Context: The floods that hit Uttarakhand are a symptom of two critical ecological and developmental emergencies.
Ecological Emergency: due to
Environmental fragility: Make the region susceptible to earthquakes, landslides and flash floods.
Overlapping of Indian tectonic plate and Eurasian tectonic plate.
Presence of fast-moving rivers with source in glaciers
Climate change: Heterogeneous glacier retreat (due to rise in temperature) is changing streamflow patterns, affecting the incidence of glacial-lake outburst floods.
Exacerbating the risk of flooding and water shortages associated with future climate change.
Developmental Emergency:due to
Ignored environmental fragility: Constructing dams and roads have disrupted natural water flow and slope and encroached on areas exposed to rapid flash floods.
Distortion of environment data: responsibility for quantitative and qualitative data on land and water rests largely with agencies that also have regulatory or planning responsibilities.
E.g. The Survey of India, The Geological, Botanical and Zoological Surveys and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.
Focus on the cost of construction: The development paradigm is focussed more on the cost of construction and direct benefits rather than evaluating its impact on nature.
E.g. the value of increased production for irrigation projects, the value of power supply in hydel projects, cost and time reduction for travel in road projects and so on.
Management of water resources: infrastructure project (dams) alters and impacts all riparian states and thus ignores multiple uses of a river downstream. (may also impact precipitation)
Governance challenges are increasing because of demographic, economic and ecological changes.
Way Forward:
Ensure objective, reliable and data on the environment
Strengthen sources of objective data and expand research on climate change impact in universities and research institutions.
Using technology: utilise remote sensing capacities offered by the Space Commission.
Ecosystem-based approach forevaluation: Road and urban construction in vulnerable areas, land-use projects in dryland areas need to look beyond construction cost.
Manage multiple uses of water: Go beyond dispute interstate dispute redressal (under Article 262)
Every river-based project should be designed and approved in the context of entire river basin.
Ensure cooperative decision making based on a shared understanding of hydrology of the river.
Supreme Court judgment in the Kaveri case has recognised waters of the inter-state river as a national asset and cannot be located in any one State.