After the meeting of Friends of Himalaya held on the 30th June as promised Navdanya team visited the Kedar Valley. They distributed the relief material in 26 villages and did detailed survey in 8 villages. According to Mr. Surendra Dutt Chamola of village Kaushalpur (Kwall) near Basukedar, "we the people of Kedar valley have gone back to the 50s in terms of the development and infrastructure, and we see no ray of hope in near future. People those who fought bravely and even survived in the drought and Gorkhyani look helpless. This is the land where during the drought, when there was a famine people survived on grasses and water, but did not eat the seeds. They kept seeds so that even if they die, their children will sow the seeds".
Beshni Devi Pradhan of village Andrwadi says with grief mixed with anger that "the land of God (Dev bhoomi) looks the land of the beggar today. God left us because pot of the sins of the modern man had already filled, it was over already flowing, so it had to burst one day, so God decided to teach the lesson now. It was to happen one day, better it happened now. May be it was the lesson for the people to go back to 60s again when there was no building in Kedarnath. Lord Shiva likes to live in quiet, he is happy with his meditation, so when the pot was full he did the tandav and opened his 3rd eye and converted the place into the cremation ground".
Bhawani Dutt Chamola of Basukedar, ex Army personel, who is 85 years old praised the Indian army and showed his willingness to help in rehabilitation.
According to Mr. Raja Ram Semwal of Byung village "The kind of disaster it was, we were lucky that it happened during the day time, had this been the night, more than 1 lac people would have died. This disaster was basically aggravated by the hydropower projects. This is what people told our team time and again.
June 16th and 17th of 2013 will be considered the darkest days in the history of Uttarakhand, when unprecedented rain and cloud burst led to the disaster which affected the whole Uttarakhand, and brought the life in the state at halt. The situation was even worse in 4 districts of the state namely: Rudraprayag, Chamoli Garhwal, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh all border districts of Uttarakhand where people are in great trouble as several places have become islands as all the links with other parts of the country are broken and more than that there is no electricity and even mobile phones are not working.
Several towns have become the Ghosts town where there are debris all around and bad smell of the rotting human and animal bodies. Due to the unprecedented rains for more than two days in Uttarakhand resulted into the Landslides and finally to the floods, damaged several houses and structures, killing the pilgrims as well as local people those who were trapped. The heavy rains resulted in large flashfloods and massive landslides. Entire villages and settlements such as Gaurikund, about 14 km before Kedarnath and Ram Bada, a central point between Gaurikund and Kedarnath, have been wiped out almost completely, while the Sonprayag suffered heavy damage and loss of lives.
Chardham the pilgrimage centres in the region including Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath are visited by thousands of devotees, especially after the month of May onwards. Over 90,000 people were stranded in various places because of damaged or blocked roads. People in the Valley of flowers, Roopkund and Hemkund Saheb the Sikh pilgrimage centre were also stranded for more than a week. National Highway 58, an important lifeline connecting the region was also washed away near Joshimath and in many other places. May - June is the peak season for both pilgrimage as well as for the tourists because of the holidays in the schools as well as pleasant climate in Uttarakhand. People generally avoid to visit hills in the monsoon season, so before monsoon season region is always packed with the pilgrims and tourists. The roads were seriously damaged at more than 450 places, resulting in huge traffic jams. The floods washed away many cars and other vehicles.
Thousands of people lost their life and more than 90000 people were stranded for more than a week in the mountains and struggled for life. Some of them could not cope with the situation and left the world. Not only the main roads along the rivers Mandakini in Kedar Valley and Alaknanda in Badri Nath valley but most of the link roads were also damaged. Most of the bridges connecting people were also washed away.
In Kedar valley alone in several villages most of the men are reported missing as they work in Kedar valley during the Yatra. About 5760 people are reported dead by the government of Uttarakhand. Only from the Okhimath tehsil 176 school going children became the victim of the disaster. Many people of the village Divli-Bhanigaon, Lwani, Bamsu, Lwara, Lamgondi, Andrwadi, Phali, Pasalt, Gauri gaon, Mundkatia especially men are reported missing. Official figures however differs significantly with the figures given by the local people.
According to Surat Singh Bisht of village Gadgu with many other people those who were eye witness of the disaster estimates death toll above 20000.
Starting from Kedarnath, Rambara, Gauri Kund, Gauri Gaon, Mundkatiya, Sonprayag, Sitapur, Rampur, Badasu, Kalimath, Kund, Kakda, Ginwani, Bheeri, Syalsor, Chandrapuri, Gavni Gaon, Sori, Bedubagar, Ganganagar, Jawahar Nagar, Purana Deval, Vijay Nagar, Agastyamuni, Silli, Rampur, Tilwara, Bhatwari Sain, Rudraprayag, Srinagar, Devprayag and till Rishikesh flood did immeasurable damage. More than dozen village of Kalimath valley are also completely isolated after the bridges were washed away. More than 400 villages on Rudraprayag Kedarnath road are affected. As the road is damaged completely which will take many months to make it motorable, life of the people in these villages is under threat.
