Sikkim Quake is Wake Up call

The earthquake in Sikkim and the sheer terror and sense of helplessness that it inspired among the victims as well as those who have been trying to rescue them and document/report on event is a grim reminder of the power that nature can unleash without warning.

I’m not talking about the ‘havoc’ that our natural world can strike but of the power it wields and the incapacity, inefficiency and seeming inability of our human systems, processes and ingenuity to ‘deal’ with this. Human folly, error, greed or a deadly mix of all three causes most of the ‘havoc’ that explodes during and after a natural calamity such as an earthquake or major flood.  Because that ‘havoc’ in often meant to translate into loss of human life, human property, and the economy on which we depend.

Have you noticed that there is little or no reportage of the damage caused to wildlife or to the ecology of the place?  That much of the damage, in Sikkim and elsewhere, is a result of bad planning of infrastructure expansion,  especially roads and major hydro projects, of haphazard building of homes and offices, of not understanding and respecting mountain systems and of learning that our place in these systems is minor, not major.

We destroy and change without planning or concern for the future – at our own cost. The destruction of our species lies in its infinite capacity to malignantly harm its own kind – no other species on the face of the earth does that – and in our supreme arrogance thinking that we are right.

Our hearts go out to those who have suffered in the Sikkim earthquake and to those who have gone before them in calamities without number, unheeded, unreached and unhelped: Gujarat, Kashmir, Latur, Uttarkashi and the mother of them all – the Great Assam Earthquake of 1950, Aug. 15. And now the same voices will be heard – ‘we were not prepared’, ‘the buildings were unsafe’, help did not reach in time’, ‘the government doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing’ and ‘we helped each other, where were the disaster relief teams?’ etc.

There’s a new twist to the tale – as one news channel reported, members of the National Disaster Relief Force who arrived in Gangtok the day after the tragedy struck, were not going around their job but trying to get their food and rations. That is why the National Disaster Programme is often derided as a disaster itself.  This is not to underplay the importance of the role of the NRDF and their courage but to underline the failure of those who plan for disasters; it is mired in bureaucratic mindsets, which see success in a few drills, training workshops and some action in the field.

I used to be a member of the Advisory Council of the National Disaster Management Board some time back; some of us raised issues time and again about preparedness especially at the state level, for urban planning and management and controls, of the need to use fast boats for rescue operations in river-dependent states. I would urge media training workshops etc. Nothing  much happened – not surprisingly: we would meet but once a year. So why would anyone, in the ‘permanent executive’, i.e. the bureaucracy, take us seriously?

The earthquake in our small neighbouring state was felt in Tibet and Nepal; such events do not respect national boundaries no matter how our media plays it up as something located in India. The disaster underlines the urgent need to look at specific strategies to tackle the nightmarish growth that is killing our cities and the lands and ecosystems around them.

Take the relentless construction in places like Guwahati where concrete monsters of malls, homes and offices are occupying the natural flood management centres, the wetlands or beels.  We are rushing to our own destruction for these are the very areas that an earthquake will first demolish.

We have some very articulate young leaders who seek permanency rights to those who have settled illegally, for example, in Guwahati, the heart of the North-east. It is the right of everyone to have a roof over their heads, food for nourishment, access to health and education. That is unquestionable. But this needs to be done, taking into account, the rights of others and the safety and sustainability of settlement. After all, who will mourn for those who have settled illegally when they become victims of landslides, quakes and floods?  Will those who agitate for them also compensate them?

We hope such leaders will raise their voices against the land mafia which has have captured the lands of others. The land mafia is an international phenomenon, preying on human greed and distress. It operates in urban centres across the world, including Guwahati, enjoying protection by officials, the support of business, illegal land sharks but revenue staff. The latter are the kingpins and it is they who must be investigated and exposed as also their links to the higher echelons of power, including the police, bureaucracy and politics.

The Minister in Assam who handles Guwahati is Himanta Biswa Sarma. Many disagree with him on a wide range of issues. Yet, his no-nonsense approach has galvanized the Health Department over the years and he is turning his attention to Education, which needs a major clean up and push.  But what are happening about Guwahati and other urban centres in Assam? There are few signs of efforts to control the land mafia and the haphazard growth disaster overtaking the city as forests, hills and agricultural lands are plundered. The mess at Khanapara and Jorabat is visible for all to see and experience, every day.

Action must be taken urgently; the Sikkim earthquake is a wake up call and media, rights activists and scientists should put pressure on state governments in quake-prone regions to publicly come out with their disaster preparedness programs, starting from the district and panchayat level to the state level. The key challenge is construction design and the need to build earthquake-proof or resistant and resilient buildings; this in turn depends on location and soil quality as much as on what materials should be used.

There need to be trauma and counseling centres because people have been struck by distress and fear. This is an issue that is often forgotten: physical damage, in terms of injuries and property and loss of funds, can be repaired or healed. No so trauma, which needs treatment and counseling, similar to victims of violence and oppression.

The Centre must push the States on this and ‘civil society’ and media must be unrelenting.  The Sikkim quake cannot be treated as another event that is forgotten in a week and then remembered when the next disaster strikes. That is what governments would love us to do. We cannot afford to be complacent.

The same can be said for Aizawl, Shillong and Kohima, at the very least in our region, and all hill stations across the Himalayan belt, in and outside India.

After a major earthquake as this, it is natural for people in the entire region to be worried and for a spate of uninformed writing to assault readers as well as breathless, pontificating and reporting by news channels to overwhelm viewers, adding to their concern and panic. But that’s the subject of another column.

However, this is a matter to be seriously reviewed – how should news media, visual and print as well as radio and new media (internet, Face Book, Twitter etc) report on such major events? It is all very well to report the facts– but when journalists start broadcasting opinions without understanding basic issues, that’s when major problem arise and they end up by spreading confusion, panic and misinformation.

By Sanjoy Hazarika/ By the Brahmaputra /