The Himalayas are so divinely beautiful that they remain part of your mindscape even when you are miles and miles away. The lovely hamlets (perched atop a hill next to a deeeep valley wherein rushes a river with a loud gurgle) you saw en passim, too, continue to allure.
Though even so far away from thence, you continue to worry over the structures built almost in the river bed, especially because the rivers there, given the gravitational pull, are forever rushing downstream, and they can be in spate any time, given the melting of the snow, not to foget the fierce monsoon!
Hence the Dharali tragedy feels very bad. En route to Gangotri, near the picturesque Harshil village-n-valley, the site of the "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" shooting, lies this hamlet. Very touristy with hotels and homestays, unfortunately too close to the river which some time back had changed its course!
As most structures there are (for example, the parking slot near the Aarti Ghat in Haridwar) built in the arable fields fed by the rushing rivers, and given the eternal landslides that may happen any second, especially in the rainy season, the Himalayan tragedies are waiting to happen!
This time round, too, it was a combo of heavy rains (though not exactly a cloudburst as in the Kedarnath tragedy in 2013) and the fissures/fractures in the abundant glacial lakes/ponds there. The right side of Dharali is literally washed away, is submerged under the debris.
Given the loss of human lives, not to mention, of property, almost on an annual basis at least, one wonders why people build the way they do! As it is, the young Himalayas have a geology that is fragile. This eco-sensitive zone is earthquake prone, moreover, as the tectonic plates underneath are constantly mobile.
Sure, tourism is the mainstay of the economy there. Yet hotels and homestays, while being built, must respect the gorgeous Nature there. They must co-exist with the wondrous Nature there, not threaten it with reckless abandon.
Honestly, there should also be a restriction on the number of tourists even at Yamunotri or at Kedarnath. Otherwise, it could lead to a probable stampede, given the very, almost unbelievably, narrow roads simultaneously traversed by trekkers, horses, palkhi's and pittoo's! Simply horrible would be the result, given the geography!
The Himalayan tragedies MUST be averted, in brief! Vehicular movement, too, needs restrictions. Why, tourists are not devotees, and are there for reel-making, just to prove, nay, rather shriek on the social media the empty boast of "been there, done that"!
Pratima@ The very thought of the Mullaperiyar Dam, situated in the Idukki district of Kerala, but operated by Tamil Nadu, too, is an eternal terror. It was built between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick. It is a masonry gravity dam! Downstream are four connected dams that are huge. No wonder, often there are online appeals to save the 'God's own country' from literally being washed out of existence!
No comments:
Post a Comment