“No work should begin on the Tapovan Vishnugad project before fresh clearances are obtained.”

Dhyani also said the MoEFCC affidavit paints an oversimplified picture twisted in favour of hydropower development. As a result, he added, it commits a “grave injustice” against the people battling hydropower companies as well as facing the consequences of rock-blasting and tunnel-digging where they live.

The Vishnugad Pipalkoti project in Chamoli – one of the seven – provides an illustration. Within a month of the MoEFCC filing the affidavit, the pace of work on the project picked up. Around 6 am on September 22, sans prior notice, at least 16 buildings were demolished in Chamoli’s Haat village.

According to Haat’s gram pradhan (village head) Rajendra Hatwal, people from the developer company, THDC India Ltd., also forced the occupants of around nine houses out of the village as the company claimed their land.

Houses damaged in Haat after the demolition drive by THDC India Ltd. Photo: Special arrangement

Houses damaged in Haat after the demolition drive by THDC India Ltd. Photo: Special arrangement

MoEFCC overlooks CC

Even as climate change is emerging as a cause for concern in the Uttarakhand Himalaya, it finds no mention in the MoEFCC’s recent affidavit.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an important climate report on August 7 this year. It warns of Himalayan glaciers losing mass due to global warming and of an increase in “heavy precipitation” events that may trigger more landslides and floods in the region.

The Chopra committee had already warned that melting glaciers and extreme precipitation would impact hydropower projects. The receding glaciers will also leave behind loosened rock and sand that could increase the amount of silt in hydropower projects’ reservoirs.

“Despite the warnings issued by the scientific community, the authorities are either unwilling or unable to recognise that we are in the midst of a severe climate change phenomenon,” Ravi Chopra said.

His committee’s report also cautioned against hydropower projects in unstable paraglacial zones, particularly at altitudes of 2,200-2,500 m. But the projects the MoEFCC is pushing for, with the sole exception of Tehri II, lie either within or in the neighbourhood of paraglacial zones.

Worse yet, the seven projects also lie in seismic zones IV and V – i.e. ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’ intensity zones, respectively. Yet the MoEFCC affidavit leaves the issue of seismicity and its probable impacts on hydropower projects unaddressed.

Kavita Upadhyay is a journalist and researcher from Uttarakhand. She writes on environmental issues in the Indian Himalayan region. She’s a graduate in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford. She tweets at @Upadhyay_Cavita.

By Dismissing Petition on Chamoli Floods, Uttarakhand HC Ignored Environmental Concerns

On July 14, the Uttarakhand high court imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on five petitioners who were seeking cancellation of two hydropower projects, which were sites of death and disaster during the Chamoli flood in February.

The Rishiganga river that flows near Raini village in Uttarakhand is no more the meek river it once was. The remains of damaged hydropower structures and the dead that remain buried in its vicinity, never to be found, bear witness to the flooded river that gushed through the valley and ravaged the area on February 7 this year.

At least 204 people had died in the flood, and two hydropower projects – 13.2 MW Rishiganga near Raini, and 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad near Tapovan village – were completely damaged. The economic losses from damages to the projects alone exceed Rs 1,625 crore. On July 24, Saturday night, parts of the Tapovan Vishnugad project’s tunnel near Selang village, along with a lot of equipment, were damaged in a landslide. The evaluation of losses from the recent damages was pending at the time of filing the report.

Parts of the Tapovan Vishunagad project’s tunnel were damaged in a landslide on July 24. Photo: Special arrangement.

Six months after the flood, three people from Raini and two from Joshimath – in Chamoli district – approached the Uttarakhand high court seeking revocation of the projects’ forest and environmental clearances, and eventual cancellation of the two hydropower projects.

In their public interest litigation (PIL), the petitioners claimed that the use of explosives during project construction had weakened the already fragile hills, thereby increasing the frequency and intensity of landslips in the region. The current situation is such that for safety, the villagers from Raini sometimes take shelter in nearby forests. Considering this, the need for rehabilitation of the villagers was raised in the PIL.

