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| What it would be like.. (sanitized) |
What is a cloudburst (geographically and politically)?
A
cloudburst refers to a rainfall at a very high rate (more than 100 mm per hour).
Given that such a large amount of rain
falls in a matter of minutes, it creates a flood like situation – the
flash floods. In the Indian context, it also refers to a scenario when our
ministers survey the affected area aerially while our soldiers toil hard on the
ground to save every life, that, the politicians forget, is valuable. No, I am
not bashing India, it is just the reality. I have seen the likes of Kevin Rudd
( Australian Prime minister) help the victims himself when floods hit parts of
Australia and Donald Rumsfeld (the then US secretary of Defense) help the
victims of 9/11 by working on the ground. They, by no means, are less important
than MMS and Edvige Antonia
Albina Maino (I mean Sonia Gandhi).
What
does it do?
It destroys life and property. The former is hardly a valuable asset in
our country of a billion people. Thousands of people have already lost their
lives in this Himalayan Tsunami.
Is it
a natural disaster?
No, this one is not. While the Uttarakhand Chief Minister disagrees with
me , questioning how can flash floods and landslides be termed as man-made
disasters, I have a different opinion. It is a man – made one. Every time
politicians like him or Rahul Gandhi (who suggested that Atal ji’s suggestion
to join all rivers is tantamount to ‘playing with nature’) open their mouth, I
feel that there should be an entrance exam for people to be qualified as politicians.
Not only will that allow only those above a certain IQ to govern our country,
it will also save us the embarrassment of having leaders like SM Krishna who would
read a Portuguese minister speech at the UN , instead of his own! Sorry for
digressing. We have mindlessly constructed damns, built roads, buildings
(including our own homes) perilously close to the rivers (and in some cases on
the river beds) and thereby have played with the eco system of the region,
inviting such disasters. It’s funny that when we see the Yamuna, as she ought
to be seen, we call it “floods”. We do not have an efficient disaster
management department. They say “we have all the new techniques to rescue the
people stuck in disaster, however, what we lack is the means to transfer these equipment
to the area that are affected”. That’s
like saying, I know you are dying and we have the best doctor with us, but we
cannot wake him up. Death, is given. Many people die of heat in summers and
cold in winters, but only Gujarat has a Heat action plan for its citizens. Time
to learn, perhaps (even for the “secular” people) ?
Mr. CM, mindless construction and deforestation has led to this disaster.
We trusted you to protect us, we trusted wrong. You shamelessly admit that the
Uttarakhand state disaster management authority (formed 6 years back) has not
even met once. You also allege that no other state has an agency prepared to
meet the devastation of such magnitude. Two points here – a ) This argument
hardly absolves you of your duty , b) Other states are not as prone to natural disasters
as yours is. Doppler radars cost only a few crores and they can inform you 3-4
hours before a cloudburst, however, you did not install them, perhaps, you were
busy “allocating the money to a greater cause”.
What
did the CAG say?
The CAG report released in April, 2013 raised pertinent issues. It highlighted
the lack of basic personnel with 44% of the posts in the district emergency
cell vacant, no trainers to train the people at the district or the village
level on how to manage such emergencies, lack of adequately trained medical
staff and no actionable plans in Uttarakhand to tackle natural phenomena such
as Cloudburst, glacier collapse or flash floods despite the state being prone
to such disasters.
As
usual, the Congress blood prevented the state CM to listen to the CAG.
What did the media do?
Believe
it or not, they “all” were the “first ones” to reach the place. Sure I wanted
to know who were the first ones and they did not disappoint me. To be fair
though, the media did do a good job of bringing us pictures and plight of the
people stranded there. It led to a movement across the country where people have
come together to contribute in their own ways, by supplying food, water,
blankets and a few chosen one chose aerial visits.
What do we do?
We
write blogs, post on facebook and sleep in disgust. I hope all of us have gone
beyond regular praying and done something more meaningful for the affected. On
an ugly side, there were reports that some of “us” were looting valuables from
the temples and worst, even from the pilgrims. There were incidents of loot in
many parts of the affected areas, which put us all in a very bad light. Winston
Churchill was opposed to India getting independence, because he thought that
Indians were unruly and barbaric people who won’t be able to sustain the
independence. This incident almost makes me wonder, if we have lost love and
respect for life. Pardon me my generalization, but such were the scenes.
What we ought to do?
