Big enchancment in India’s catastrophe preparedness, response: IUCN
8 min readBy PTI
NEW DELHI: While India’s catastrophe preparedness and response has improved, the fragility of the Himalayas and the rise in inhabitants and infrastructure are on the root of crises just like the Joshimath incident, senior officers on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) mentioned.
Authorities in Uttarakhand have declared Joshimath in Chamoli district a landslide and subsidence-hit zone.
Wide cracks have appeared on residential and industrial buildings and roads and fields within the city famend as a mountain climbing and pilgrimage vacation spot. A variety of constructions have been declared unsafe and residents shifted to safer locations.
“Whether it is flash floods, cloud bursts or incidents like Joshimath, it is partly because of a combination of issues. The increase in human population and infrastructure to cater to tourists and the fragility of the Himalayas are at the root (of it),” Yash Veer Bhatnagar, nation consultant of IUCN India, mentioned in an interview with PTI.
“As conservationists, we do not want to stop development everywhere. We want to make it as sustainable as possible, knowing well that remote villages in the Himalayas need basic amenities,” he asserted.
Satellite pictures launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation confirmed the Himalayan city sank 5.4 cm in simply 12 days following a attainable subsidence occasion on January 2.
Although Joshimath is constructed on a fragile mountain slope in a area liable to landslides, its sinking is being attributed to large-scale improvement initiatives being undertaken there.
IUCN India and the TCS Foundation have launched an initiative, “Himalaya for the Future”, which goals to boost sustainability and the well-being of the individuals within the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and downstream communities.
It includes reviewing present initiatives, analysis and literature; mapping and consulting with stakeholders, constructing eventualities to determine attainable interventions and growing a device for quantitative and qualitative modelling.
“We are designing a tool which looks at cross-cutting areas such as forests, urbanisation, water resources, energy, infrastructure, gender, migration, traditional knowledge, disasters among others,” Archana Chatterjee, Programme Manager, IUCN India, instructed PTI in the course of the interview.
“We wanted to look at these issues in an integrated manner”And what are the challenges rising within the area for which now we have to plan now by way of insurance policies and programmes,” she added.
It is an open and evolving mannequin. Technical research and thoughts maps of specialists and communities will also be fed in it.
The device, for instance, will assist individuals understand how a coverage choice for the tourism sector can affect forests, water sources, waste administration and different features, Chatterjee mentioned.
Bhatnagar mentioned although there was some criticism, India has improved quite a bit by way of catastrophe preparedness and response.
“We can see there was a good rapid response for Kedarnath. Even now, India is responding fast to Turkiye and Syria. There is an understanding at every level and we are better than the last time,” he mentioned.
India has launched ‘Operation Dost’ to increase help to Turkiye and Syria, which have been hit by a devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake and robust aftershocks on February 6.
Asked if the publicity to disasters and crises within the IHR goes to extend with the growth of the tourism sector, agriculture and hydro-electric initiatives, Bhatnagar mentioned, “The extreme weather events are certainly going to increase.”
He mentioned local weather change is resulting in modifications within the frequency, depth and distribution of rainfall in India. The quantity and timing of rainfall has turn into extra variable.
“A lot of cloudbursts are occurring in the Himalayas in September and October when the monsoon has normally receded and one doesn’t expect this to happen,” Bhatnagar mentioned.
He additionally harassed on the necessity to conduct “very strong” consciousness drives in areas nearer to glacial lakes to minimise hurt on the time of disasters reminiscent of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF).
Three million individuals in India are susceptible to flooding brought on by glacial lakes, the best variety of these uncovered on the earth, in line with a brand new examine by scientists on the UK’s Newcastle University revealed within the journal Nature Communications.
A lot of these individuals reside inside 10 km downstream of a glacial lake, the place any early warning time is more likely to be low and uncertainty in GLOF magnitude excessive.
As world temperatures rise and glaciers proceed to retreat, the quantity and dimension of glacial lakes is rising in lots of areas all over the world, together with within the Himalayas.
This can improve the chance of GLOF occasions, that are sudden and huge releases of water from a glacial lake.
Flash floods doubtlessly triggered by a GLOF occasion in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district in February 2021 left almost 80 individuals lifeless and lots of extra lacking.
“Our project can help develop packages for awareness to enable people to understand how to respond and how and where to construct,” Bhatnagar added.
On the Char Dham venture and the criticism surrounding it, Bhatnagar mentioned although the venture has a strategic facet to it, “we should look at the environmental impacts to the best possible degree”.
“There are solutions that can reduce environmental impacts and make it much more robust and sturdy infrastructure,” he added.
The Char Dham venture in Uttarakhand goals at offering all-weather street connectivity to the pilgrimage websites of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. It includes the development of 900 km of nationwide highways.
The venture has drawn criticism attributable to its potential impacts on the setting and native communities. Critics argue that the development of recent roads and highways within the fragile mountain ecosystem can result in soil erosion, landslides, and different ecological disruptions.
