-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: It's clear that the devastation caused by the flash floods and landslides in uttarakhand was at least in part due to environmental degradation of fragile mountain slopes and reckless commercialization. Yet, weeks before the calamity state CM Vijay Bahuguna had railed against "environmentalists" and "Green Statutes" for hampering development work during a May 23 meeting in Delhi with Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Plan deputy chair, to finalize...
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How Tehri held raging Ganga & saved lives -Pradeep Thakur
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The water levels in the Tehri dam were low at the start of the monsoon. This proved a critical factor in the dam retaining waters of an engorged Bhagirathi and preventing a 10-12 feet rise in the Ganga at Rishikesh that could have been ruinous for the town and its ashrams. A report said the fury of nature in uttarakhand was such that waters rose as high...
More »Beneficent and baleful
-The Hindu This year, the monsoon has been in rumbustious form. It swept in to Kerala on June 1 and then headed off north with surprising rapidity. So much so that the rain-bearing cloud systems covered the whole country by June 16, a process that is typically completed only by around the middle of next month. Moreover, it has rained copiously. Consequently, about three-quarters of the country have received much...
More »The untold story from uttarakhand-Ravi Chopra
-The Hindu While the focus is on pilgrims, nobody is talking about the fate of boys and men who came from their villages in the Mandakini valley to earn during the yatri season It is one week since uttarakhand's worst disaster in living memory. Flash floods resulting from extremely intense rainfall swept away mountainsides, villages and towns, thousands of people, animals, agricultural fields, irrigation canals, domestic water sources, dams, roads, bridges, and...
More »uttarakhand flood may wash away Bengal polls
-The Hindustan Times The uttarakhand flood may take a toll on the West Bengal panchayat elections. The Union home ministry informed the Calcutta high court on Monday that it was unable to provide adequate security for the rural polls due to the deployment of Central armed forces for rescue operations in uttarakhand. The court had sought a reply on June 19. "A large number of Central forces are in Assam and elsewhere to...
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