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RMD SINHGAD TECHNICAL INSTITUTES CAMPUS, PUNE

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING


2014-2015

SEMINAR I
ON

Rehabilitation Issues And Case Study Of Kedarnath Landslide


SUBITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF PUNE,
IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE

MASTER OF ENGINEERING (CIVIL)


SUBMITTED BY

VIKAS TYAGI
EXAMINATION NO. ME13785
UNDER GUIDANCE OF
MR. V.C. SHINDE
PROFESSOR & HEAD

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING


SINHGAD EDUCATION SOCIETYS TECHNICAL

RMD SINHGAD TECHNICAL INSTITUTES


CAMPUS, PUNE

CERTIFICATE
This is certify that Mr. Vikas Tyagi has successfully completed the Seminar
work entitled Rehabilitation Issues And Case Study Of Kedarnath
Landslide in the partial fulfilment of ME (Civil Engineering), University of
Pune.

DATE :
PLACE :
Mr. V.C. Shinde
(Guide)

Dr. J.R.Patil
(Head of Civil Engineering)

Dr. P.M.Patil
(Principal)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I consider it is a privilege to express through the pages of this report, a few
words of gratitude and respect to all those distinguished personalities who guided and
inspired us in the completion of Seminar.
I express my deep sense of gratitude to my Seminar guide Mr. V.C. Shinde
Professor and Head Department of Civil RMDSSOE, Warje, Pune for providing me the
necessary guidance and support throughout the course of Seminar.
I am thankful for the help and encouragement of our PG coordinator Dr.
J.R.Patil, Professor Department of Civil.

Mr. Vikas Tyagi

Abstract

Sometime due to major accident and leakage the situation become worst for the nearby
peoples. Kedarnath is a town located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and has gained
importance because of Kedarnath Temple located at the latitude of 30.73 and the longitude of
79.06. This region is seismically and ecologically very sensitive and delicate, even a minute
changes (anthropogenic or natural) can create a dangerous disaster. A natural hazardous has
been happened in Kedarnath valley due to torrential rainfall during 16 and 17 June 2013.
After viewing this disaster due to torrential rainfall an attempt has been made to utilize the
high resolution satellite data of before and after the incident of the recent devastation in
Kedarnath of Rudrapratap District, Uttarakhand. The objective of this study is to
fundamentally focus the intercession of human being in nature and their consequences in
terms of human's life. In our article we tried to focus the impact of this natural hazardous
over the region of Kedarnath.
Introduction
Kedarnath is one of the ancient and famous pilgrims place situated in Uttarakhand, India. It
is located in the snow cover area of Himalayan region at the height of approx 3,583 meter
above sea level in the Mandakini valley of Rudraprayag District, Uttarakhand. Due to very
decisive weather condition it is not possible to visit this Holy place for all of the years so
only from May to October it is safe to visit there. The race between tourism industries,
population growth, several hydroelectric projects are in the fast track in Uttarakhand district.
After the constitution of Uttarakhand as State there is an increment of approx. 141% in
population of Uttarakhand. Now a day's lots of residents and villagers have started to live
near the temple and commercialize this holy region by building different hotels, shops and
markets in this valley. It is clear that there is tremendous growth in infrastructure during last
few decades and proportionally the number of pilgrimages has been increased to a greater
extent. This region is seismically and ecologically very sensitive and delicate even a minute
changes (anthropogenic or natural) can create a dangerous disaster. The fragile nature of
oldest crystalline basement of the Himalayan is very sensitive in case of landslides and any
disaster. Basically the frequency and magnitude of landslides depend on the underlying
structures, physiographic setting, type and condition of vegetation and anthropogenic
pressure of the location. Mehraj Pandit, one of the environmentalists of Delhi University said
that the elevated use of concrete and cement in place of wood and stone the temperature of
the local area has started to increase during the night time. Instead of this, huge number of
infrastructure development has been taken there to fulfil the need of the tourists. The
development of hotels has been done at the place of river which was left after the flood or
some times by changing the path of the rivers. Currently there are 558 hydroelectric power
projects are in pipe line those will affect to Bhagirathi (80%) and Alaknanda (65%), as per
the statement of Sunita Narayan, Director, Centre for Science and Environment. Due to
development of roads and Dam in between mountain, the incident of landslides has been
inclined. The Rudraprayag district where Kedarnath is situated has already faced the problem
of natural disasters 8 times for last 34 years. During 1953-1980, 764.48 milion peoples have
been suffered only due to flood and natural disaster. The population of Uttarakahnd can be
examining by the increasing number (700%) of car registration from 2001 to 2012. The
problems become more provoked during monsoon period (mid-June to mid-September).
Uttarkashi town, Chamoli to Badrinath road sector, Narainbagad, Mandakini Valleys etc are
the critical areas in terms of landslides1-7. Since early 1970's, satellite remote sensing

