The avenging angels ......Page 4
INTERNET EDITION : www.dailyexcelsior.com/magazine
SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2015
Ancient art to serve modern........Page 3
THE DYING DEVIKA
Anil Paba
There are countless people in the region who pray to the Devika as mother Goddess and elder sister of Ganga. It is believed that having a bath in
this River not only purifies human body but also the soul. A tributary Doodh
Ganga joins Devika at historical Aapshambu temple, Udhampur. The real
issue is : will the Devika survive after the unprecedented ecological and
cultural destruction caused to it by a series of unauthorized construction
and disposal of municipal wastes, other solid wastes and untreated sewage.
IMPORTANCE OF HOLY DEVIKA
The Holy Devika rivulet having about 58 hect. catchment area, passes
through the Udhampur town has on its banks the complex of temples..
The Devika River is sacred to humanity as a fountain head of the oldest
civilization and cultural heritage of Jammu and Kashmir. It is also the symbol of faith for thousands of its citizens since time immemorial.
The peculiarity of this river is that it flows subterranean from SudhMahadev to Utterbehni. Devika river has a very old history and had been well
described in our ancient scriptures. As it is said- there is divine power in Holy
Devika that the ASTHIS put in water of Holy Devika get dissolved within two
days. It is considered more sacred than Ganga. All the sins vanish, by taking single bath in its water. There are number of temples, water bowalies
etc. in the Devika Temple Complex. The river has social economic manifestation as it not only generates lot of employment opportunities for the local
people especially during festivals but also benefits people in performing last
rites of the mortal remains of their loved ones. People take bath in the
bowalies on the occasion of Baisakhi, Solar eclipse, Lunar eclipse,
Amabasya, Chaitra Choudish Mela etc. every year. It is submitted that such
is the sancity attached to this River that Lord Krishna is said to have told
Yudhishter that when River Ganga gets burdened with the sins of evil doers
then river Ganga comes to have a bath in Devika river. It is in this manner
river Ganga gets purified.
EXPANSION OF UDHAMPUR TOWN
Udhampur town like all other towns of the State is expanding in all directions. The expansion has particularly been accelerated due to the location
of headquarter of Northern Command of Indian Army. This town is also the
district Head Quarter of Udhampur district. Being a centrally located place
for some adjoining towns such as Ramnagar, Kishanpur, Ladan, Pancheri,
Kud , Sudhmahadev, chenani etc. people started settling here resulting in
increase of population of the town and consequently economic activities
increased manifold. Such is the impact of expansion of this town that Holy
Devika and its tributary Doodh Ganga which used to be the western Limit
of the town now is centrally located.
POLLUTION OF RIVER DEVIKA AND ITS TRIBUTARY
Since from the last two decades holy river lost its purity because of excessive pollution and thereby turn it into a small stream full of garbage and foul
smell.
River Devika receives waste water from the adjoining area of the Town
namely Housing Colony, Shiv Nagar, Indra Nagar, Adarsh Colony, Chabutra Bazar, Old Bus Stand, T.B. Hospital, waste from Military Hospital (Human
Wastes), Mohalla M.H.road, Pollution of Police Line area. People of these
areas have opened their sewerage pipes, drain outlets, latrine drains, dirty
water outlets directly into the river. Besides, toilets and other wastes from
various schools, big hotels on the encroached Devika Lands have been
allowed to pour the dirty water into the Holy river.
Moreover, the Municipal authorities are dumping garbage and night soil
on the either side of the river Devika and all these have been objected to
by the locals of Udhampur which is well within the knowledge of the District
Administration and Municipal authorities but till date nothing has been done
by the authorities to curb the same. Besides Military Hospital and Army
Command Area's contribution of water also finds its way into Holy Devika.
Photo/author
SURVEY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND NECESSITY
Installation of various water treatment plants on River Devika and its tributary has become a necessary, but these should be recommendations by
various boards and agencies more particularly the recommendations made
by State Pollution Control Board. A preliminary detailed project report for
development of Holy Devika temple complex including the pollution control
was prepared with the help of the Infra-Structure Development Consultants, Panchkula. The scope of the envisaged project was pollution control
of Holy Devika Complex and construction of other allied infra-structure
requirement that is installation of treatment plants. But due to paucity of
funds and huge recurring expenditure it was felt that implementation of the
said scheme would not be possible in near future. It is unfortunate, that
District Administration and Municipal Authority Udhampur instead of taking appropriate steps for protection of Devika and its 58 hectare area of
its land from encroachment and its prevention from pollution has misused
the public money to the tune of Rs.09 crores which was spent for the construction of protection walls on either side of Holy River Devika which in
turn led to the continuous process of encroachments of Devika land by the
land mafia in connivance with the Revenue Department of District Administration.
