A decade since Kedarnath tragedy, lessons remain unlearnt

The first two months of the annual Char Dham Yatra in Uttarakhand saw the deaths of 149 pilgrims. While officials said most of these deaths occurred due to high altitude sickness resulting in lack of oxygen followed by cardiac arrest, experts have raised concerns over Uttarakhand's vulnerablility to disasters due to unsustainable development and an increase in pilgrims visiting Hindu shrines.

Increasing number of pilgrims

Of the 149 deaths, 72 were reported from Kedarnath. Till June 26, 28 pilgrims had died in Yamunotri, and 27 pilgrims died in Badrinath and 16 in Gangotri, respectively. Six pilgrims also died during the yatra of Hemkund Sahib, the Sikh shrine whose doors were opened on May 26.

Also Read — Four pilgrims from Madhya Pradesh dead as landslide buries vehicles in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi

Experts say that lessons from the 2013 Kedarnath tragedy went largely unheeded as the number of pilgrims to the Char Dham Hindu shrines has since increased beyond the carrying capacity of the valleys.

In the first 15 days of the annual pilgrimage, over two lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the 3,880 metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas. Last week, the yatra remained suspended for two days due to inclement weather.

Last year around 3.65 lakh pilgrims offered prayers at the Shrine despite a cloudburst hitting the yatra camp, killing 15 pilgrims on July 8.

Daily pilgrim cap removed

After the land subsidence was reported in Joshimath – one of the main halts on the Yatra route – Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami decided to limit the number of daily visitors to Chardham shrines. For the Yamunotri shrine, the daily limit was set at 5,500 pilgrims; for Gangotri, 9,000; for Badrinath, 15,000; and for Kedarnath, 18,000.

Dhami, however, yet again rolled back the decision under pressure and decided to lift the daily cap on the number of devotees for the Chardham Yatra in April, a day before the Char Dham Yatra was slated to begin.

Hemant Dhyani, a noted environmentalist and member of the Supreme Court-appointed panel to look into the Kedarnath disaster, noted the lessons from the tragedy entailed a need for a sustainable and decentralised model of tourism based on the ecological carrying capacity of the fragile Himalayan ecology. "Instead of assessing this, a rampant increase in pilgrim influx is overburdening fragile Himalayan valleys," a report by the Hindustan Times quoted Dhyani as saying.

Need for sustainable development

Stating that it is not just the number of pilgrims that is a problem, Dhyani said, mountains need a sustainable model of infrastructure development.

"Instead of a disaster- and climate-resilient approach for infrastructure projects, the Char Dham railways, urbanisation and various roads projects are being taken up without keeping in mind the fragility and sensitivity of the Himalayas," Dhyani said. "Such unsustainable and irresponsible approach is in fact making our Himalayan region more vulnerable to disasters like cloudbursts, flashfloods and landslides."

After the Kedarnath tragedy, an expert body set up by the Supreme Court in 2014, said hydropower projects should not be built in disaster-prone valleys north of the main central thrust (MCT) line, but the recommendations were not adopted.

"Despite this, nothing was implemented and, as a result, we witnessed the aggravation of the 2021 Rishi Ganga flood and sinking of the Joshimath area," Dhyani said.

Improving forecasts

The report noted that authorities have also been found lacking in putting in place systems that would predict weather phenomena quickly so that the human cost of disaster can be prevented.

In 2014, the then chief secretary Subhash Kumar had held talks with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for setting up Doppler radars in the state. The initiative, under the Union Earth Sciences Ministry’s Integrated Himalayan Meteorology programme, aimed at improving weather forecast services in the Himalayan states.

Two Doppler radars have been installed, one at Mukteshwar in Nainital district in 2021, and another at Surkanda in Tehri Garhwal district in 2022, the report quoted Bikram Singh, director of the weather office’s Dehradun centre, as saying. He added that the third radar will be set up at Lansdowne within the next two to three months.

Meanwhile, IMD head Mrutyunjay Mohapatra recently said that India has significantly reduced the number of deaths due to extreme weather events over the years but the loss of property is increasing amid socio-economic progress.

Comparing the 2013 Kedarnath floods and the Himachal Pradesh floods this year, he said there has been an overwhelming improvement in early warning systems, prediction and preparedness, prevention and mitigation by disaster management agencies and the general public.