The petition also sought to fix accountability of the hydropower companies for “criminal negligence”, since, of the 204 deaths, 192 happened at the hydropower sites. In the absence of any early warning system, the hydropower workers had no information about the incoming flood.

Also read: Why We Already Know the Rishi Ganga Flood Was a ‘Sooner or Later’ Event

However, in a major setback to the petitioners, on July 14 – the first day of the hearing – the division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma gave its judgment, calling the petition “highly motivated”, and the five petitioners “puppets at the hand of an unknown puppeteer”.

In the four-page judgment, the division bench stated that that though the petitioners “claim” to be social activists, there is no proof to ascertain the authenticity of the claim. “…there is no piece of evidence produced by these petitioners to establish the fact that they are “social activists”. They have neither mentioned if they had spearhead(ed) a social movement, or raised any social issue on any previous occasion…”

2021 Uttarakhand HC Judgment by The Wire

In sum, “not convinced with the bona fide of this petition”, the division bench dismissed the petition, while also imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 each on the five petitioners.

The petitioners’ counsel, D.K. Joshi, says that the information about all the petitioners was placed before the division bench in an affidavit along with the petition. “That the petitioners are social activists is a fact. There cannot be a certified document to ever prove whether one is a social activist,” says Joshi.

All three petitioners from Raini belong to a Scheduled Tribe community. Petitioner Sangram Singh (44) was the block development council (BDC) member between 2014 and 2019. He had approached the Uttarakhand high court in April 2019 too, seeking the court’s intervention to stop the Rishiganga project developers from using explosives, dumping muck into the river, and engaging in illegal mining.

2019 Uttarakhand HC Order by The Wire

When the use of explosives continued against the high court order, Singh approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT). “The NGT formed a team to investigate the matter, but it comprised people from the district administration whose intentions we were unsure of,” he says. Ultimately, all the efforts proved futile, and the project was built, says Singh.

On June 9, this year, the same division bench had heard another hydropower project-related matter – NTPC’s 171 MW Lata Tapovan – where too Singh is a petitioner. He says that the project’s tunnel passes through his hamlet, due to which the land there is sinking.

“On June 9, my identity was not a problem, but on July 14, my credibility and identity became questionable. How is that possible?” he asks.

“Ek toh aapadaa ne hamko mara, upar se court ne bhi hamhee ko mara (First, the disaster impacted us, and now the court too has bashed us),” says Singh.

The other petitioner, Bhawan Singh (34), is Raini’s current gram pradhan. The third petitioner from the village Sohan Singh (38) is a farmer and the grandson of Chipko Movement’s leader, Gaura Devi.

The remaining two petitioners – Atul Sati (47) and Kamal Raturi (49) – are residents of Chamoli’s Joshimath town. Sati is a CPI (M-L) leader, and Raturi is a Congress leader. Since 2004, under the banner of ‘Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti’, they both have been actively raising concerns related to the environment, public safety, and issues of compensation and rehabilitation in projects like the damaged Tapovan Vishnugad.

Hydropower projects, a continuing concern

Of the two projects in question, NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad project was under construction when the February disaster hit, and 139 people who died in the flood were workers at the project site. NTPC’s counsel Kartikey Hari Gupta says, “The petition has no concrete evidence on NTPC violating any existing norms…It (NTPC) is committed towards sustainable development. ”

The Uttarakhand government is yet to comment on the role of the two hydropower projects in the February flood. According to BJP leader and Uttarakhand government spokesperson, Subodh Uniyal, a committee was formed to investigate the matter. “The committee’s report is awaited,” he says.

However, the issue of hydropower projects in the fragile Himalayan state is not new. There are existing petitions in the Uttarakhand high court and the Supreme Court pertaining to various allegedly contentious hydropower projects in the State.

In the year 2013, massive floods ravaged Uttarakhand. Over 4,000 people died in the Kedarnath Valley alone. After which, the Supreme Court directed the Union environment ministry to form an Expert Body to assess whether the devastation from floods had worsened due to the presence of hydropower projects. In the year 2014, the Expert Body, which was headed by the Dehradun-based environmentalist Ravi Chopra, submitted a report supported by strong evidence of the distressing impact of hydropower projects in the state.