techniques are an important approach for detecting and analyzing temporal changes and
dynamic phenomena on the earth's surface. Due to lack of advance techniques and limitation
of the spatial resolution of satellite data, it was critical to map individual landslides and
quantify the damage at the desirable scale. Remote sensing technology in managing the
natural hazard has two significant functions, like real time monitoring and mapping the
changes or the dynamics of the process. There are a number of practices that can be used for
mapping perilous zones. The preference of methods depends mainly on the type of hazard,
parameters to be studied and the extent of mapping8-9. In year of 2012 Okhimath area of
Rudrapratap as also witnessed unprecedented damage to the life and property, infrastructure
and landscape during September 13 to 16 due to torrential rainfall and cloud burst accident.
Kedarnath is situated on a glacial outwash plain bordered by impenetrable green forest, with
a waterfall nearby, the tiny village of Rambara. Rambara which is the most popular resting
place for devotees, trekking to Kedarnath from Gaurikund. As per the different news
agencies it was reported that nothing is left there, just nothing. The entire area, which housed
around 100-150 shops and five hotels, to serve the needs of the ever swelling number of
pilgrims, was completely washed away leaving no trace of the once lively rural community
situated at an altitude of 2591 metres halfway on the 14 km long track Kedarnath The
vulnerable nature of global tourism is one of the major concerns for contingency
management. Disaster management is an important aspect for any tourism destination
(especially in the face of a crisis). The specific contingencies such as war, terrorism, crime
waves, epidemic and natural disasters have devastating impacts on any community, region,
state or nation. Any potential destination is exposed to one or more of the above threats,
which can question the safety of residents, tourists and can hamper the market perception of
that destination. Consequently, it is crucial for all destination stakeholders to analyze and
develop contingency plans to respond to varying levels of threats. Either a specific episode
or a series of those may create a change in the perceptions towards a destination. There are a
number of factors which can question the safety and security image of tourist destinations
and result in a destination crisis. Some of them are: international war / prolonged
demonstrations of internal conflict; terrorism which can affect the tourism sector of the state;
crime wave, especially when tourists are targeted (murder, sexual exploitation, theft etc);
natural disasters, such as an earthquake, storm or floods, causing damage to urban areas or
the natural environment and consequently impacting on the tourism infrastructure and health
concerns related to epidemics and diseases; these may be diseases which impact on humans
directly or diseases affecting animals, which create constraints for tourism. These events can
cause massive aftermaths, individually or in combination, to create a negative image on the
safety, security or desirability of tourist destinations. Thereby, it poses challenges for the
concerned authorities and local communities to examine the ingredients of disaster
management strategies. The degrees to which emergency service is initiated to face crisis can
always be critically examined when crisis overrules. Certainly, those factors do not represent
the totality of issues which can impact negatively the destination image. However, the
concern can extend to analyze how a destination and its tourism industry conduct a
marketing campaign to restore its image and recover its market from the damage caused by
these events (Varghese, 2012). This study envisages on the repercussions of Uttarakhand as a
destination in the plight of a disaster and provides the various steps that make an effective
disaster management plan and it seeks to provide a means of disaster recovery through a
systematic approach which will help restoring the destinations success, the paper also goes a
step ahead in discussing the marketing strategies and campaigns so as to restore the

destinations image which would be tainted due to the devastation and finally recommends
the importance if destination management by implementation of Destination Management
Organizations(DMOs).

The Kedarnath Temple (C, foreground) is pictured amid flood destruction in Kedarnath,
located in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand.
At the peak of the monsoon season the northern state of Uttarakhand was face to face with
floods caused due to the cloud burst that hit three of the four famous Char Dham pilgrim
sites, 2013 North India floods (n.d.) leaving tens and thousands of inhabitants as well as
pilgrims stranded or swept away due to the floods, and not to mention the damage cause to
life, property and business. The famous Char Dham pilgrimage is now discontinued for three
years for repair and restoration ("Plan ahead", 2013).The National Institute of Disaster
Management (NIDM), in one of its first reports on the Uttarakhand floods, has blamed
climatic conditions combined with haphazard human intervention in the hills for the
disaster (Down To Earth, 2013, para.1). Besides the natural disaster various other factors
have contributed to the downfall of this famous religious/ tourist site. Uttarakhands huge
potential in tourism lead to the state in tapping its potential towards becoming a major tourist
and pilgrim destination, also has a hand in this disaster. The uncontrolled rise of tourism
inflow into the sate of Uttarakhand, took a toll on the ecology of the state. With
Uttarakhands proximity to the national capital, the weekend revelers soon found
Uttarakhand to be the destination to beat the heat. Plus, the religious tourists found it much
easier to travel to-not-so accessible Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and other shrines, all this
lead to an unsustainable rise in the number of people traveling to Uttarakhand (Bisht, 2013).
As stated by Jacob (2013) during a live television interview on CNN-IBN that, the number
of 'pilgrims' has been steadily increasing, with people from the plains interested in a quick
guided tour of the hills in a vehicle...the local authorities have ignored the carrying capacity
and cumulative impact of dams and illegal construction on the fragile Himalayas (para.8).

This steady rise in tourist inflow resulted in other detrimental issues such as heavy traffic and
roadblocks, with tourists routinely complaining about the bad roads and how it affected their
travel time, the government resorted to widen the roads so as to accommodate the tourists
inflow. Considering the fragility of these mountains, Himalayas being the youngest of the
mountain ranges in the world with very poor soil stability the roads would routinely cave in
or get washed away during monsoons (Bisht, 2013). The rising tourism industry lured the
land sharks and they erected multi-storied hotels, flouting all environmental norms.

This figure shows most affected districts and landslide prone areas in uttarakhand.
Thousands of such resorts and hotels have mushroomed in this eco-sensitive zone in the last
few years. Some of these hotels were built on banks of several small and big rivers just to
give the tourist a birds eye view of the pristine river flowing through the valley . The
number of hotels has also seen a similar rise in the recent past. For example, Kedarnath
Valley has hundreds of such hotels that were vulnerable to these natural calamities. So, when
flash floods struck the valley, many of these hotels got swept away and so did the people
staying in them (Bisht, 2013). As addressed by Jacob (2013), that rampant illegal
construction of buildings by locals had also contributed to the problems and made a bad
situation worse. On top of it all, traffic in the hills has increased hugely, with the number of
vehicles registered in the hills going up sharply. Remember the hills are delicate and
unstable, so it takes little to set off landslides. More infrastructure has in fact worsened the
situation since much of it is poorly made and constructed by people who have no idea of
building in the hills(para.3). All the above factors has had a crucial role to play in the
disaster, but as the report provisioned by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
showed that not only was the disaster aggravated due to rise tourism but also blame lands in
the faults of the State Disaster Management Authority which was formed in 2007, but never
was a meeting convened nor were there any rules, regulations, policies or guidelines framed,
"the state disaster management plan was under preparation and actionable programmes were
not prepared forvarious disasters," the report says. Going to show that the state was

