Loopholes Which Were Showed after Disaster 2013 of Uttarakhand

Every disaster teaches some lessons and creates an opportunity to do things in a better way of reducing the disaster in the future. Disaster 2013 of Uttarakhand had shown loopholes in the following:

Communication and Technological Development: For effective management of the disaster, steady inflow of reliable, authentic and updated information is very important (Rautela, 2013).

a) The multimodal transport system with built-in redundancies is highly required.

b) Roads and bridges in the Himalayan Regions need to be built differently to guard against landslide and floods.

c) A network of airstrips and heliports are required to remove endangered persons and to supply relief materials.

d) Wireless communications have to be strengthened to enable the rescue and relief work besides creating livelihood opportunities for the people living in remote areas of the state.

Housing Development

a) Public buildings have to be designed in a manner that they are able to withstand landslides caused by heavy rains.

b) Habitations which are endangered by river bank erosion and landslides have to be moved to safer locations soon.

c) Strict prohibition of encroachment in the riverbeds and steps should be taken for removal of past encroachment.

Management of environment and vegetative cover

a) Greening of the slopes and area around the path of rivers and allowing the river a floodplain would reduce the adverse impact of flooding in the rivers.

b) Environmental services provided by dense natural forests, alpine pastures, lakes and glaciers should be recognized and rewarded by the beneficiaries of these services.

c) Watershed treatment programmes are required to make it easier to channelize the outflow of excess water, strengthen the contouring and bunds protecting fertile land or underground water sources with vegetative cover.

d) River BenchMark has to be scientifically extracted from all the rivers and rivulets flowing through Uttarakhand so that the river channels are free from clogging and are kept deep.

Development of Science and Technologies:

a) Better meteorological and river flow observation equipment is required to improve the ability to forewarn the local population about likely adverse weather events.

b) River training structures are required to utilize the water resources while at the same time serving to limit the damage caused due to flash flood.

c) Smart electricity distribution grids with disaggregated load dispatch centres need to be planned to prevent outrages.

Others:

a) The government of the state needs to encourage livelihood options in addition to tourism to reduce complete dependence on Char Dham Yatra. Huge investment in terms of technology, as well as monetary assistance, are required to shift from subsistence farming to producing high-value products which include herbs, aromatic oil extracts, foundation seeds, off-season vegetables, flowers and fruits with the corresponding investment in taking the produce to the market.

b) Environmental services provided by dense natural forests, alpine pastures, lakes and glaciers should be recognized and rewarded by the beneficiaries.

Policies and Regulations Amended by Uttarakhand State for Future Resilience (post flash flood of 2013)

1. Uttarakhand State officials have been directed to formulate the new green measure ‘gross environment product’ (GEP) which would give out yearly updates on the status of the state’s glaciers, forests, rivers, air quality, soil etc. Hence, Uttarakhand became the first state in the country to start tabulating GEP, a measure of the health of the state’s natural resources.

2. Chapter III of Uttarakhand Flood Plain Zoning Act, 2012 was revised after the flash flood, 2013 that the Flood Zoning Authority should carry out surveys of the river flowing through floodplains to determine the nature and the extent of floodplains of the rivers.

3. Chapter IV of Uttarakhand Flood Plain Zoning Act, 2012 states Notification of Limits of Flood Plains says that the State Government on the basis of a report from the Flood Zoning Authority or by the notification from the Official Gazette can declare to demarcate the floodplain areas, either to prohibit and restrict the use of land pattern.

4. Uttarakhand High Court has imposed a ban on any construction within a radius of 2 km from major lakes in Bhimtal, Nainital, Khurpatal, Sattal and Naukuchiyatal lakes without assessing the bearing capacity.

5. Uttarakhand High Court has also imposed a ban on cutting down of trees within 5 km from the lakes and rivers in Uttarakhand.

6. Uttarakhand High Court has banned the burning of fossil fuel within 10 km from the glaciers and the state government has been asked to provide LPG and kerosene to residents of Bhimtal, Nainital, Khurpatal, Sattal and Naukuchiyatal. All plastic bags and other such objects have also been banned within 20 km of the glaciers.

7. Uttarakhand High Court has declared river Ganga and river Yamuna as the ‘Living Entity’ due the damages made by the human beings by throwing industrial sludge, plastics, religious wastes, etc. Presently, Ganga and Yamuna rivers have the right to be legally protected like a natural human being.