A still of the damaged Dudhia Iron Bridge in Darjeeling following heavy rainfall. (Photo:X)
Over two dozen lives, including children, were lost after they were caught in massive landslides in Darjeeling on Sunday in one of the worst natural disasters in the country this year. The rainfall-induced landslides flattened homes, damaged roads, and cut off access to several remote areas. In fact, with heavy rains lashing across the Eastern Himalayas, including Nepal and Bhutan, more floods and landslides are feared in the coming days. Nepal is already reeling under extreme weather conditions with over 60 fatalities so far.
All this should actually be a wake-up call for governments to do some serious introspection and put a stop to the onslaught on the natural environment, which is having a worsening impact on disasters. Coming close on the heels of similar disasters in Uttarakhand last August, the ongoing devastations highlight the vulnerability of the region to cloudbursts and flash floods.
Unfortunately, the authorities continue to ignore the perils stemming from an unscientific and haphazard development process that has now taken root even in the once-remote hill stations. While we are bound to increasingly witness weather extremes in the form of sudden and excessive rainfalls, cloudbursts, flash floods, etc., due to climate change, these disasters are turning more fatal because of unwarranted human interventions on the environment.
A post-mortem of the disasters in the recent past will reveal that a spurt in construction, especially tourist facilities, coming up even on riverbeds and immediate floodplains is mainly responsible for large-scale destruction of life and property. Proper planning for such large-scale construction activities was either not there or was fundamentally flawed.
It will not be an exaggeration to say that many Eastern Himalayan areas such as Uttarakhand had been sitting on a ticking time bomb, with uncalled-for man-made interventions preparing the ground for such disasters.
With the Centre’s focus on large-scale hydropower generation in the Eastern Himalayas through mega dams, experts have warned of violent backlashes by Nature. Large dams greatly impact river flow and velocity, triggering flash floods during the release of excess water. And any breach in a dam can trigger unprecedented havoc.
This, and widespread deforestation along the riverside areas – something unabated in the Northeast as well – have added considerably to the fury of the floods. While an unusually heavy monsoon will trigger floods, unscientific land use patterns endorsed by the greedy and insensitive authorities are largely to blame for the devastation in recent cases of flash floods.
The governments of the northeastern States must be on guard against endorsing a developmental process that seeks to undermine legitimate environmental concerns. The ongoing urbanisation has been unscientific, caring little about the region’s environmental well-being. Power generation through a large number of big dams, aggressive and unplanned tourism and infrastructure creation, rampant deforestation, etc., need to be treated as matters of genuine concern.