A great rescue, with lessons to learn

A disaster in which everyone survives is a rare occurrence. Avalanches, landslides and building, bridge and flyover collapses, train derailments and collisions, cloudbursts, floods, why even just heavy rain and lightning – all leave a trail of bodies and depressing death counts.

The collapse of the road tunnel that was being built on the Char Dham Yatra route in Silkyara in Uttarakhand could have been one more in that list.

That it is now a joyous celebration of a successful rescue effort in which all 41 workers who were trapped inside came out alive owes to two facts: One, the workers were fortunate to escape the collapse itself as they were working some distance from it in the 4.5-km long tunnel, and they were not lacking in oxygen; and two, following from this, the rescue effort was not racing against a ticking clock.

As described by Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), member of the National Disaster Management Authority, it was an “all-of-government” approach that pulled in the relevant ministries and agencies in the state and at the Centre, while private and public sector companies came forward to help with their expertise.

Two Australian tunnelling experts were also brought in. The rescue was challenged in all aspects -- the density of Himalayan rocks, the danger of another collapse, the breaking of a drill.

When machines could go no further, some out-of-the-box thinking brought in a group of “rat hole” miners, so called because they descend into coal mines through shafts so narrow that the National Green Tribunal has banned the practice. It was their skill that set the stage for the final act in a 17-day saga that had the nation holding its breath and hoping for the best. 

As India celebrates the successful rescue, some lessons must be drawn too. Firstly, dodging environmental impact assessments -- as the Char Dham Mahamarg Pariyojana did, citing national security to brush away concerns about digging in a seismologically active zone -- is never a good idea. An EIA might have guided tunnel construction away from vulnerable spots to where the mountain sides are less fragile.

It might have also helped to put in place disaster management protocols. And it might have even led to a reconsideration of the need to build an all-weather road for pilgrims in a region that is simply not equipped to absorb large-scale human traffic. It can only lead to more deforestation, more construction on fragile slopes, and more disasters. 

Neither the idea of making pilgrimages easy, which militates against the traditional concept of pilgrimage itself, nor any national security purpose can be served if mountains start collapsing and floods wash away roads.

In the rush for gleaming infrastructure, the workers and the families are the ones facing nature’s fury.

Along with the washing away of a good portion of the Shimla highway and the sinking of houses in Joshimath earlier this year, Silkyara is the third red flag of the havoc over-development in the Himalayas can cause.

More tunnels are in the pipeline on the Char Dham route. It is still not too late to rethink the project.