unprepared to face a sudden crisis, furthermore as Varma (2013) stated, citing examples of
the mismanagement by the Uttarakhand government, the CAG said that although the
Geological Survey of India had identified 101 villages as 'vulnerable' in June 2008, the state
government did not take any measures for their rehabilitation till date. Besides this there are
also allegations against the government based on the construction of several dams along the
river, which is as good as handing out an invitation to disasters, as Jacob (2013) reflects on
the same, illegal construction - of buildings a dams...the government has sanctioned an
absurd number of hydro electric power projects that actually overlap with each other
(para.6). All this only goes to show the state and in turn the nations lack of competency, lack
of planning and absences of political accountability is evidently seen through this extensive
damage. To highlight the main factors that aggravated the disaster are as follows: the
unregulated tourist inflow; the absence of an early warning mechanism as the CAG report
mentions The communication system was inadequate.(As cited in "Plan ahead", 2013,
p.10); a lack of trained medical staff at hospitals; the climatic conditions the India
Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued advance warnings predicting extreme weather
conditions in Uttarakhand before the flash-floods though no appropriate action was taken
("Warning had been," 2013) and finally the fact that the state had no action plan in case a
disaster struck. "Plan ahead" (2013), states that Disasters are not learning processes. The
authorities will have to do all they can to ensure against such recurrences...the starting point
is for the State Disaster Management Authority to put place a disaster management plan
(p.10).Thus, unforeseen disasters calls for having an effective disaster management plan in
place and for the State Disaster Management Authority to prepare actionable programmes to
deal with disasters. One such action plan is as suggested below, will help in restoring the
destinations success.

Facts And Plausible Causes


Recent climate changes have had significant impact on high-mountain glacial environment.
Rapid melting of snow/ice and heavy rainfall has resulted in the formation and expansion of
moraine-dammed lakes, creating a potential danger from dammed lake outburst floods1. On
16 and 17 June 2013, heavy rains together with moraine dammed lake (Chorabari Lake)
burst caused flooding of Saraswati and Mandakini Rivers in Rudraprayag district of
Uttarakhand (Figure 1a).Prolonged heavy down pour on 16 and 17 June 2013 resembled
cloud burst(except for amount of precipitation of 100mm/h) type event in the Kedarnath
valley and surrounding areas that damaged the banks of River Mandakini for 18km between
Kedarnath and Sonprayag, and completely washed away Gaurikund (1990masl), Rambara
(2740masl) and Kedarnath (3546masl) towns. The roads and footpath between Gaurikund
and Kedarnath were also damaged. There are reports of loss of large number of human lives
and damage to the property and livestock. The Chorabari Lake(3960masl) also known as
Gandhi Sarovar Lake, is a snow melt and rain fed lake, located about 2km upstream of
Kedarnath town which is approximately 400m long, 200m wide having a depth of 1520m.
The bursting of this lake led to its complete draining within 510min as reported by the
watch and ward staff of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), who were
present in WIHG camp at Chorabari Glacier on 16 June and early morning of 17 June 2013.
The heavy rainfall together with melting of snow in the surrounding Chorabari Lake washed
off both the banks of the Mandakini River causing massive devastation to the Kedarnath
town. The WIHG meteorological observatory at Chorabari Glacier camp (3820masl)

recorded 210mm rainfall in 12 hours between 15 June (5:00 p.m.) and 16 June (5:00a.m.)
2013. On 16 June 2013 alone from 5:00a.m.to 5:00p.m.), 115 mm rainfall was recorded,
causing 325 mm rain in 24 hours. The WIHG has another rain gauge installed at its
geophysical facility (MPGO) at Kopardhar near Ghuttu (30.53N, 78.74E; 1836masl),which
is approximately 38km (aerial distance) from Kedarnath. The Ghuttu rain gauge recorded
58mm on 15 June, 121mm on 16 June and 93mm on 17 June with no rainfall on 18 June
(Figure 2). The surface atmospheric pressure began to decrease on 15 June reaching a low
(832.4mB) on 17 June (Figure 2). During 1517 June 2013, the heavy rains also caused
devastation in other regions of Uttarakhand, Himachal and Nepal.

Figure 1. a, Satellite view of Kedarnath area, showing drainage system, glaciers, lake and
township4; b, TheIndia Meterological Department image (17 June 2013) suggested that the
heavy rainfall on the higher Uttarakhand, Himachal and Nepal Himalaya caused the collision
of the monsoon and westerly disturbance. Arrows (red colour) on the map indicate the
moisture sources of the area. (Source: Figure 1 b:)
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) linked heavy to very heavy rain-fall on the
higher Uttarakhand, Himachal and Nepal Himalaya to the convergence of the Southwest
Monsoon trough and westerly disturbances, which led to the formation of dense cloud over
the Uttarakhand Himalaya (Figure 1 b).

