Keeping up with UP: How Sunder Lal Bahuguna’s warnings remain relevant

The late Gandhian environmentalist and Chipko movement leader often visited newspaper offices with his handwritten press notes to raise awareness

Before Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh as a separate state in November 2000, the late Gandhian environmentalist and Chipko movement leader Sunder Lal Bahuguna frequently visited Lucknow to caution officials about the dangers of deforestation and the environmental impacts of mega projects, such as the Tehri dam. He often visited newspaper offices with his handwritten press notes to raise awareness. The government of the plains was not seen to have a grasp of the problems of the hills.

Chipko movement leader Sunder Lal Bahuguna called ecology the permanent economy. (HC TIWARI/HTPHOTO)

Bahuguna rarely visited Lucknow after Uttarakhand was created. He lobbied the new state government in Dehradun, which was expected to be more sensitive to the local problems, but that was not to be. The new state government continued with development projects. Bahuguna refused to give up, saying his movement would not go to waste and sooner or later, his voice would be heard. He wanted a comprehensive policy for the Himalayas to save the hills and humans.

Bahuguna, who died in 2021, said, “The Himalayas are fragile. They are a mountain of emotions, not rock and boulders.”

Bahuguna called ecology the permanent economy. He rued that natural disasters cause losses of thousands of crores, and yet money was being spent on development projects detrimental to Uttarakhand. He warned that the dam would damage the hills and cause landslides. “If ever the dam bursts, Rishikesh will be under 263 metres of water in one hour. In the next 23 minutes, Haridwar will be drowned, and within the next 12 hours, Meerut, Bulandshahr, and Muzaffarnagar will go underwater. In case of a major quake, even Delhi would not be safe.”

Geological Survey India (GSI) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee experts disagreed with his warnings, although many supported smaller dams.

The flash floods and mudslides across North India this monsoon, which buried villages, destroyed bridges, and roads, warrant a close study. Man-made factors have been equally responsible for the devastation. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University environmental sciences professor Venkatesh Dutta cited one such example. “You occupy the space of rivers and lakes, and the water occupies you. Even if you block the water and construct buildings above it, floodwater will still find a way to inundate them.”

Dutta questioned why blame the climate for this? “The problem is not the floods but the persistence of floodwaters for a long time. In our plans to develop colonies, we have never given serious thought to the circulation of water. We have built what we wanted.”

Dutta noted Lucknow lost 70% of its water bodies between 1970 and 2010. “Three decades ago, there were over 1,000 ponds in the urban areas. Shopping malls, colonies, and houses were built on them.”

Former GSI director VK Joshi said they found that the Yamuna once used to flow where Connaught Place is today when the Delhi Metro was being planned. He added that the route was accordingly changed based on GSI’s findings through intensive drilling. He cited earlier research and said that although the areas affected by floods have neither increased or decreased, the population affected has significantly increased. This indicates more development and growth in the flood-prone areas.

In 1978, the floodwaters entered the basement of the Taj Mahal. The rising Yamuna waters reached the walls of the iconic monument 47 years later. Visuals showed the Yamuna submerging a garden behind the Taj.

Governments would consult the GSI and the Remote Sensing Stations to know the change in the river course for the timely evacuation of people from flood zones. The practice stopped with better forecasting technology.

IIT Roorkee has developed technology to forecast natural disasters and for early warning for landslides, cloudbursts, etc. In a May 2024 press release, the Press Information Bureau noted the technology would significantly enhance landslide prediction in the Himalayas. Joshi said the GSI has also developed a model that the Uttarakhand government plans to use.

Naveen Joshi, a former executive editor of Dainik Hindustan who is from Uttarakhand’s Kumaon, asked how they can stop nature’s fury with nuts and bolts, as was done on the Tanakpur-Pithoragarh route to hold the rockfalls. “Neither can you contain rivers nor the landslides after ruthlessly ravaging the fragile Himalayas by disturbing their ecosystem to boost religious tourism.”

The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi removed the Uttar Pradesh chief minister immediately after an on-the-spot review of the flood situation and relief measures in the 1980s.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath this year rushed ministers to flood-affected areas across 22 districts to review the rehabilitation and relief measures. There needs to be a tangible follow-up to demonstrate that flood control measures are as much a priority as relief and rehabilitation.