‘Tunnelling impact causes slides in fragile Uttarakhand areas’

Citing an observation of the Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC) in Uttarakhand that called for “banning of use of explosives in the Himalayan terrain”, the Union water ministry, in an affidavit, submitted to the Supreme Court on May 31, informed that “tunnelling and blasting have a resonating impact in these fragile areas, causing slopes to slide.” This, the ministry claimed, was part of its efforts to prevent the clearance of any dam projects in the upper reaches of the river to achieve one of prime minister Narendra Modi’s pet projects: Clean Ganga.

“Most of the upper catchment of the Ganga is a high landslide, landsinking prone zone and falls under seismic zone 4/5. The increased pressure of anthropogenic activities has rendered the area vulnerable and exposed to more such incidents,” the water ministry claimed.

Using as an inset in its affidavit the findings of an investigation by the DMMC in the aftermath of the flash flood in the Assi Ganga valley in Uttarkashi and Okhimath in Rudraprayag in 2012 that proposed banning the use of explosives for infrastructure developmental works, the water ministry asserted, “The region around these (hydroelectric) projects are located in a geographically unstable, seismically active area. Hence, the impact of any disaster will have a devastating effect on the people, flora and fauna, and the entire eco-system as a whole, which is uncalled and unwarranted for.”

Apart from calling for a ban on the use of explosives, the ministry also reiterated that to ensure unfettered and uninterrupted flow, a prerequisite for river rejuvenation, the Ganga, along with three of its tributaries — Alaknanda, Mandakini and Bhagirathi — “should remain in their current condition without any further disruption, interruption or diversion.”

In the aftermath of devastating floods in Uttarakhand in 2013, the Supreme Court had ordered the formation of a committee, which, in April 2014, recommended the scrapping of at least 23 hydropower projects on the river to save the ecologically fragile region. The environment and water ministries have been at loggerheads.