Also read: With Hydro Projects in the Himalayas Flouting Norms, Disaster Is an Eventuality

Speaking to The Wire, Chopra, who has been engaged with issues of hydropower for over 15 years, says, “With all due respect to the court, this judgment is deeply disappointing. The constitution demands a duty from all Indian citizens to ensure the well-being of the environment. A judgment like this will dishearten the common citizens from fulfilling this constitutional duty.”

A prime concern raised by petitioners and environmentalists is that in deciding a case based on the identity of the petitioners, the court may have totally ignored the merits of the petition.

Mallika Bhanot, who is a member of Ganga Ahvaan – a forum working towards conservation of the river Ganga – and has been active in the issues of hydropower projects in Uttarakhand since 2007, says, “The judgment is appalling. People died in the disaster. The PIL raised a pertinent issue which warranted thorough scrutiny of the petition based on its merits, and not solely on the identity of the petitioners, who, by the way, are all authentic.”

The judgment might act as a deterrent for people bearing the brunt of hydropower projects from approaching courts in the future, says Bhanot.

Hemant Dhyani, an environmentalist associated with Ganga Ahvaan, who was a member of the Expert Body that Chopra headed, says that the petition is “not based on whims and fancies. It is supported by several scientific reports, legal evidence, and evidence of the ground situation.”

Petitioners approach the Supreme Court

The petitioners’ counsel Joshi says that during the hearing he had requested the division bench for another date of hearing where the petitioners could be present to prove their credibility as social activists. However, the request was turned down.

Additionally, the financial requirements of the case have been heavily weighing down upon the petitioners. Atul Sati says, “We want justice, but we have limited financial resources.”

Villagers meet in Raini after the Uttarakhand high court order. They now want to approach the Supreme Court. Photo: Special arrangement.

The villagers themselves contributed the money for the petition that was filed in the high court in Nainital, over 290 km from Raini. Due to limited funds, counsel Joshi was paid no fee. Joshi says that barring his fee, of the Rs 25,000 that he spent on the petition, only an amount of Rs 7,000 has been received from the petitioners.

Sati says, “We haven’t even been able to cover the basic expenses that went into filing the petition in the Uttarakhand high court. On top of that, a fine of Rs 50,000 was imposed on us. We couldn’t afford to pay it, and we decided against filing a review petition in the Uttarakhand high court.”

A Special Leave Petition (SLP) requesting a stay on the high court’s judgment was filed in the Supreme Court on July 27, Tuesday.

Sati says, “Our only remaining hope is the Supreme Court, so we decided to take our case there. In the SLP, we have requested a stay on the Uttarakhand high court judgment. Our other prayers remain the same as they were in the petition we had filed in the high court.”

Kavita Upadhyay is a journalist and researcher from Uttarakhand, who writes on the environmental issues in the Indian Himalayan Region. She’s a graduate in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford.

Two Months After Floods, Chamoli in the Grip of Fear, Trauma and Sleeplessness

According to one member of the rescue team, many are afraid of working at night. They think the dead workers are talking to them.

Raini (Uttarakhand): It has been over two months since the flash floods in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, on February 7. The flood was triggered by a massive rockslide just below Ronti peak, which pushed against the stream’s water and triggered a flood.

The site still bears scars of the tragedy. The mounds of debris, made of boulders, sand, slush and pieces of the 13.2-megawatt Rishi Ganga hydropower project, near Raini village, remind the villagers of several bodies still buried underneath.

“There must be around 30 people under the debris, which was never cleared,” said Sangram Singh. In response to his PIL, the Uttarakhand high court had ordered authorities to stop blasting rock at the Rishi Ganga project site in 2019. “The district administration is not doing anything here.”

Raini lost two of its residents in the catastrophe. Rudra Devi, 62, lost her 26-year-old son Ranjeet Singh, a worker with the Rishi Ganga project. “My son often comes in my dreams and tells me that he was alive for three days, and asks us to dig out his body. But no efforts are being made.”