Figure 2. Rainfall and atmospheric pressure recorded at Kopardhar observatory near Ghuttu
(WIHG), which is approximately 38 km (aerial distance) from Kedarnath.
The Kedarnath temple town is located in the western extremity of the Central Himalaya
(30446.7N; 79041E) in the Mandakini River valley which has a total catchment area of ~67
km2 (up to Rambara), out of which 23% area is covered by glaciers2. The catchment area is
situated in the glacier modified U-shaped valley; the altitude ranges from 2740 to 6578 masl.
Such a variation in the altitude provides diverse landscape. Bhart Khunta (6578 m),
Kedarnath (6940 m), Mahalaya peak (5970 m) and Hanuman top (5320 m) are few well
known peaks in the area. Mandakini River originates from the Chorabari Glacier (3895 m)
near Chorabari Lake (Figures 1 and 3) and joins Saraswati River which originates from
Companion glacier at Kedarnath (Figure 3), passing through Rambara and Gaurikund. The
Madhu Ganga and Dudh Ganga are the main tributaries that merge into the Mandakini River
at Kedarnath town. Another equally important tributary of Mandakini River is Son Ganga
which originates from Vasuki Lake (4040 masl) and has a confluence with Mandakini River
at Sonprayag (1709 masl) which finally merges with Alaknanda River at Rudraprayag.
Geologically, the area north of the Pindari Thrust comprises calc-silicate, biotite gneisses,
schist and granite pegmatite apatite veins belonging to the PindariFormation3. Above
3800masl altitudes, glacial processes dominate and between3800 and 2800 masl
glaciofluvial processes are dominant; below 2800 masl mainly the fluvial processes are
active. Geomorphologically, Mandakini valley was formed by the erosional and deposional
processes of glaciofluvial origin. The Kedarnath town is situated on the out wash plane of
Chorabari and Companion glaciers (Figure 3). The channels of Mandakini and Saraswati
Rivers encircles this outwash plane and meet near the Kedarnath town where the outwash
plane ends. These streams cut their banks every year. Overcrowding of the people near the
temple led to a change in the course of Sarswati River which now flows just behind the
Kedarnath town (Figure 3).

Figure 3.Geomorphological setup of the Kedarnath area and view of settlement of the
Kedar-nath town along the river bank of Mandakini (May 2012 photo).
Rainfall data from an automatic weather station (installed near the Chorabari snout) indicates
that the Indian Summer Monsoon is the major source of precipitation (rainfall) in the study
area with partial contribution from western disturbances during winter. Winter precipitation
generally occurs between December and March when the western disturbances are dominant
in the area as they move eastward over northern India. Total summer (JJAS) rainfall for each
observation periods between 2007 and 2012 were 1685mm, 1513mm, 734mm, 1662mm,
1348mm and 1115mm for respective years. Based on the available rainfall data from our
observatory at Chorabari glacier, the area received maximum precipitation during the rainy
season, i.e. July and August(Figure 4).

Figure 4.Histogram of summer rainfall pattern of the Kedarnath area during the period 2007
to 2012 AD. Maximum precipitation occurred during the rainy season from July and August5
The preliminary results suggest that the following two events caused devastation in the
Kedarnath area of the Mandakini River basin.

Figure 5. a, The Landsat (8) satellite image (23 June 2013; after disaster), sowing the, lake
burst (1), Gulleys erosion/cloud burst events (2) and circle (3) indicate the site of maximum
devastation (http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/). b, The panoramic view of Chorabari Lake
and Gla-cier, the red circle indicate the weak zone of the lake, where the lake was burst. c,
The photograph showing the maximum devastation in Kedar-nath town (Photo: Internet). d,
Cartosat image (Bhuwan) of post disaster of the Kedarnath and surrounding areas and clearly
indicating Chorabari Lake outburst. The red circle indicates the breaching point of the Lake.

Event 1
On 16 June2013, at 5:15p.m., the torrential rains flooded the Saraswati River and Dudh
Ganga catchment area, resulting in excessive flow across all the channels. Following this
very active erosion began in all the other gulleys causing excessive water and sediment
accumulation in the major rivers (Figure 5a). As a result, large volumes of water struck the
town which simultaneously picked huge amount of loose sediment enroute. The voluminous
water studded with debris from the surrounding regions and glacial moraines moved towards
Kedarnath town, washing off upper part of the city (Sankaracharya samadhi, Jalnigam guest
house, Bharat Seva Sangh Ashram,etc.) and leading to the biggest ever devastation we have
seen in the region. Our meteorological stations near Chorabari glacier recorded 325mm
rainfall at the base of the glaciers in two days on 15 and 16 June 2013. Due to heavy
downpour, the town of Rambara was completely washed away on 16 June evening.
Event 2
The second event occurred on 17 June2013 at 6:45a.m., after overflow and collapse of the
moraine dammed Chorabari Lake (Figure 5a and b) which released large volume of water
that caused another lash flood in the Kedarnath town leading to heavy devastation
downstream (Gaurikund, Sonprayag, Phata, etc.). Our study shows that the main cause of the
Chorabari Lake collapse was torrential rains that the area received between 15 and 17 June

2013. Due to heavy rainfall the right lateral basin of the glacier, which is thickly covered by
snow (>7 feet thick near the upper part of lake during field work on 4 June 2013) rapidly
melted due to rain-water allowing large amount of water accumulation in the Gandhi Sarovar
lake (Figure 5b). There were no outlets in the lake, the water was simply released through
narrow passage sat the bottom of the lake. Suddenly millions of gallons of water
accumulated in the moraine dammed lake within 3 days, which increased their potential
energy and reduced the shear strength of the dam. Ultimately the loose-moraine dam
breached causing an enormous devastation in the Kedarnath valley (Figure 5a). Recently, the
risk of natural disasters has increased in the area as a result of increasing anthropogenic
activities(Figure 3). This trend is likely to increase in future as the activities like pilgrimage,
tourism, etc. will increase. The natural flow paths of the channels get obstructed due to the
construction of man-made structures that results in deviation of the flow from its natural
course. Apprehending the tendency of increasing urbanization due to increase in the number
of pilgrims, tourists and other developmental activities in the area, selection of safe land-use
locations would be a formidable task to accomplish. However, the Government has to take
care of these issues in future rebuilding of the devastated area, though the task of
rehabilitation of the displaced population is enormous.