Contribute
any which way we can to help those who are in need. There are groups on
facebook and other NGOs who are tirelessly working to help the needy. Please do
find out and extend the help. Many offices are also driving such initiatives,
and so is mine, to help the victims. The platform is not important, the
contribution is. Let us also wish that the lives of those affected and the livelihood
of the locals is restored to normalcy at the earliest. While I was surfing
channels today, I came across a movie “Shiva, the Hero”. It all seems ironical
after the images that we saw from Kedarnath. The Indian government teaches how precious
our lives are, so let us take the positives from this man made disaster, and
spend more time with our families, for you never know what will happen on your
next trip.
Who to thank?
Who
else but the CM and the PM? Of course, I am kidding. The Indian army. We all
should thank the Indian army for being the best heroes that we have, night and
day, through thick and thin, through pot holes and external aggression, you
always rise above and restore our faith on a belief that is India. Thank you.
7 comments:
good job Rahul...
nicely contrasted the present situation of our politics.
both Indians and Indian politics are suffering from the disaster...although former being natural but later by our own wrong decision to vote these politicians...
while i share your feelings regarding political apathy towards disaster management. we need to be realistic about our capabilities. Disaster management as a separate field emerged in India only in 2005 Its importance is yet to permeate to the local level who are the first respondents during a disaster. So it is unfair to compare ourselves with a US or Australia.
Development vs environment debate has been raging for a long time . In most cases environment has been on losing side. Earlier, local people were strong supporters of environment. But today stringent green laws are making even public anti environment. For example, the move by central government to declare the gaumakh- uttarkashi stretch as an eco sensitive zone , if implemented would have spelt doom for local population and state economy. For any development in the zone, a permit is required from central government. I am not sure what was the intent of government in framing such a notification, whether it was out of genuine concern for environment or with an intention to drive people away from relying on ecology for their livelihood. Green laws and rules need to be drafted in such a way that decision making powers are left with the locals.
Even Judiciary is responsible to some extent for the current tragedy. River bed mining was banned a couple of years ago by supreme court . Although supreme court ban was for limited period, the central government extended the ban . As a result the river bed level kept increasing reducing the carrying capacity of river. Right way forward would have been to regulate river bed mining. This trend can be seen in most of green laws and rules. they are either anti or pro development, there seems to be no effort to find a via media by the policy makers and the judiciary. In the end , local population is the ultimate casualty for such flawed rule making
Regarding CAG report, it is not surprising to see such large vacancies. Even important departments in government like police,administration have large unfilled vacancies. Various reasons are there for that ranging from slow long recruitment process , lack of training facilties to lack of people with adequate expertise.
We will have to look at means and ways to augment state capacity.
Another major cause for concern is public apathy at large towards their local environment. Delhi is a classic example. Both CWG games village and Akshardam temple have come up on river bed[NOT RIVER BANK]. i am not aware of any major movement by locals against these moves by government.
despite these lacunae one area where we have done well is in disaster response. The army , NDRF and other agencies involved in relief and rescue are part of the very central government that we have been bashing. Without coordination and resources from union and state , rescuing such a large number of people from a difficult terrain would not have been possible. We need to give credit where it is due.
Thanks Faraz
@ Bharat
Thanks for sharing with us some pertinent points to reflect upon. Disaster management as a concept did come to us in 2005, however, a country that has seen so many floods, earthquakes etc., isn't it too late? Even if I do not dig the past, do you think 8 years is not long enough to have our basics in place? I did not compare ourselves with Australia or the US. I simply was highlighting the fact that their leaders are more empathetic about the plight of their countrymen, not like ours. Surely, that has nothing to do with the introduction of "Disaster management" as a separate field. Perhaps , we need to introduce "empathy and love for electorates" in our Country, what say?
I totally agree with the points you make about the apathy that the government has towards environment conservation and as the public, we are to blame too, perhaps more than the government. That said, there have been movements around the Uttarkashi area against construction, by the locals. But that can be a one off incident.
I am a little dismayed by the last paragraph you have written , almost thanking the central govt. A - It's the bare minimum that it could have done ; B (and most importantly) - the govt. DID NOT call for the army for 2 days post disaster, and it was the ARMY themselves who did not wait for the orders and went ahead with the rescue mission. I fail to see any silver lining for the government in this case.
Very well written Rahul!
Thank you Misha "anonymous" Kohli. :)
Well written Rahul...I completely agree this is man made disaster..We are not doing enough to mitigate the damage such things could cause
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