“The Rishi Ganga barrage site where debris is accumulated is a sliding zone. It is quite perilous to conduct any operation here,” Om Naresh, a company commandant of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), told The Wire Science. “We will have to create another approach road to reach the site and break the boulders and remove the debris. It will require permission from the district administration, and a long time.”

He added that his team had completed a search operation for any bodies resurfacing on the river along a 30-km stretch, up to Helang Pipalkoti, but got nothing.

After waiting for many weeks, the victims’ families in Raini had cremated straw replicas of their loved ones. A few locals had spotted stray dogs feeding on the body of the other resident, Amrita Devi, 72, near the debris a few days later.

Bhawan Rana, the village pradhan, said, “She was recognised by her clothes. It seems her body slipped out of a portion of loosened debris during the recent rains. However villagers refused to see her as it is considered inauspicious to do so once the cremation is done” – even of a replica. “So the local administration conducted the last rites.”

The villagers are now living in fear.

Vedambari Devi, who is Amrita Devi’s daughter-in-law, said, “I cannot forget that fateful day when my mother-in-law and I were planting mulberry saplings in our field. My son was grazing goats at a higher elevation.” All of a sudden, she said, she heard a roaring and turned to see a large heap of boulders, dust and water rushing towards them.

Vedambari Devi. Photo: Special arrangement

“I alerted my mother-in-law but she could not hear me, and got swept away. I rushed upward and was blown away by the wind on a road.” But she kept running until she reached her house. “My son fortunately had the presence of mind to run to higher land for safety.”

She said the family misses Amrita. “We don’t sleep well and are scared to hear the sound of even helicopters in the sky.”

“The families were desperate to see their lost ones,” said Manoj Singh, a driver who, along with his peers in the area, transported the bodies of the flood’s victims to their native places, paid for by the district administration. “People claimed whatever they could get – one hand, one leg, one foot, etc. of the victims killed in the disaster, and took that home for the last rites.”

The flood’s trauma has been such that many residents of Raini, a village celebrated for being one of the first centres of the Chipko movement in the 1970s, want to relocate. Chander Singh Rana (77), the son of Gaura Devi, one of the movement’s iconic leaders, said, “We will have to abandon our renowned village for the safety of our lives. The state government must give us ample land where we can also get land rights to use the nearby jungles and grazing areas.”

“Around 111 vulnerable villages have been relocated in Chamoli district in the past,” Chamoli district magistrate (DM) Swati Bhadauria said. “As per the criteria, a geological survey of Raini village will be undertaken to ascertain if it is unstable enough [to warrant] relocation.”

Social activist and local political leader Atul Sati told The Wire Science, “The Rishi Ganga project was built at a precarious location, where it was bound to come in the way and as a result get swept away by swift currents or an avalanche,” adding to the final damage.

He recalled its unsettling beginnings: the project’s previous developer had been killed when a boulder fell on him in August 2013, on inauguration day. “The project was stalled and then later bought by the Kundan Group, which started its operations last year. Now it has been completely washed away.”

Sati is rueful of this and other projects like it in the area – which he said may be very profitable to government officials and the projects’ proponents, but the people living around them don’t get jobs there, new facilities or even free electricity.

Chander Singh Rana. Photo: Special arrangement

Today, villagers are determined to not allow the project to be set up again. But S.D. Kamath, CEO of the Kundan Group, also said a fresh start may be infeasible: they needed a lot of money and resources to clear the debris and admitted the region may have become too unstable as well.

The walls of the Tapovan Vishnugad project used to scream safety messages, but a senior NDRF official said the plant’s operators themselves had scant regard for human safety. According to him, both this and the Rishi Ganga project lacked any pre-warning systems, observation points, exit points and security arrangements at the Tapovan tunnel when the flood waters hit.

One particular warning system that has been set up now is perhaps more ridiculous. An alarm has been installed near the Rishi Ganga river, and the village pradhan has been asked to inform the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and district officials “by phone when the alarm rings,” i.e. if the water has risen above the two-metre-mark.