Pollution of the Holy River Devika and its tributary Doodh Ganga is the
major issues for which the author and locals of the area are striving for the
last more than 25 years and the issue of River Devika has already been
projected by our political Pundits particularly during the time of elections
either Assembly or Parliamentary. Also during of Kargil war when the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Udhampur town,
a memorandum regarding Protection and Prevention of River Devika from
pollution and encroachment was presented by the then MLA to the PM.
The former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had assured that requisite steps will be taken to protect it.
Also during the recently held Assembly Elections 2014 when our present Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Udhampur during election campaign he reiterated the same thing by assuring the people of Udhampur
that every possible step for protection and prevention of River Devika and
its tributary Doodh Ganga from pollution and encroachment on the same
analogy of River Ganga will be taken. Due to the apathy of politicians and
administration the level of pollution in the river has been on the rise with
the passage of every day.
The Deputy Commissioner as well as Executive Officer Municipal committee, Udhampur with an intention to save their skin and gain public sympathy over sanitation of Holy Devika have issued an order directing the
locals not to put their septic outlets into the sacred river, but there is no
implementation of the order in letter and spirit.
Time and again the samples collected and analyzed by the various
agencies including State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) Jammu and submitting its report to the district administration warned them that almost all
the parameters are against permissible limit which have been assigned
for the categorization of Rivers under designated best use.
The issue of Water Resources Management has been projected and
brought to the notices of the authorities at Udhampur as well as State
authorities but no action has been taken till date. But on the other side the
authorities are shying away from taking any action or steps. The authorities
should declare it the " No Construction Zone", whether residential or commercial, upto 50 meters from both the banks of River Devika or its tributaries like Doodh Ganga depending on gradation and location.
Otherwise, the day is not far in the future when the issue of River Devika will ceases with the extinctions of the Holy River Devika and its tributary
Doodh Ganga and the name of this sacred River Devika will be history for
our coming generation only because of the lapses on part of the district as
well as the State administration just like the extinction of other rivers of religious importance in India like Holy River Saraswati.
A catastrophe in the making
Bhadarwah-Doda-Batote road in bad condition.
Naveen Hakhoo
While travelling from Bhadarwah to Jammu
one will come across the first-hand response
of nature to human apathy, short sightedness
and complete ignorance of geological insight.
The life-lines of modern human civilization better known as roads are in shambles in most of
the Chenab valley. Whatever is left of the roads
or no roads is in deplorable state and a recipe
of a major disaster is brewing.
Disasters result in widespread social disruption, trauma, property damage and loss of
life. Natural hazards, viz. Earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, floods have repeatedly
been the cause of calamities in the Himalaya.
Alandslide considerably affects the roads, telephone & electricity lines, cultivable lands,
crops, tree plantations, business, transportation and life as a whole. The Jammu and Kashmir State has a sensational record of catastrophes due to landslides that are unique and
unparalleled as being in tectonically active and
structurally complex Himalaya.
Landslide hot-spots (oval-red) along the
Bhadarwah-Doda-Batote Highway.
In the mountains of the Jammu and Kashmir State, majority of people live in inaccessible areas, but efforts to improve access have
caused increase in landslides because of poorly planned roads built on fragile, environmentally sensitive and tectonically unstable land.
The landslides can be attributed to the roads
rashly cut into unstable slopes, heavy rains
falling on deforested land, reservoir induced
inundation and tectonic shifts in the Himalaya.
Deaths are caused when communities mushroom alongside the poorly planned roads.