Bridges or Rope bridges of Sonprayag (between Gaurikund and Guptakashi), Rail near Phata, Vidyapeeth, Kakda Gad, Bheeri, Chandrapuri, Bedubagar, Agastyamuni, Silli, and Rudraprayag (By Pass) were washed away. Road at several places was washed away making the places in between islands. Motor bridge at Kund which joins Guptakashi to Okhimath and Rudraprayag is also badly damaged, which is not used currently for vehicles.
There is no electricity in the entire valley and water line is also damaged at several places. At several places under the debris and also in the forests there are lots of dead bodies Some of the dead bodies have been converted into the skeleton, their funeral is a big challenge for the government.
In Gaurigaon, Rampur, Biron, Bashti, Kaushalpur, Arkhund, Dadoli, Nala, Hyun, Narayankoti, and many other villages community fed the stranded pilgrims and have almost finished their food stock and other necessary items. These days because of the road networks and infrastructure people have left the habit of storing the items as they are readily available in the nearby market place, but now due to the damaged roads and recent developments, from Vijaynagari till Kund, Okhimath and several villages in Kalimath valley are completely isolated and have no connectivity with other parts of the state.
According to Rachna Devi "We are afraid of even the cloudy sky now, but when it rains the fear multiplies many a fold". People in villages of Sauri, Silli, Amotha, Chandrapuri, Bhatwari, lost their houses and lands and most of the settlements near the rivers were washed away. thousands of houses were washed away. Ancient Temple near Agastyamuni popularly known as Purana Deval was also washed away, whereas Kedarnath and Kalimath temples survived. In Agastyamuni school was also washed away with the flood.
Almost everybody blamed the hydropower projects for making the situation worse. According to them situation was worsened due to the muck dumped by the hydropower projects from the tunnels made for their projects. People in several villages are afraid of living in their villages as the cracks in their houses developed due to the tunnels below have widened after this disaster.
Mainly people blame the hydropower projects namely: Byung - Phata hydropower of the Lenko, Bhatwari Singoli of the Larsen & Turbo and Srinagar Hydropower project in Srinagar of the GVK company. The muck and machineries of these projects washed the Bheeri, Syalsor, Chandrapur, Gavni Gaon, Ganganagar, Vijay Nagar and Silli. River at places is flowing about 300- 500 meters off its actual course.
Not only the villages in the river valley but the villages far from the river up on the mountains like Maniguha, Bhatwari, Dobha, Bhonsal, Rumsi, Chond, Malkhi, Khali, Khamoli, which are on the link roads above the Kedarnath road several houses were also damaged. The villages are also affected as several people go to Kedarnath for their livelihood.
Mules and horses of the people in Kedarnath, Rambara and Gaurikund also drowned with the houses and at places they are buried under the debris of the houses. Many farmers also lost their livestock. Beautiful place near Sauri where there was a temple and few saints were living there was also washed away with the flood water.
River bed at many places has come close to the road, and is flowing many meters above its natural course. It happened so because of the muck from the hydropower projects and debris of the houses that were washed away with the flood.
There is no sign of Kedarnath Highway at several places between Kund and Tilwara. After one month the road could be made bit motorable till Vijaynagar. At Silli road is made in the river now. People in the valley say that even in the rains for continuous seven days or in the earlier floods they never saw water level so high. It was only because of the hydropower projects their houses were washed away.
In the villages across Silli like Chaka, Falati, Taat etc. people have to walk more than 15 kms to come to the road head, which otherwise was a 2-10 minute walk. In the villages and above Kund Jal Chaumasi, Kalimath, Kabiltha the situation is even worse, they have to go all the way to Guptakashi and have to walk 20-45 kms. At places schools were also washed away, so children are sitting at home, they want to go to school but there is no school. At Falati head master closed the school till there is any connectivity to the village.
Thousands of hectares of the land in the villages on the both sided of the river starting from Sitapur till Rudraprayag also washed away. The village people in Chandrapur, Sauri and Ginwala are still hopeful of reviving their agricultural fields that are under the sand of 4-8 feet.
According to the local people road widening was also done to transport the heavy machineries of the hydropower projects. The unprecedented use of the dynamite for widening the roads as well as tunnels had destabilized the fragile mountains of the region. The villages above these tunnels are very vulnerable and needs to be relocated.
People from the remote villages have started coming to the road side in search of food, as there is no road and necessary things in the village shop have finished and shopkeepers in village have shown their inability to get the required things.
After taking the stocks from the ground, Navdanya decides to adopt 2 villages immediately. These villages are Chandrapuri and Sori - Amotha. These villages were worse affected. In Chandrapuri village alone 70 houses were there and a school with a play ground for the kids. Now there are only 6 houses. They lost all the cattle and cattle sheds. there was a bridge that was connecting to the Kedarnath Highway, which is also gone now. Their land about 2500 nali washed away and whatever is left is currently buried under the sand.
This is not the end of the story. Many villages where there is no access, it will take time to get the correct information. Keeping in view the hilly terrain and other factors, it will take more than 6 months to get the actual picture of the loss. Currently focus of the government is to give preliminary relief to the people. People in the area are totally dependent on yatra and Kedarnath. This disaster has not only taken away their houses but in several homes there are no hands left to earn money for them. If there is no yatra this year there will be no food in their houses too.
