Kedarnath calamity, warning from God?

The recent tragedy in Uttarakhand has resulted in the loss of many lives as well as severe property damage. It resulted in a lot of physical as well as emotional damage to many people and their families. I read some articles on Facebook where some so-called Swamis or Yogis are posting ridiculous comments about this tragedy. Nowadays these types of articles show up after almost any tragedy like this. They all have a similar tone, they all blame the deterioration of human values and humans drifting away from God (that too only the God of their own religion) as the main reasons for such disaster. They claim that this tragedy is a warning from God to all those who don't believe in him, are drifting away from him, or are not too sincere in following his directions. Apart from the insensitive nature of these comments, they surprise me with their poor logic and fanatic tone, I also wonder how these people can be so senseless to grab such a tragic incident to advertise their product.

Most of these disasters are either human-made (mass shootings, accidents) or natural calamities (like hurricanes, flash floods, earthquakes, etc.). All these result in heavy loss of human life and property. Whenever anything like this happens it's sad and shocking. Most of us feel sympathy towards victims of these incidents no matter where they happen. However, some people manage to look at these events in a totally ridiculous way and use it to propagate their religion or cult. For them, any tragic incident is a golden opportunity to remind everyone about the authority of their God. They do this despite knowing that many people who suffer in these incidents are very religious (some of these incidents happen at so-called holy places), but still, they go ahead with their argument shamelessly with all the knowledge and awareness that they are insulting victims and hurting survives of these tragedies. I have no objection to their attempts to advertise their God and religion, they have full right to sell their product and do marketing for it but to use such incidents for this purpose is very pathetic and insensitive. I also know that not all religious organizations do these things but most of the time they fail to criticize these types of comments in strong words.

I feel very bad after reading these types of posts. Recently it happened after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting incident and now after this Uttarakhand tragedy. Some of these natural disasters do want to give some warning to us about our abuse of nature and its resources but they are not from any God or superpower. In many cases, it's human error or lack of proper planning that results in massive loss of human life and property damage. We need to analyze the incident, figure out where things went wrong, and make sure that those mistakes never happen again. If all of us think that it was God's will to destroy property and kill people and nothing can be done to prevent this (other than praying) then we are inviting many more disasters like this and after every disaster, we will be looking at the sky for possible answers. We need to make use of all technology that is available to us and make a reliable system of disaster prevention and management. If we miss lessons from such disasters and opportunities to improve that can help us to improve, we are missing a chance to prevent such massive losses in the future. I hope rather than blaming destiny we rectify our mistakes and be better prepared next time because every human life is important. So, please think about it. Are these tragedies a warning from God or nature or a result of our own mismanagement, and poor policies?

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Links:
1. Faith shaken? Pilgrims say they won't return

Was Uttarakhand tragedy human-made?

Recent tragedy because of heavy rain and flash floods in some regions of Uttarakhand has resulted in heavy loss of life, property, and damage which will take years to recover. Many villages and cities were affected because of this natural calamity. No doubt that the disaster was because of heavy rains and flash floods, but the question is what is the reason for such a heavy loss of property and life? Why they didn't give a warning to residents of those areas? Why evacuation orders were not issued which is a normal protocol in almost all developed countries in case of such anticipated natural calamity. Why proper disaster response team was not in place so that when such a disaster strikes all government machinery doesn't panic and don't know what to do and where to start?

The entire world now is in a crazy race for economic progress. Everyone wants development which brings more money and in turn, is supposed to bring more happiness. The race is too competitive and furious, it seems there is no time to plan any strategy they just want to proceed at any cost and win the race. Nothing wrong with all these ambitions and aspirations about progress and development, they are required to motivate people to do good work, discover new inventions, and in turn bring long-term sustainable progress. But very few are looking for long-term sustainable progress, most are in the race for short-term gains, and the quicker the better. No one has time to think about the impact of our actions on the environment.

Because of recent economic progress in India, there is a huge migration of the working class from villages to cities and they settle in cities in whatever place they find, it is all unplanned and unregulated, and it generates a lot of waste. All these things are putting enormous pressure on the infrastructure of these cities and some of them are crumbling under the pressure of uncontrolled migration and poor management. In most of these cities, people build homes wherever they find empty space, dry river beds, on top of the drainage, on the bank of a river, or on hills. No place is forbidden, they manage it either legally or illegally (with the help of some local politician who in turn gets all these votes). I lived in one of such illegally constructed neighborhoods for most of my life. In the beginning situation was horrible, with no water connection, no latrines, electricity, etc. but slowly things improved and we got all the required facilities. As these neighborhoods are illegal they don't follow any rules or regulations that are there for any legal residential construction. If anyone takes a tour of any of these neighborhoods they will understand what I am talking about. There is almost negligible or no space between two houses, people construct homes like card houses, side by side, resting on each other. People try to construct something on each and every available space. There is no plan for an emergency exit or proper drainage, any free space is too valuable to waste for such unnecessary things. Over the time these neighborhoods grow, many people with their families settle there and call it their home and then it's almost impossible for any government or authority to remove them from that place. The encroachment crisis becomes a humanitarian crisis. Even the government legalizes many of these settlements because there is no other option for them (our house was legalized after two or three decades). Everything goes fine as long as nothing catastrophic happens like what happened in Mumbai (in 2005) or in Uttarakhand (2013). If some disaster (natural or human-made) happens, the hell breaks loose, and people don't know what to do, where to go, or how to escape, because there is no escape path, there is no emergency exit, and even it's difficult to send any help to these places.

Whenever I visit my old home, I often wonder if some natural calamity strikes this place (I really wish it won't) then how are these people going to save themselves. The lanes are so narrow, and buildings are so close to each other that some of them don't even get any sunlight even during a bright sunny day. Even ambulances can't reach many houses as they are only accessible either by walk or by two-wheelers, but thousands of people live there. My neighborhood is just one among thousands of others situated in many other cities, and they are growing every day. These things multiply the destructive ability of any disaster (fire, flood, or earthquake). This is the ugly side of unplanned development. Everyone wants to move to a big city, they are willing to live in any condition but they want to live there. The craze to move to cities is there because somehow the modern development plan of India doesn't include villages. All development is only happening in or around cities, and villages are left out, therefore, people are moving out from villages in search of a better life. As everything happens in cities, it's better to be in the city, this is the perception among people. We need to change this, at least in India we can not afford to have such nonsustainable growth (because of our huge population and very limited natural resources).

I hope people demand better infrastructure both in cities and villages, and once they get it they try to maintain it. I hope they follow the rules and don't play with their own life. I know it's easier to say this than to do but all these disasters should force all of us to think. It is not logical or even practical to follow a single model of growth for a country like India. India is such a diverse (geographically, socially, and economically) country so we need to have some model that takes into account everything (not only directed to the middle class, skilled workers, or educated class). India needs its unique development model and I hope something is developed soon that suits our diverse country and its people. I am sure with proper planning and implementation of good and practical ideas we can avoid such disasters. I know we can not control nature's behavior but we can definitely control our actions and make sure that we don't make situations more complicated and worse by our own mistakes.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Links:
1. Geologist explains why Uttarakhand tragedy was man-made