Uttarakhand Mountains Weep and Cry .!!The Gods Are Angry.

 Calamities and pilgrim spots seem to be inextricably woven into a heady mix of tragedy .We have seen it happen over and over again –be it at Kumbh Melas ,or religious festivals in some temple town .I have myself had one of the most frightening experiences of my life while I was trapped in a multitude of millions in a small space at the temple town of Tirupati.The three of us(Sangeeta ,Pratique and me ) felt we would be flattened  thin as pages, with the pressure of people being exerted on us –and we could not move a inch  .It still remains a nightmare .The unpredictability of a disaster in a pilgrim town is no less frightening than a bomb blast by the terrorists anywhere in India .

At Hemkund Sahab.1984.

However what has happened in Uttarakhand is perhaps the saddest ,for people like me .It happened in my home state and in areas where I have trekked extensively .The names are so familiar –Ram Bada ,Govindghat ,Gaurikund ,Hemkunt Sahab ,Kedarnath ,Yamnotri ,Chopta ,Chamoli …..I remember trekking all the way from Govindghat to Hemkunt Sahab ,via Govinddham and the beautiful Valley of Flowers ,I remember travelling from Rishikesh through the “Panch Pryag “-places where major tributaries join the Ganga –Nandprayg ,Karnaprayag,Devprayag ,Rudraprayag ,Visnuprayag.I even remember spending a night at the beautiful guest house at Nandprayag becoz it had got too dark to travel .We were served lovely mutton curry by a very amiable Garhwali and I had even spoken to him in my stuttering Garhwali .!! And I also remember stopping at a dhabha at Pipalkoti and having “kadi –chawal”.It was the most tasty kadi chawal I have had in my life (and mind you ,I come from a family which has kadi chawal once a week at least ).I also remember being served the same by a very beautiful lass with brownish hair and light eyes .She had the most beautiful smile –very innocent and very captivating .I have always wanted to go back to Pipalkoti –as much for the kadi chawal as for the beautiful smile –though it is  nearly 30 years down the line now .!!Today   as Uttarakhand  tries to lurch out of the worst-ever disaster to have hit the region, with hundreds already dead and thousands other missing, heated debates have erupted over the actual cause of what the Uttarakhand chief minister dubbed ‘the Himalayan Tsunami’.

Just Short of Rudraprayag -1984!!

The administration insists that it was a natural calamity, environmentalists hold that this was a man-made disaster waiting to happen.
Torrential and unrelenting downpour, landslides and floods saw the raging waters sweep away more than 180 people and hundreds of livestock to death. More than 70,000 pilgrims have been stranded even as the Army and Air Force try to rescue them in a hostile terrain.More than 70,000  are still untraceable .
Of all the affected areas, Kedarnath is  the worst hit.This beautiful and serene temple town has been flattened  because of the  crumbling of the Kedar Dome, a glacier-like body of  rock and ice. This breaking of this enormous ‘glacier’ following the cloudburst and the eventual landslides caused a major rupture in the Charbari Lake that is situated just over 5 km from the holy temple of Kedarnath, situated at an altitude of 3600 mt.

Devprayag -confluence of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda.

Kedarnath temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva and situated near the Mandakini River in a valley of the Garhwal Himalayas, was constructed in the 8th century and folklore has it that Adi Shankaracharya oversaw the building of the shrine.I remember reaching it along with  with some boys with whom i was trekking  in the evening .It was “aarti”,time as we walked into the temple – and like soldiers who had fought a war on all fronts –we were exhausted ,we were limping and we wanted to sleep .But the “aarti’’ was uplifting .It completely washed away all the tiredness .For a young Marxist and a agnostic the question arose “Do Gods reside here?”.And for the first time –the answer was “Yes”.In the middle of the chiming of the bells and sounds of the “shanks”,I felt near God .

But today ,Kedarnath lies submerged under silt and mud .The God are angry .

Karnaprayag -confluence of Alaknanda and Pindar 

Heavy  rains have wreaked havoc and opened up its bosom to offload its fury  in the region, resulting in killer landslides.The  environmentalists,( like  Sunita Narain, and Pachauri) claim that man-made factors have added to the tragedy. The widespread and almost unregulated expansion of giant hyder-electric projects in the region, the incessant construction of roads to serve the burgeoning tourist population, and the adverse effect on the fragile ecosystem in the region due to growing human presence and pollution are the major causes for the devastation that Uttarakhand has been subjected to.It crude terms -it has been raped .

However, according to eyewitnesses huge rocks broke away from Kedar Dome after the flash floods caused by the cloudburst. These rocks, however, got stuck some distance away from the Kedarnath temple, possibly saving the holy shrine’s main structure from being demolished.

I watched with numbness on T.V ,entire stretches of motorable road just dissappear .Huge multistoried buildings collapsed like a pack of cards and unlike the ones in Mumbai –no one needs to do any cleaning up .The gushing  waters  carried away the debris leaving no signs that anything existed there .And along with the concrete ,it must have swept away the unsuspecting human beings 

Its time to spare a thought for the people of the hills who are caught in all this .Or even the pilgrims who went there from different parts of the country .I got two phone calls from friends in Jaipur who were crying because their relatives are untraceable now for a week .Dead?Swept away ?Alive ?Or living dead?The looters are also there –ripping of gold and ornaments from the dead bodies .The good people are also there –the armed forces as always are doing yeoman service .

What can we do ?At least create awareness on the social media .And though some of us may not be in physical shape to help extricate and transport the injured ,our time will come .In reconstruction .In sending financial and moral support to the people who as it is are living on the edge for most of their life .And I hope and pray that the man and his family who served us perhaps the best “kadi” –“chawal”, in Pipalkoti are safe .People with those smiles should never  frown or be in distress .Becuase those are the smiles one cant buy .At the moment –I am praying for them .And waiting to go back to my Uttarakhand which wept and cried so much -that we finally are looking at her .I am sure we will bring back the smiles .We owe it to the people there .