Cloudburst & Flood Disaster


Garhwal Himalaya is considered adobe of Gods: this beautiful and difficult terrain
hasnumerous majestic peaks like Shivling, Bhagirathi, Thalay Sagar, Nanda Devi, and
spiritual sites like Tapovan. Hindus from all corners of India visit four very important holy
pilgrimage sites: Gangotri (origin of river Ganga/Bhagirathi), Yamunotri (origin of river
Yamuna),Badrinath (God Vishnus temple at banks of Alaknanda river), and Kedarnath (God
Shivas temple at banks of Mandakini river and northernmost of 12 Jyotirlingas). This
journey is popularly known as Chota Char Dham yatra, literally translated as minor four
Gods adobe pilgrimage circuit (it draws its name from original Char Dham yatra consisting
of Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram temples in four corners of India). June is peak
month of Chota Char Dham pilgrimage for two reasons: it is summer vacation time in most
of north India, and rain starts in Garhwal by end of June or early July. During the peak
pilgrimage season, from 14 17 June 2013 (peaking on 16th), the region received
unexpectedly heavy rain, about 375% more than normal, causing unprecedented magnitude
of death and destruction, especially in Kedarnath (site of Destroyer God Shiva) due to cloud
burst causing a glacial lake burst and flash flood downstream. In this still unfolding tragedy,
more than thousand people died, many thousands still missing, several villages completely
destroyed, hundreds of villages rendered inaccessible, Crores of rupees worth of
infrastructure and property lost. As it is now monsoon season in the region, it will not
only make rehabilitation difficult, but also cause its own annual quota of destruction and loss
of life. I think the real toll of Kedarnath disaster / tragedy will be known only after monsoon
ends, and hopefully rehabilitation/reconstruction will be completed before winter sets in
Garhwal, Uttarakhand. I have trekked in Gangotri and Kedarnath region a few times and
have seen it being transformed quite a bit, for better or worse, in last 8 years. It has been

painful for me to read and watch the news. Tragic loss of life and destruction was saddening
and the magnitude was shocking. My plan to 10-days trek to Satopanth Tal and Swargarohini
near Badrinath starting 10th June had fizzled out due to organization troubles (before flood
news broke). So in a way I felt lucky, but thought that I would have been definitely among
those stuck or might have been hurt and even perished was sobering, making it not some
distant tragedy but rather something too close for comfort. I was hooked to news: reading
and watching whatever being dished out. TV coverage was 247, and sadly it was mostly
sensational, designed to grab eyeballs for high TRP. Politicians of all colors and hues were
busy with their controversies and blame game. I was tired of sensational breaking news and
typical blaming the government. I wished for something meaningful and more informative. I
looked for explanations about what actually happened that caused something of such
magnitude. Thankfully now at least some explanations are out there on internet. In this blog
post, I attempt to put it all together: what I felt and thought as news and visuals poured in,
explanation that I have learned, and my opinion on development vs. environment debate. I
completed my trek and returned to Bangalore on 3 July. By that time, stories
of traumatizinghorrifying ordeals that survivors endured were starting to come out. I also
found couple ofblog posts by Dave Petley, Geography professor at Durham University,
UK, reconstructing events based on satellite data and eyewitness accounts (also a news
report based on those blog posts).
Mandakini originates from Chorabari glacier, which recorded 315mm rainfall on 15-16 June
(not yet clear if it was a sudden cloud burst). That kind of rain usually happens at the peak of
monsoon in July/August and not in mid June, when there is still snow melting on the ground.
Heavy rainfall and melting snow are known to cause landslides. Several shallow landslides
are visible in photos and satellite images, but there was a major landslide above the glacier
(with 1200m length, 75m width and an altitude difference of 500m from crown to channel).
That landslide quickly accumulated sediment and water, and highly energetic debris flow ran
along the margin of the glacier and swept into the temple town around 6:15pm on 16th June.
Velocities were so high that it went on to strike Rambada almost instantly. Another serious
trouble was developing over the night at the Chorabari Lake (actually a Tarn) at the western
snout of the Charobari Glacier. In the morning of 17th June, rainfall and snowmelt caused
catastrophic burst in the terminal moraine barrier releasing all of the impounded water. This
water along with moraine and glacial sediments including large boulders swept down and
picked debris on the way. This very energetic and large debris flow hit Kedarnath with hillload of boulders and lake-ful of ice cold water. Both these high velocity waves of water and
debris caused unbelievable devastation and heart wrenching deaths. I think no matter how
much I try, it will never sink into me. This is absolutely unbelievable, unimaginable horror.

Climate Change and the Indian Monsoon


The unpredictability factor associated with Indias summer monsoon is not a new
phenomenon; however, it is the scale of unpredictability with rising temperatures that has

