look news india
Every year the monsoon comes and leaves behind it in Himachal and Uttarakhand, the destruction, broken houses and countless painful stories. We all sees the breaking mountains and flowing roads on TV, are sad and then forget. But this time, this pain of the mountains has reached the country’s largest court, that is, the Supreme Court.
Hearing a PIL, the Supreme Court has issued notice to the central government, Himachal and Uttarakhand state governments seeking answers. The court has sought answers on the most basic and sharp questions that are in everyone’s mind today.
What did the Supreme Court ask?
The simple question of the court is – is this devastation just ‘natural disaster’ or is human greed and negligence behind it? The petition states that the mountains “Carring Capacity” That is, without assessing the ability to bear the burden, indiscriminate construction is being done there. This simply means how much a hilly area can bear the burden (construction, roads, tourists), this is being completely ignored.
The court wants to know that:
- Why is the rules of environment being kept on hold for works like hydropower projects and road widening?
- Why scientific studies are not being done to save the delicate ecology of the mountains?
- Do these states have any concrete plans to deal with disaster or not?
This is the first time that this issue has been raised on such a large scale, where the question is not only of relief and rescue, but of the root that causes thousands of lives every year at stake. The Supreme Court has also sought answers from several other departments including the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Home Affairs in this case.
This move of the Supreme Court has raised a hope that now the pain of the mountains will be heard seriously and some concrete steps will be taken to prevent such devastation in the future, so that the next time the monsoon only brings relief, not a problem.