“Here, the phone network is very poor, so it is not a reliable method. And the sound of the alarm will drown in the roaring sound of any flash floods happening in future,” Rana, the pradhan, said. It also doesn’t bode well that only one person is in charge of the whole system.

The alarm installed near Raini village. Photo: Special arrangement

In the meantime, various authorities have started disbursing compensation. According to sources, the NTPC has announced Rs 20 lakh, the Uttarakhand government Rs 1 lakh, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) Rs 4 lakh and the Centre Rs 2 lakh – from the PM Relief Fund – to the families of each victim.

“Around 77 bodies have been recovered thus far and over a hundred are still missing,” DM Bhadauria said. “We have begun issuing death certificates to the families of missing persons. The process of giving compensation to local families has begun – but authorities of other states to which some of the victims belonged are taking time to complete formalities.”

The NTPC is providing its compensation only after the state government has done so in each case.

The father of a young Nepali man, who had been working at the Tapovan Vishnugad project and was killed in the floods, was seen moving through different offices seeking compensation. He wasn’t bound to be alone as more than a few of his son’s compatriots met a similar fate on that day. According to Bhadauria, “Only the SDRF will compensate Nepali workers, as per a government order of 2019.”

That is, the families of Indian workers who lost their lives will get Rs 27 lakh each and those of the Nepali men will receive Rs 4 lakh each.

However, the families that lost members who worked at the Rishi Ganga facility haven’t received money yet. Kamath, the CEO of Kundan, said the company had deposited Rs 60 lakh with the compensation commissioner to be distributed among the families, including those of workers from other states.

The district magistrate said the administration had received the money but that the delay was due to the mode of disbursement. Kundan wasn’t distributing fixed sums but numbers calculated for each victim according to various parameters.

Members of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police watch as a machine is used to clear a tunnel after the flood, in Tapovan, Uttarakhand, February 8, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

The local police department has created a WhatsApp group with the family members of victims and missing persons. Here, they post pictures, results of DNA reports and updates about rescue work.

Excavation of the 12.1-km long headrace tunnel continues at the Tapovan Vishnugad project site. “We are inching closer to the point where around 34 bodies are feared to be buried,” a senior manager at NTPC said. “It will take us one week to 10 days to reach there.”

According to one member of the rescue team, many are afraid of working at night. They think the dead workers are talking to them.

Seema Sharma is a Chandigarh-based independent journalist. She previously worked at The Tribune and The Times of India. She writes on forest, wildlife, environment, social and rural issues.

Uttarakhand Floods: Two More Bodies Recovered from Tunnel, Death Toll Rises to 58

Eleven of the bodies were recovered from the tunnel at the National Thermal Power Corporation’s Tapovan-Vishnugad project site, where about 30 people were initially feared trapped.

Tapovan/Dehradun: Two more bodies were recovered early Tuesday from the Tapovan tunnel where efforts were underway on the 10th consecutive day to reach workers feared trapped inside after a flash flood in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district.

The confirmed death toll in the Chamoli disaster has now mounted to 58 and another 148 people are missing, an official said.

Eleven of the bodies were recovered from the tunnel at the National Thermal Power Corporation’s Tapovan-Vishnugad project site, where about 30 people were initially feared trapped.

Meanwhile, Chamoli chief medical officer G. S. Rana issued a video statement, saying all those killed in the glacial disaster suffered bodily injuries, and sludge and water entered their lungs.

“Post-mortem has been conducted on all the 58 bodies recovered so far by February 16 and I have seen the reports. All of them died of injuries sustained on their bodies and due to sludge and water entering their lungs,” he said.

The multi-agency rescue effort in Chamoli district is focusing on the Tapovan tunnel.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) commandant P. K. Tiwari said the search-and-rescue operations will go on till the last victim is reached. But he also indicated that the clearing the sludge and the debris from the entire tunnel could take months.

Asked about the chances of survival of those missing or trapped, the NDRF commandant said he cannot say anything with certainty, but miracles do happen.

Rescue work at the site progressed slower Tuesday than on other days with water seeping out of the debris from the yet to be cleared portion of the tunnel.

The agencies involved in the Tapovan rescue work include the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force.

(PTI)