now become a major concern. A World Bank report prepared by the Potsdam Institute of
Climate Research and Climate Analytics suggests that an extreme wet monsoon that was
estimated to occur only once in 100 years, is now projected to happen every ten years by the
end of this century. Due to increase in moisture availability, an increase in annual mean
precipitation has been predicted. Variability in the monsoon system including intra-seasonal
variability in precipitation and extreme precipitation events will undoubtedly increase the
risk of flooding and droughts (114-116). Another study by the Indian Institute of Tropical
Meteorology in 2006 also states that while there was an increasing trend in the frequency and
intensity of heavy and very heavy rain events between 1951 and 2000, the frequency of
moderate events during the period were on the decline (Goswami, et al. 1442-1444). Such
variations in the rainfall pattern are capable of causing flash floods, mudslides, large-scale
crop failure and loss of life and property.
The government, however, has denied linkages between climate change and extreme
precipitation events, even in the case of heavy rainfall witnessed by North India in 2013.
Despite the fact that studies have revealed that heavy precipitation events have resulted in
many severely damaging floods in India in the past few years, the government sources
suggest that there was nothing unusual about the heavy rainfall events and that those were
just isolated events that had nothing to do with climate change or extreme weather events
as reported by Bose. At the same time, it has to be noted that the scientific and environmental
causes for the Uttarakhand disaster are not restricted to climate change only as analyzed by
Singh. Initially thought of as a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), reports now claim that a
multitude of factors led to the Himalayan Tsunami. A small lake is said to have formed due
to a huge landslide coupled with heavy rainfall upstream. A breach in the boundary of the
lake resulted in a large amount of water surging as well as in another rock to flow away, thus
creating a new stream in addition to the existing two streams. The monsoon had reached
Uttarakhand almost two weeks in advance due to low pressure in north-western region
(Rajasthan), easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal that came along the foothills of
Himalayas and westerly winds that crossed Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, creating a trough.
Moreover, rains had hit Uttarakhand when the rivers already had a heavier flow due to
seasonal glacial melting. As a result, the rivers swelled up further. When water falls on ice in
general or glaciers, it melts faster. It might not be possible to prevent such an unpredictable
sequence of events although early warning systems and timely and precise meteorological
data could have salvaged many lives that were lost in the disaster. This was not the first time
a disaster of such a massive scale had struck the nation. Cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata
are among the top ten most vulnerable cities in the world in the climate change vulnerable
index of Maplecroft Global Risks Analytics as given in Cities of Dhaka. They could be
affected severely by long-term changes in temperature and rainfall patterns. As a case in
point, in July, 2005, in a single day, Mumbai received 28.9 inches of rain in the city center
and 37.2 inches in the surrounding suburban areas. The entire city came to a standstill with
telecommunications, transportation, power and financial services coming to a halt (Stecko
and Nicole 3). The Mumbai floods brought to light the countrys vulnerabilities and several
gaping holes in its urban planning and most importantly disaster management policies.
The State of Disaster Management in India
The four-phase approach towards modern disaster management involves the following
(Coppola, 9-10):

1. Mitigation: Reducing or eliminating the likelihood or the consequences of a hazard, or


both. Mitigation seeks to treat the hazard such that it impacts society to a lesser degree.
2. Preparedness: Equipping people who may be impacted by a disaster or who may be able
to help those impacted with the tools to increase their chance of survival and to minimize
their financial and other losses.
3. Response: Taking action to reduce or eliminate the impact of disasters that have
occurred or currently occurring, in order to prevent further suffering, financial loss, or a
combination of both. Relief, a term commonly used in international disaster management, is
one component of response.
4. Recovery: Returning victims lives back to a normal state following the impact of
disaster consequences. The recovery phase generally begins after the immediate response has
ended, and can persist for months or years thereafter.
Similarly, Indias National Policy on Disaster Management lays down seven elements that
constitute disaster management: prevention, mitigation and preparedness (pre-disaster
phase); and response, rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery (post-disaster phase)
(National Policy on Disaster Management, 7). However, despite the fact that the National
Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was formed in 2006 to carry out the abovementioned tasks, the disaster management policies and strategies of India have been largely
defunct. The authority was constituted under the Disaster Management Act of 2005 in the
light of the various earthquakes, cyclones, tsunami and floods among other disasters that
India had suffered in recent years. It established a three-tiered disaster management construct
that is at the national, state and district levels. However, the authority has been hampered by
a host of inadequacies and loopholes.
A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Performance Audit of
Disaster Preparedness in India criticizes the NDMA for its lack of information and control
as well as for failing to implement several projects. It exposed the following details (vi-ix):
The National Executive Committee had not met after May 2008, although the country
faced many disasters since that date. This had affected the evaluation of the disaster
preparedness at all levels of government.
The National Plan for Disaster Management had not been formulated even after six
years of the enactment of the Disaster Management Act.
None of the major projects taken up by NDMA was completed. Due to improper
planning, either the projects were abandoned midway or were still incomplete after lapse
of a considerable period.
The National Disaster Mitigation Fund was yet to be established.
The National Database for Emergency Management, which was to be completed by
August 2011, was yet to be operationalized.
Effectiveness of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was hampered by a
shortage of trained manpower, absence of required training facilities, infrastructure and
equipment. Indias Disaster Resource Network project, to build an organized information
system of specialist equipment and expertise for disaster response, was operational only
on ad-hoc basis.

As of September 2011, Only eight states had prepared Emergency Action Plans for 192
large dams against the targeted 4278 dams in 29 states.
In short, the countrys disaster management mechanisms require drastic refurbishment and
consolidation. The roles of the NDMA, state disaster management authorities, district
disaster management authorities and other local authorities need to be defined clearly to
avoid duplication and overlaps. Although the Disaster Management Act 2005, as well as the
National Policy on Disaster Management, gives an exhaustive description of the various
agencies involved in disaster management and their specific roles and functions, it is very
clear that there is a lack of coordination and cooperation between different agencies until the
disaster actually strikes or even just after. There must be more clarity on whether the NDMA
could legally issue directions to the state authorities (e.g., would that lead to a violation of
the federal structure?).
In fact, in Uttarakhand, a state that has confronted regular floods in the past has a state
disaster management authority that is relief-centric rather than focusing on preparedness.
Instead of a proactive approach, the Indian disaster management agencies have been
practicing a more-or-less reactive approach. Also, the bane of bureaucracy seems to be
affecting the disaster management machinery of India as well. There is a need to integrate
various sectors of the society, including non-governmental organizations and the civil society
at large.

