As many as 40 workers are fighting for life after an under-construction tunnel partially collapsed in Uttarakhand on Sunday. Even as rescue efforts continued on the fourth day, the latest disaster in the hill state has put the spotlight back on the government’s high-risk Char Dham Project which has remained contentious right from the start due to serious environmental concerns.
In its final report submitted in July 2020, a High-Powered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court had found that the project had already damaged the fragile Himalayan ecosystem due to “unscientific and unplanned execution”. Two years later, professor Ravi Chopra, a noted environmentalist and the chairman of the committee, resigned after the recommendations, including limiting the width of the roads to 5.5 metres, were undermined. The panel’s jurisdiction was also limited to just two ‘non-defence’ stretches of the project.
WHY THE PROJECT WAS CONCEPTUALISED
The Rs 12,000 crore project — Char Dham Pariyojana — was announced in December 2016 to widen around 900 kilometres of national highways to connect the four Dhams (shrines) located in the Himalayan range of Uttarakhand — Yamunotri, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Badrinath.
The locations of these shrines were earlier considered to be occupied by glaciers which have begun melting over the years. Even today, they are stated to be located in para-glacial zones, which are considered ecologically sensitive. The project was announced to ensure smooth and faster traffic movement all year round by widening the roads leading to the shrines.
‘UNSCIENTIFIC CONSTRUCTION, HILL CUTTING’
However, the project planned in the vulnerable Himalayas comes with huge environmental costs. According to the committee, the construction was being executed with little attention to terrain fragility and ecological sensitivity of the region. For the most part, the existing highways were to be double-laned with paved shoulders with 16 bypasses, realignments and tunnels, 15 flyovers, 101 small bridges and 3,516 culverts.
Experts raised concerns that it would not just lead to felling of precious Himalayan trees, but the excavation of hills and dumping of massive amounts of muck could also trigger landslides and soil erosion in an already fragile environment. Concerns were also raised over the technique being used for widening of the roads, especially hill-cutting. The need for a thorough slope vulnerability analysis was undermined before construction began in some locations which raises risks of slope failure, said the experts. The committee also highlighted that on NH-125, 102 of 174 fresh-cut slopes were landslide-prone — 44 slope failures had taken place by mid-December 2019.
LONG-TERM DAMAGE TO FRAGILE HIMALAYAS
A PIL filed in 2018 stated the project had evaded a thorough environmental assessment and risks disrupting the local ecosystem. According to experts, serious consideration should have been given to the on-site geological and geo-hydrological conditions of the region.
Previous studies show that many of the sites covered by the project are prone to tectonic shifts and landslides, especially during the monsoon season which has turned tumultuous over the years. In the first four months of 2020, there were 11 slope failures, almost once a week, the committee had stated.
What also remains less studied is the impact of the rising traffic pollution in the Higher Himalayas, as well as the threat to natural springs which may get damaged at several locations. The excessive hill-cutting could also trigger disasters during heavy rainfall events which have also intensified over the years. The July floods in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh bear testimony to the devastation caused by extreme weather events.
WHAT NOW?
Three days after part of the Silkyara tunnel collapsed, the workers still remain trapped. The rescue teams are now frantically trying to create an escape passage for the workers through the rubble to safely evacuate them by pushing through mild steel pipes into the rubble using drilling equipment.