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Jan 16 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
#Joshimath⚖️
In Feb 2021 flood, 192 people died at dam sites near Joshimath; locals approached Uttarakhand HC. CJ Raghvendra Chauhan & Justice Alok Verma gave a judgment calling petitioners “puppets” & imposing Rs 50,000 fine. My old report in @thewire_in.
thewire.in/environment/ut…
Petition was dismissed in the 1st hearing itself. Judges said that the petitioners “claim” to be social activists without any proof of identity.
Well, 2 petitioners (including @atulsati1) were from Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti which is leading current protests in Joshimath.
Remaining 3 petitioners from Raini village, near Joshimath, were: Sohan Singh (grandson of Chipko Movement’s leader Gaura Devi), Sangram Singh (former BDC member), and Bhawan Singh (village head, Raini).
Here’s a photo of the Rishiganga dam site (at Raini) after the flood. You can’t spot the dam because it was washed away in the 2021 flood. At least 53 people died here. Had clicked the pic in Feb 2022.
This is the site of NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad dam. It’s severely damaged (as is visible). At least 139 dam workers died here during the flood, including the ones that got stuck in the dam’s tunnel and couldn’t be rescued. Photo from Feb 2022.
It is impossible to understand how the petitioners were wrong in approaching HC against dams that caused deaths (since no warning system was in place), and requesting that the dams be cancelled (due to the damage from construction methods). Matter is currently pending in the SC.
Not just this, in another matter in the SC, the MoEFCC filed an affidavit on 17 August, 2021, pushing for 7 hydropower projects. The list included the Tapovan Vishnugad project. My report from 2021 in @thewire_in.
#joshimathsinking
#JoshimathSubsidence
thewire.in/environment/fo…
Correction: The matter was taken to the SC, which dismissed the petition in September 2022.

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More from @Upadhyay_Cavita

Kavita Upadhyay Profile picture
Jan 15
Noticed these posters across the Joshimath market, yesterday. Now, it's the people of Joshimath versus the NTPC whose 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad project has allegedly damaged the town.
Here’s a thread on examples of slide & sinking caused by dam projects in areas near Joshimath: ImageImageImageImage
Chaaen/Chãyeen village, ~15 km from Joshimath, experienced land sinking after water from JPVL’s 400 MW Vishnuprayag dam's tunnel began leaking in 2007. I saw houses cracked due to sinking land. See snippet from an op-ed I wrote for @the_hindu in 2014. Link:thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/… Image
Lambagar, ~30km from Joshimath, was damaged in the 2013 floods, especially due to the Vishnuprayag dam that exacerbated flood's impact. Parts of Lambagar, Aruri-Paturi, & Padagaasi villages had started sinking, I wrote in a 2013 report. See snippet. Link: thehindu.com/news/national/… Image
Read 5 tweets
Kavita Upadhyay Profile picture
Jan 7
Thus spake NTPC, absolving itself of all the destruction it has caused in and around Joshimath. Please see this thread to understand a dam company's role in destroying the area, and how the govt too is involved in pushing for disastrous projects.
The geological survey for NTPC's Tapovan Vishnugad dam was done by a private company. The survey was merely meant to push for the project despite the pre-existing scientific reports cautioning against overburdening the region.
On 24 Dec 2009, a tunnel boring machine punctured an aquifer here. The water discharge was ~700-800 litres per second, which was enough to sustain 20-30 lakh people, daily. Locals say the discharge reduced over time, but it never completely stopped.
Read 7 tweets
Kavita Upadhyay Profile picture
Jan 4
At least 50,000 residents of Banbhoolpura in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, may be rendered homeless after Jan 7. The only hope for them is the SC hearing scheduled for Jan 5, i.e. tomorrow. A detailed thread:

(Photos by Sartaj Alam: Residents assemble against eviction orders) ImageImageImage
The area to be vacated falls under 5 wards in Banbhoolpura. Here’s a map (courtesy Tasleem Ansari) with the red line roughly showing the 78 acres to be vacated. To give you an idea, the population to be evicted is almost the same as the entire population of my own town, Nainital. Image
Buildings to be demolished include 5 govt schools, ~6 private schools, a primary health centre (PHC), 8-10 mosques, 2 temples, a Saraswati Shishu Mandir, homes, and businesses. The oldest establishments here date pre-independence; the most recent settlers came in 1970.
Read 10 tweets
Kavita Upadhyay Profile picture
Sep 5, 2021
The most amazing classroom I've ever entered is in the Govt Inter College (GIC) in Dudhli village, near Dehradun. It's a mathematics lab, and the #teacher who envisioned this is Jagdamba Prasad Dobhal. People in Dudhli choose GIC over private schools. It's not hard to think why.
The first time I entered this lab, I saw students with spherical stones. Mr Dobhal had taught them about the 'sphere' and had asked them to fetch stones of that shape from the nearby jungle. In the stones, the 2D circle had suddenly jumped out of the paper and had come alive.
While I spoke to Mr Dobhal, the students suddenly started playing. Few played chess, few others played ludo. "What just happened," I asked Mr Dobhal. He said the rules of the classroom were that when he was busy, the students must play games instead of wasting time chatting.
Read 5 tweets
Kavita Upadhyay Profile picture
Feb 7, 2021
#Uttarakhand_Disaster
I would urge everyone to not look at this sans dams. It is definitely a dam-related disaster for the following main reasons:
1) Chopra Committee report, which analysed the 2013 Kedarnath disaster, mentioned how damaged dams cause further damage downstream.
contd...
This is because the debris from the damaged dams, increases the force of the flood waters. This means flood water, mixed with debris is absolutely disastrous for downstream areas.
2) Today, Rishiganga dam was damaged. 50 construction workers are missing. The flood waters with the debris from the dam headed downstream to Dhauli Ganga river, where 100 construction workers working on Tapovan dam project are missing. (Bodies are being recovered).
Read 6 tweets
Kavita Upadhyay Profile picture
Feb 7, 2021
An imp input on #Uttarakhand_Disaster
Spoke to D P Dobhal, former glaciologist at Dehradun's Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. He said:
-Lake formation happened for sure, which eventually breached today and caused the floods.
Dobhal contd:
-There could be a few possibilities of how the lake was formed:
1) the heavy sediments in the flood waters show that an avalanche could have happened, which would've have dammed the river waters. Glacier debris could also have added to the damming.
Dobhal contd:
2) It could have been a GLOF. Only further investigation can confirm.
Read 4 tweets

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