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News Topical, Digital Desk : After the horrific disaster in Dharali village of Uttarakhand, concerned experts have stressed the need to study the existing settlements located on the riverbanks or flood plains. Experts believe that the Dharali disaster should not be seen as an isolated case.
The east is periodically flooded
Purbhumi are the plains situated on the banks of the river which get flooded from time to time. These plains are usually made up of soil, silt, sand and gravel deposited by the river. Due to the high amount of nutrients, this land is fertile, which makes it very useful for agriculture. Due to this reason, villages and settlements are also established in Purbhumi, but they are often at risk of floods.
Many scientists including Dr. Kumar say that the debris-laden water stream that hit Dharali was on its original path and it destroyed all the hotels, homestays, restaurants and houses that came in its way.
Buildings were constructed in violation of environmental norms
In view of the boom in tourism in the last few years, dozens of hotels, restaurants and homestays have mushroomed in Dharali and most of the buildings destroyed in the Dharali disaster were built in violation of environmental rules on the banks of the Khirgad seasonal river.
The disaster that struck on August 5 turned a beautiful stopover on the way to Gangotri Dham into a huge pile of rubble in the blink of an eye. People say that the government also turns a blind eye to the violation of norms in environmentally sensitive areas, including a ban on new construction on the banks of the Bhagirathi river.
What did tourism officials say?
State government tourism officials also admitted to turning a blind eye to the construction of hundreds of hotels, resorts and homestays at sensitive places like Purabhami along the river banks in the hill state. "Why only Dharali? As soon as we move from Rishikesh towards the Garhwal hills, we see hundreds of hotels and resorts built along the river banks," said BJP MLA from Tehri Kishore Upadhyay.
In the year 2023, a large building of a training academy collapsed like a pack of cards amid heavy floods in the Song river in Maldevta area of Dehradun. Experts say that this building was constructed on the river bank in gross violation of environmental norms.
What did the environmentalists say?
Environmentalist Anoop Nautiyal said that the most vivid example of violation of environmental norms in construction is present in Dehradun where the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha building has been built right on the banks of the Rispana river. In the last few years, dozens of colonies including Bhagat Singh Colony have been built by encroaching on the banks of the Rispana and Bindal rivers in Dehradun.
People say that in most cases government officials are in collusion with land mafia and buildings are constructed on the old land. An expert said, 'These people are so powerful that if you raise your voice, you don't know what will happen to you.' Many petitions have been filed in the Uttarakhand High Court regarding the damage caused to the environment due to illegal construction in Dehradun, Rishikesh and other areas.
The Supreme Court has also given instructions to remove encroachment
The High Court has also directed the state government to remove encroachments from the land along the Rispana and Bindal rivers, but the Congress and some social organizations are opposing this move. A BJP leader, on the condition of anonymity, said, "We cannot remove these encroachments because corruption is involved in this entire process."
Former Congress MLA from Rajpur Road in Dehradun, Rajkumar, said that he is not against the removal of these settlements located on the banks of the Rispana river. He said, 'We just want that they should be rehabilitated before they are displaced.'
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