NEW DELHI: While India’s catastrophe preparedness and response has improved, the fragility of the Himalayas and the rise in inhabitants and infrastructure are on the root of crises just like the Joshimath incident, senior officers on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) mentioned.
Authorities in Uttarakhand have declared Joshimath in Chamoli district a landslide and subsidence-hit zone.
Wide cracks have appeared on residential and industrial buildings and roads and fields within the city famend as a mountain climbing and pilgrimage vacation spot. A variety of constructions have been declared unsafe and residents shifted to safer locations.
“Whether it is flash floods, cloud bursts or incidents like Joshimath, it is partly because of a combination of issues. The increase in human population and infrastructure to cater to tourists and the fragility of the Himalayas are at the root (of it),” Yash Veer Bhatnagar, nation consultant of IUCN India, mentioned in an interview with PTI.
“As conservationists, we do not want to stop development everywhere. We want to make it as sustainable as possible, knowing well that remote villages in the Himalayas need basic amenities,” he asserted.
Satellite pictures launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation confirmed the Himalayan city sank 5.4 cm in simply 12 days following a attainable subsidence occasion on January 2.
Although Joshimath is constructed on a fragile mountain slope in a area liable to landslides, its sinking is being attributed to large-scale improvement initiatives being undertaken there.
IUCN India and the TCS Foundation have launched an initiative, “Himalaya for the Future”, which goals to boost sustainability and the well-being of the individuals within the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and downstream communities.
It includes reviewing present initiatives, analysis and literature; mapping and consulting with stakeholders, constructing eventualities to determine attainable interventions and growing a device for quantitative and qualitative modelling.
“We are designing a tool which looks at cross-cutting areas such as forests, urbanisation, water resources, energy, infrastructure, gender, migration, traditional knowledge, disasters among others,” Archana Chatterjee, Programme Manager, IUCN India, instructed PTI in the course of the interview.
“We wanted to look at these issues in an integrated manner”And what are the challenges rising within the area for which now we have to plan now by way of insurance policies and programmes,” she added.
It is an open and evolving mannequin. Technical research and thoughts maps of specialists and communities will also be fed in it.
The device, for instance, will assist individuals understand how a coverage choice for the tourism sector can affect forests, water sources, waste administration and different features, Chatterjee mentioned.
Bhatnagar mentioned although there was some criticism, India has improved quite a bit by way of catastrophe preparedness and response.
“We can see there was a good rapid response for Kedarnath. Even now, India is responding fast to Turkiye and Syria. There is an understanding at every level and we are better than the last time,” he mentioned.
India has launched ‘Operation Dost’ to increase help to Turkiye and Syria, which have been hit by a devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake and robust aftershocks on February 6.
Asked if the publicity to disasters and crises within the IHR goes to extend with the growth of the tourism sector, agriculture and hydro-electric initiatives, Bhatnagar mentioned, “The extreme weather events are certainly going to increase.”
He mentioned local weather change is resulting in modifications within the frequency, depth and distribution of rainfall in India. The quantity and timing of rainfall has turn into extra variable.
“A lot of cloudbursts are occurring in the Himalayas in September and October when the monsoon has normally receded and one doesn’t expect this to happen,” Bhatnagar mentioned.
He additionally harassed on the necessity to conduct “very strong” consciousness drives in areas nearer to glacial lakes to minimise hurt on the time of disasters reminiscent of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF).
Three million individuals in India are susceptible to flooding brought on by glacial lakes, the best variety of these uncovered on the earth, in line with a brand new examine by scientists on the UK’s Newcastle University revealed within the journal Nature Communications.
A lot of these individuals reside inside 10 km downstream of a glacial lake, the place any early warning time is more likely to be low and uncertainty in GLOF magnitude excessive.
As world temperatures rise and glaciers proceed to retreat, the quantity and dimension of glacial lakes is rising in lots of areas all over the world, together with within the Himalayas.
This can improve the chance of GLOF occasions, that are sudden and huge releases of water from a glacial lake.
Flash floods doubtlessly triggered by a GLOF occasion in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district in February 2021 left almost 80 individuals lifeless and lots of extra lacking.
“Our project can help develop packages for awareness to enable people to understand how to respond and how and where to construct,” Bhatnagar added.
On the Char Dham venture and the criticism surrounding it, Bhatnagar mentioned although the venture has a strategic facet to it, “we should look at the environmental impacts to the best possible degree”.
“There are solutions that can reduce environmental impacts and make it much more robust and sturdy infrastructure,” he added.
The Char Dham venture in Uttarakhand goals at offering all-weather street connectivity to the pilgrimage websites of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. It includes the development of 900 km of nationwide highways.
The venture has drawn criticism attributable to its potential impacts on the setting and native communities. Critics argue that the development of recent roads and highways within the fragile mountain ecosystem can result in soil erosion, landslides, and different ecological disruptions.
