Thread by @vimlendu

JOSHIMATH FOLLOWUP THREAD:

Let’s not be mistaken - Joshimath has been brought down by ENGINEERS! ‘Brought down’ because there is no scope of repair, no reverse gear, ENGINEERS because they have a schewed understanding of geology & geography, in their education or practice.

Himalaya is one of the youngest mountain ranges, in high seismic zone and to top it all is a proscenium of extreme climate events. And yet, they draw a plan on autoCAD, same perhaps as they made for Sarojini Nagar redevelopment, or copied from Hongkong, and got it ‘passed’.

Our engineering colleges, to begin with, need to start teaching SOIL-TYPE : alluvial, laterite, desert, black cotton, peaty, and more. Not every soil is PLAIN SOIL,to be dug,moved, blasted or tunneled with your engineering prowess, EACH is different with unique carrying capacity.

Joshimath disaster is the result of puncturing of aquifers by the NTPC engineers, by their tunnel-boring machines, through tunneling under Joshimath, muddy waters seeping out from homes and ground is a testimony of the engineered crime leading to aquifer breaches.
#joshimath

More than 200 people died due to flash floods inside this tunnel, in feb 2021, a clear example of Himalayan ecological vulnerability and manifestation of climate change. Later same year, another so called ‘natural’ disaster and hundreds died again, at the same project site.

Now let’s talk about Engineers (read BUILDERS) and the nexus they have with the political class or the ESTABLISHMENT. And yes,establishment could be blue, green or saffron, they all are buddies of the engineers! For convenience of this dialogue, let’s call this ‘union’ - ‘STAFF’!

STAFF has been ignoring its own STAFF recommendations and committees, in a mad rush to maximize short term gains, mostly for private companies and contractors,while putting at risk lives of thousands of innocent and mostly poor citizens, and indeed plundering the common resource.

The ‘STAFF’ has been focused to extract, to maximize, to produce. Chapter on at ‘What Cost’, or for ‘Whom’ is not in their syllabus! They take pride in the fact that they have been able to stop Ganges and produce thousands of megawatts of electricity, but Ganges is dying.

Most rivers of our country have turned dry or grey, bcoz of these so called STAFF, their action and inaction. Some of them might not be direct cronies,but they draw their handsome ‘gratification’ from the crony system. All the Himalayan rivers have the same plight - dead n dying.

This morning we have heard news of more cracks, from other regions of Uttarakhand, almost all of them are either closer to the Char Dham road project, part of the rail tunnel zone or some hydro electric project, all of them. And yet govt thinks it’s a coincidence!!

Himalaya and himalayans indeed need development, better roads, electricity, houses, quality of life etc, but not at the cost of life or livelihood, never at the cost of SINKING!