The immediate reaction of the NDMA in the aftermath of the Uttarakhand disaster was to
pass the buck to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for not providing accurate
weather warning as reported by Menon. The blame game continued when the IMD claimed
that it had issued a warning, to which the NDMA reacted by stating that no special forecast
was issued to the NDMA and therefore, it was caught unaware by the sudden heavy rainfall.
No agency was prepared and no efforts were made to evacuate the people. More importantly,
pilgrims constituted a large part of the victims; an early warning to not flock to the pilgrim
spots/sites in Uttarakhand could have saved their lives. Unfortunately, the Central Water
Commission (CWC) that forecasts floods in India has no forecasting station in Uttarakhand.
Despite sanctioning of funds for installing Doppler radars -- which can detect precipitation
intensity, wind direction and speed in Uttarakhand -- no action has been taken. The Doppler
radar would have helped in issuing advance and accurate warnings of heavy rainfall. Raju
reports that a proposal to modernize IMD has been forwarded by the NDMA in which heavy
emphasis has been laid on procuring various weather radars, micro-rain radars, GPS-based
upper air system, surface observation equipment and lightning detection system besides a
heliport automated weather observation system which is in the pipeline. The paucity of a
robust communication network along with ill-functioning or outdated equipment has been
heavily impeding the efforts of the NDRF on the ground. Empowering the NDRF with the
latest technologies and logistical support is crucial for all four phases of disaster
management. It is also important to sensitize them to the local surroundings and
communities of the region affected by disasters, for appropriate rehabilitation. Instead of
calling upon the armed forces every time, the NDRF -- constituted specifically for disaster
management -- should be given a boost by imparting requisite training.

Death and Damages


822were deaths occurred in flood(official estimates). 2232were missing persons. 2232 has
fully damaged houses 154 bridges get damaged. 1520 roads get damaged. 4200 villages were
affected. Over 70,000 people were stuck in various regions because of damaged or blocked
roads. National highway 58, an important artery near region jyotirmath was also washed
away.

Rescue Operation
The future of those rescued from the villages and hamlets of flood ravaged Uttarakhand
seems to be bleak indeed. No less than 561 villages across the state devastated by natural
causes in the past are yet to be relocated and rehabilitated by Geological Survey of India
(GSI). With more than 200 villages added to the GSI list recently, the body is all ready to
give up. A February 2013 meeting of GSI, Geology and Mining Unit (GMU), Ministry of
Mines, Uttarakhand government and Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC)
at Dehradun, had survey officials saying they are unable to rehabilitate such a "large"
number of disaster-hit villages. Minutes of the meeting, headed by GSI officials, say, "The
Uttarakhand Unit of GSI has received a list from DMMC and state administration,
government of Uttarakhand of some 561 villages, affected by natural disasters, to be
investigated by GSI. "It has been impressed upon by GSI that such a huge assignment cannot
be completed by GSI alone, due to manpower shortage in Dehradun office
"The recent landslides in Uttarakhand have the understaffed GSI overwhelmed; the number
of total villages in dire need of rehabilitation may go up to a thousand by the end of the
monsoon season. "The list of villages may go up to 1,000 because the scenario is really bad

after this disaster. 2Major areas the villages fall into are Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh
and Bageshwar Nath district as these are central Himalayas. "We have been warning the state
government of landslides in these areas because these are young mountains, weak and instaCHANDRAPURI Palli, a small village in Rudraprayag district, remained cut off from the
mainland for nearly two weeks due to flood devastation.Finally, on Sunday, a group of
individuals operating adventure sports companies in Rishikesh provided its residents some
sort of connectivity, and more
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday announced that apart from a
package of Rs1,000 crore declared by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for reconstruction
and rebuilding efforts, Rs2,500 to 3,000 crore more is expected from the World Bank and the
Asian Development Bank for the purpose.
In view of the present circumstances, it has been decided to give Rs50,000 to Rs1 lakh to
small kiosks and dhabas damaged in the deluge and Rs2 lakh to hotels completely
demolished, Uttarakhand Chief Minister said.
In case of damages worth Rs2 lakh to 10 lakh to commercial establishments, 30 per cent of
the damage will be compensated, while 20 per cent of the total losses will be reimbursed in
case of damages worth Rs10 to 20 lakh and 10 per cent for losses totalling over Rs20 lakh,
he said.
Villagers had been struggling for ration and essential commodities after the flash floods
washed away the only suspension bridge on the Mandakini river in the area on June 17.
The volunteers used their adventure sports skills to connect the village with the mainland on
Sunday, and also delivered essential supplies there. "The village is located on right ble
slopes. Villages in these areas are vulnerable to disaster," says PVS Rawat, superintending
geologist. GSI studies landslide hazards before a settlement is allowed. For villages that
need to be relocated or rehabilitated after a natural disaster, it carries out detailed analyses of
landslides. "In order to take up village instability and rehabilitation assignments, there has to
be selection and identification of villages on priority by the state government and the same
could be divided judiciously between GMU and GSI. The GMU, however, informed us that
they are facing manpower shortage and before taking up this assignment fresh recruitment of
geologists should be done by the government of Uttarakhand," minutes say. A
comprehensive analysis by GSI found that there are few sites left in Uttarakhand to relocate
the villages. "Uttarakhand's Himalayan terrain is grappling with encroachment. There are
few places left for rehabilitation like barren lands and some forest stretches," says Rawat.
Rehabilitation activities tell upon economic status also because major cultivation is to be
removed to relocate villages. The GSI says it can analyse a few villages but a big number is
difficult to handle. "This issue is beyond the purview of GSI - it has to be sorted out by the
GMU, DMMC or Uttarakhand government.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) personnel
have so far rescued 32,772 peoples from different areas of Uttarakhand following landslides
and floods, of the 32,772, including pilgrims and residents, 26,538 were rescued by ITBP
while 6,234 were evacuated NDRF personnel. Defending its role in the rescue operations in
the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, ISRO had played its role in the largest rescue operations in
the country, saving thousands of lives. Several thousand soldiers were deployed for the
rescue missions. ITBP Jawans distribute medicines to stranded pilgrims during Uttarakhand
rescue operations. The Army, Air Force, Navy, Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP), Border
Security Force, National Disaster Response Force(NDRF), Public Works Department and
local administrations worked together for quick rescue operations. Helicopters were used to
rescue people.Local people distribute food to rescued pilgrims near IAF base camp in dara's.
By 21 June 2013 the army had deployed 10,000 soldiers and 11 helicopters.The Navy had
sent 45 naval divers, and the Air force had deployed 43 aircraft including 36 helicopters.

