Unsettled By Rain
INCESSANT RAIN FOR 60 HOURS, SIX FEET OF THICK SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINS WITHIN THREE DAYS, COUNTLESS LANDSLIDES, HOMES WASHED AWAY AND PEOPLE STRANDED…KINNAUR, JUNE 2013.

THE KINNAURIS BORE THE BRUNT OF THE DISASTER, BELIEVING IT TO BE THE FURY OF THEIR LOCAL DIETY, THE GODDESS OF RAKSHAM. BUT THE SATLUJ AND BASPA VALLEYS ARE DAMMED AND PIPED, THE MOUNTAINS ARE BLASTED AND DUG THROUGH, PUSHING THIS REGION TO THE BRINK OF DISASTER.


The rain had followed us all the way from Kalka to Sangla. Treacherous roads carved into the mountains were flanked by the Baspa. We were told, that the waterfalls that once flowed into the river had disappeared and dams had sprung all over. The tents at Azad Kashmir kept us cozy, till the rain started seeping in. At the break of dawn the next day, we trekked up to Wonderland in Sangla town, our abode for the next few days. The rain was still sharp. The power failed the next day. Our batteries and the solar torches died. Water was scarce and firewood was over...we were stranded! Each time the sky cleared, the mountains looked whiter - six feet of snow fell within three days, we were told. After sixty hours, on the third day, the sky cleared and we ran off to the helipad at the Baspa-II hydropower plant. We had to trek, cross gushing water, wade through puddles of muddy sludge…the roads were all gone. We waited for nine hours before we were airlifted to an Army base at Karcham from Sangla. From the Army base, fifteen of us were airlifted further to Shimla. The remain ing 11 had to stay back for two nights at the army barracks. Here they waited a day for the rescue helicopter that failed to turn up. Then after a 14 km trek and twenty six hours of travel they reached Delhi.



Himachal Pradesh has seen rains and cloudbursts before, but the damage was never so invasive. "At least, not in the last fifty years has there been rain this devastating", says Vidyakaran Negi, 65.

The unregulated blasting of the mountains loosens the soil and the piped rivers revolt when nature strikes back. Perhaps the disaster wasn’t due to the incessant rain, but the mindless development. There are more than 18 dams that are in different stages of construction in the 6401 sq. kms of the Kinnaur district alone. They are mostly small and micro run-of-theriver projects. The same rivers are dammed and piped at short intervals reducing them to a mere trickle. The development debate rages on, but the disaster warns us to not take too many chances with nature. With great power comes great responsibility.