A dire warning from Joshimath

It’s considered a spiritual doorway to shrines in the Himalayas, a portal to the picturesque mountainscape and valleys of Uttarakhand, and a strategic pitstop near a sensitive border. The risks of this disquieting phenomenon have been known since at least 1976, when a state government report first flagged it, but did not stop untrammeled infrastructure development or temper the enthusiasm of authorities in clearing projects such as the Char Dham highway project. An Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority study flagged that perennial streams, snow in the upper reaches, and highly weathered rocks with low cohesive characteristics made the area prone to landslides, a vulnerability further worsened by several floods in recent years and bursts of torrential, unseasonal rainfall. This natural susceptibility was made more acute by haphazard construction on fragile mountain terrains that blocked the natural flow of local streams, new tourist and residential buildings that put pressure on the slope, and a number of hydropower projects that disturbed natural water seepage and drainage systems. These risks too were flagged early and are well known, yet neither governments nor citizens paid any heed, a story repeated time and again in cases of indiscriminate development of fragile ecosystems across the country.