The problem of landslides has assumed
very serious magnitude in the J&K State
because of the tremendous expansion in road
and building construction activities. Not only
construction but also maintenance of roads in
Photo/author
Himalaya is major challenge. Landslides block
the roads almost after every rainfall. Jammu
and Kashmir has a number of landslide hotspots, notorious among them being the Nashri,
Panthial, Kaura-Pani and recently Khairi, Raggi-nala, Assar, Drudhu etc. Increase in landslide impacts along different parts of the
Bhadarwah-Doda-Batote highway can be
largely accounted to the incessant rains on
deforested hills and inappropriately engineered road construction. In a cloudburst
event, these landslides have the potential to
turn into devastating debris flows. In such conditions local inhabitants will be at a very high
risk. And we have no idea how these systems
would behave in an earthquake during which
a massive slide/ rock-fall could block the
Chenab River 'Reservoir' at multiple places
thus creating critical situation similar to one
experienced in Zanskar (Ladakh) recently
though the latter was not associated with an
earthquake.
Bhadarwah-Batote road stretch is strewn
with 2 dozen minor and 5 major slides (in slate,
phyllite, granite, schist and terraces). The
stretch from PulDoda to Batote is in worst possible state. The Assar and Kaura-Pani slides
are big monsters ready to devour life and property. The Baggar portion is in equally bad
shape. The roads have slumped and have
been completely washed away at umpteenth
places.
Despite rapid advances in science and
technology, losses due to the landslides have
invariably increased. The economic and
social costs of the landslides will keep multiplying with the increase in population and societal complexities. There is an urgent need for
preparedness towards landslide disaster
reduction and most of the serious landslides
in the future will be related to earthquakes in
this area that is seismically very active. Thus,
it is pertinent to have a renewed look at the
issues of saving lives and property and build
a new culture of landslide disaster management; environmental assessment; economic
constraints and strategic thinking.
There should be a regional comprehensive
study of the landslide occurrences; geology,
environment and economic impacts, within
the Chenab valley (Bhadarwah-Doda-BatoteKishtwar). Basic investigation should be followed by extensive geological field work and
various analytical techniques to understand
the hazard systems from local to regional
scale.
Landslide hotspots and sites for environmental impact assessment should be identified. Recognizing active landslides is easy but
delineating stable from a questionable slope is
difficult. However, for this purpose, a field
investigation of the proposed route by an experienced geotechnical engineer along with a
geologist has to be accomplished. Geological
study of landforms along with records of rainfall and the effects of construction on soil profile, the underlying rock and ground water conditions are significant in determining the vulnerability of an area to landslide and the same
are to be addressed with complete seriousness.
With the advances in science, it is possible
to map landslides with a good degree of accuracy. Ground studies, however, remain indispensable for scientific interpretation, analyses
and treatment of landslides. Aerial photogra-
phy, Geographical Information System (GIS)
should be extensively used for the recognition
and identification of landslides hazards and
environmental impacts. Sophisticated methods are needed to be employed for the information abstraction and interpretation. A fresh
strategy is warranted for the socio-economic
impact assessment.
So far the study on landslides vis-a-vis
anthropogenic & seismic influences from the
Chenab Valley and their environmental and
socio-economic implications are un-known.
The primary data is absent. At the same time
detailed mapping and hazard assessment
using modern technology remains un-attempted. These ideas should be tested to reconstruct
the landslide hazard zonation along Bhadarwah-Doda-Batote highway, including Kishtwar.
This will provide a framework for the proper
road construction, preservation of fragile
Himalayan environment and understanding of
disaster preparedness therein.
The landslide hazard has assumed critical
phase in the Jammu and Kashmir State
because of the tremendous, reckless and
unplanned expansion in road and building construction activity in hilly regions. It is pertinent
that we look afresh at the issues of saving lives
and property and build a new culture of landslide disaster management employing manpower and technology to attain the following
objectives:
Investigating and integrating the geological
and environmental impact assessment data.
Integrated framework for landslides, environmental & economic impacts.
Iidentifying environmentally sensitive locations of active and potential landslides with a
view to avoid landslide prone stretches for road
planning.
Assessing economic impacts of continued
landslides and road blockages on life and property.
Detailed field investigations together with
proper design of preventive and control measures for stable slopes.
Plan of landslide disaster management programme; preparedness, quick response &
strategic thinking.
Investigating threat imposed by earthquake
induced landslides.
(The author is Geo-Scientist & Research Assistant Professor (adhoc) Institute of Mountain Environment (IME) Bhadarwah Campus,
University of Jammu.)