Avoid constructions on river banks in hilly areas to stay safe

The havoc created by the ongoing rains and the cloud burst incidents have led to excessive swelling of rivers and dangerous landslides.

This has not only damaged roads and washed away houses but has killed several people and domestic animals. The colossal loss to people and properties in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh has taught the people and the respective governments a good number of lessons.

In Uttarakhand, during the last week, the toll had crossed fifty numbers. The massive ecological disaster of 2013 that took place in Kedarnath and its surrounding areas due to massive cloud bursts and excessive rain, killed thousands of people. This incident had also sent several signals of the impending dangers to the people, successive governments of the state and to the center.

Whenever there is overflooding of rivers and massive deluges, the inhabitants living alongside the river banks and plains suffer the most. At the very first instance, they lose their agricultural fields, houses, domestic animals and also their lives. The reason being that builders, Dhabawallas, hoteliers and local residents deliberately forget the risks involved in constructing their houses and buildings near the river banks. All this for immediate gains.

When the rivers swell beyond capacity because of incessant heavy rains and accumulate a humongous quantity of water due to cloud bursts the buildings, commercial establishments, shops, etc built on these river banks are directly affected. The inhabitants living in them are the direct victims. They get washed away, get pressed under huge debris of landslides or even under the damaged houses because their foundations get badly eroded. During the ecological disaster of June 15, 2013, even multistorey houses and hotels constructed on the river banks of the Alaknanda river fell like a pack of cards and killed several people. Hundreds of vehicles, even trucks, tempos and trolleys got swept away.

There are clear cut instructions in Uttarakhand and the ruling from the ministry of environment also mentions that no structure should come up within a specified parametre or distance from the rivers or on its adjoining banks or plains. This is probably up to 500 meters. Despite several horrific ecological disasters and monsoon tragedies, it seems that the people of Uttarakhand and its administration have not learned any lesson. This is a dangerous trend and has led to several deaths till date. It is not wise to blame nature, it is the attitude of these human beings and the state administration who can be blamed for these tragedies. The occupants and the tourists throw their rubbish, plastic, faecal, construction material and other dirt into the pious rivers and make them squeezed and polluted. Human beings embrace death and devastation by encroaching and going too near these rivers. First and foremost, the mining mafia which cuts down trees on these river banks and thus makes them hollow should be thrown out fiercely.

Eminent Environmentalist Sunder Lal Bahuguna’s son Rajeev Nayan Bahuguna who is a senior journalist,

while advising the people of Uttarakhand after the tragic death of about fifty people wrote: ‘Never ever build houses on the banks/plains of rivers and the monsoon rivulets. The ancestors never built their houses on these river banks. Residing on riverbanks leads to destruction and devastation for sure. There used to be Gharaats on river banks in an earlier era and that too at quite a distance. Construction of houses, hotels, restaurants has started since a decade. The political class and the lawmakers allegedly siphon off huge funds in the name of new construction. They are least worried about the safety and the well being of people. Therefore we should give up constructing structures on river banks and avoid these tragedies.’