Updated:
February 12, 2021 00:50 IST
India’s leaders must recommit themselves to the ideas and activism of environmentalists involved with Uttarakhand
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India’s leaders must recommit themselves to the ideas and activism of environmentalists involved with Uttarakhand
Following flash floods at Chamoli in Uttarakhand, defence personnel are looking for missing persons in a mélange of rock, mud, water, and debris, airlifting rations to inaccessible villages, and repairing bridges and telecommunication networks. Social scientists are assessing the disaster’s impact on the region’s economy. Scientists and policy makers are debating whether climate change or unchecked development in an ecologically fragile region was primarily responsible for the disaster and the death toll. News reports of ancient temples having been swept away in the Alakananda’s raging waters are bringing back traumatic memories of the Kedarnath floods in 2013. All these developments show
Published: Monday, February 8, 2021, 16:15 [IST]
Gopeshwar, Feb 08: The glacial burst near Chamoli district s Raini village, the cradle of the Chipko movement, should serve as a wake-up call to stop the rampage on the Himalayan ecological system in the name of development, said Magsaysay awardee Chandi Prasad Bhatt on Monday.
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According to the 87-year-old environmentalist, who was a Chipko movement leader, projects like the Rishi Ganga hydel project, which bore the brunt of Sunday s calamity, should not have been given environmental clearance.
Bhatt said that in 2010 he had written to the then environment minister warning against the adverse effects of the project.
Magsaysay winner environmentalist says mindless rampage on Himalayas must stop PTI
Gopeshwar: The glacial burst near Chamoli district’s Raini village, the cradle of the Chipko movement, should serve as a wake-up call to stop the rampage on the Himalayan ecological system in the name of development, according to Magsaysay awardee Chandi Prasad Bhatt. He said Monday that many power projects in the area should not have been given environmental clearance. The 87-year-old environmentalist was a Chipko movement leader. Chandi Prasad Bhatt said projects like the Rishi Ganga hydel project, which bore the brunt of Sunday’s calamity, should not have started.
Mindless rampage on Himalayas must stop, says Chipko movement leader Chandi Prasad Bhatt Had my advice been heeded, the loss of lives and largescale damage to property at the project site could have been prevented. The mindless rampaging on the Himalayas in the name of development must stop, says Magsaysay awardee Chandi Prasad Bhatt
PTI | February 8, 2021 | Updated 16:42 IST
Bhatt said in 2010 he had written to the then environment minister warning against the adverse effects of the project
The glacial burst near Chamoli district s Raini village, the cradle of the Chipko movement, should serve as a wake-up call to stop the rampage on the Himalayan ecological system in the name of development, said Magsaysay awardee Chandi Prasad Bhatt on Monday.
6 Lessons From A Himalayan Tragedy - by Ramachandra Guha 6 Lessons From A Himalayan Tragedy - by Ramachandra Guha
Updated: February 08, 2021 4:33 pm IST
On Sunday, a few hours after the news about the flash floods in Chamoli District hit our screens, I phoned a man who should be a household name but sadly is not. A leader of the Chipko movement, a thinker of originality and insight, a social reformer of courage and vision, he may be both our country s greatest environmentalist as well as the greatest living resident of Uttarakhand. Back in 1983, he had written a long essay in Hindi warning against the construction of hydel projects in the Himalaya. He repeated these warnings in the 1990s, and again in the 2000s, this time in essays published in English as well as in Hindi. Had the politicians of Uttarakhand, and of India, listened to him, this tragedy in the upper Alakananda valley may never have occurred at all.