Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday visited Rudraprayag and assessed the damage from heavy rain and landslides.
He said, “There have been 29 disruptions in the route. Government property has been destroyed and communication systems are not working. Religious, social and all kinds of organisations and individuals have come forth to help”.
The number of landslides in Uttarakhand has been on the rise. There were 245 in 2022, and four times that number in 2023.
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This greater frequency is a direct fallout of the Char Dham Pariyojana (CDP)- an 889-kilometre-long, all-weather access road.
Hemant Dhyani, a member of the Supreme Court of India’s High Powered Committee (HPC) on the CDP since 2019, said that the body in its report of 2000 had disagreed on the need to have 10-metre wide roads. “Such width can only be achieved by a vertical cutting of the slopes, massive tree felling, the accumulation of mass muck etc.”
Cutting of the rock disturbs the natural conditions and the balance of forces resulting in slips, subsidence and landslides. During rainfall, the water reaches the roadside very quickly creating drainage problems and also removing the surface layer, resulting in the formation of gullies. As sills and gullies deepen they make the slope unstable.
Dhyani explained that besides the actual road width, there is a requirement for additional land for Right of Way (ROW) calculated on the basis of possible future developments, pavements, clear zones, rest areas, drainage areas and the like. Thus, the actual width required could go beyond 24 metres in some areas.
“None of the other parameters (such a minimal tree felling) can be achieved as there is no agreement on road width”, said Dhyani. Thus more landslides can be expected as road building becomes more intensive in the hills.