Figure;Image of kedarnath before and after.

Rehabilitation Strategies
Uttarakhand is home to rich natural resources and wildlife habitats. It is a land of natural
beauty, comprising of 93% mountainous and 64% forest cover. Its geographical location, the
climate and the vegetation on the region are vary greatly with the elevation and is an ecosensitive zone. With a very fragile terrain that is prone to natural disasters, the state of
Uttarakhand falls within Zone IV and Zone V of seismicity. The state of Uttarakhand is also
prone to massive natural calamities, such as rains, cloudbursts, flash floods, landslides,
floods, hailstorms and water logging events. The recent disaster that struck Uttarakhand in
June 2013 while was largely due to natural causes such as peculiar monsoon and melting of
the glaciers due to climate change, but was also aggravated due to the unplanned
development in the region. Various developmental activities pursue over the years could not
meet the requirements of the ecology and topology of the region. The huge deforestation,
high intensity blasting across the hills, unregulated haphazard construction of houses even in
the river terrace region, have led to the destruction of the natural ecosystem and distressed
the ecosystem, endangering the local ecology and human life. Himalaya is one of the least
observed regions on the globe. As a result, there is a corresponding knowledge gap in our
understanding of this extensive domain of unusually high gradients in topography,
temperature, precipitation, biota and the radiative balance. Focused observations on
meteorology, snow, ice and glaciers are required to understand the interaction of cryosphere
with atmosphere and geosphere. This understanding is a prerequisite for the development of
the capabilities to forecast the extreme weather events, and to understand the changes in the
mass balance of glaciers. More importantly, monitoring of glaciers is integral to observing
and understanding both the climate change and its attendant implications for water security.
The role of ecosystem in the Himalayan region on the present and future regional climate
needs to be examined such that the capabilities for now casting for expeditions, pilgrimage,
tourism, etc. can be developed. While the relief in terms of food grain and financial
assistance were meant for most immediate requirement, Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and
restoration of normal life have become major challenges before the state government. This is

not only requires help and collaborative efforts from various national and international
agencies, but more importantly it calls for scientifically sound planning so that the
vulnerabilities to natural hazards are reduced to minimum and developmental activities are
sustainable in long term.
1. S&T vision, mission and objectives for reconstruction
1.1: Vision
Provide sustainable development plan for post disaster reconstruction and
rehabilitation of Uttarakhand through scientifically designed programmes and build a
disaster resilient community in the State.
1.2: Mission
To carry out damage assessment, identify multi-hazards risk elements, augment
observing system, identify new communication technologies; strengthen Information
systems, leverage GIS technology, establishment of critical infrastructure, set up a
proper consultative mechanism and build human and knowledge capacities etc.
To integrate the hazard mitigation processes with sustainable practices along with
developing strong early warning systems and preparedness strategies.
1.3: Objectives
Map the neighbourhood of Uttarakhand
Map fragile and disaster prone areas of Uttarakhand
Use Geographical System (GIS) to map critical resources and geographical data of the
state.
Prepare spatial databases on different themes, viz. land use/ land cover, land
degradation, geomorphology, ground water prospects and biodiversity characterization
using satellite imagery
Focus observations on meteorology, snow, ice and glaciers to understand interaction of
cryosphere with atmosphere and geosphere which is prerequisite for the development
of capabilities to forecast the extreme weather events
Network existing institutions in the region for coordinating technical knowhow for
developing infrastructure in a sustainable manner in the Himalayan hill region
Identify a set of reliable, new and effective technologies to cater to the situations
created in a disaster
Provide knowledge base in diverse areas and unique S&T interventions in rebuilding
of Uttarakhand
Establish viable models of rural bio-resource complexes / hubs and rural technological
innovation & application centre
Support R&D component for refinement and validation of technology for addressing
the problems of affected groups
Apart from national mission projects and pilot projects, undertake training &
education and research programmes
Promote use of biotechnological processes and tools for Socio economic up-liftment
of affected community in Uttarakhand

Preservation of food and agro products by radiation processing and address the water
quality issues using indigenously developed technology.
1. Assessment of current situation:
2.1: Quantitative impact of disaster
The disaster occurred on the June 15th in upper reaches of Uttarakhand. This was predicated
due to the results of global warming and unprecedented 72 hours rain across the Himalayas.
The worst hit zone was Rudraprayag district (Kedarnath Valley) of Uttarakhand. Official
records revealed that more than 5000 pilgrims and locals lost their lives. Besides, many villages
almost washed away, many bridges collapsed, building and huts also succumbed to damage.
Due to the worst disaster loss of property and lives are amounting to billions. About 20000
hectares of agricultural land have also been washed away.
2.1: Expectations of Stakeholders
During a disaster, the requirement includes quick assessment of the ground situation on the
extent and magnitude of the disaster. The Government authorities need information to take
steps to mitigate the risks. Though the State machinery has resources to deploy the rescue
operations, they should know where to act, and how much resources have to be allocated.
The State & District administrators expect information in an understandable format rather
than huge sets of data. Towards this the data from various sources are to be converted into
information for decision making and provided to the administrators. The following are the
expectations from the stake holders:
The local level administrators and the common people expect clear directions from the
State.
Laid down policies and Standard Operating procedures on the responsibilities of the
stake holders will be useful in ensuring the inter-agency coordination and fast
response.
Construction and renovation of their houses and farm land.
Reconstruction of roads and bridges
Necessary infrastructure facility for electrification, sanitation, health care and
education etc.
Regaining loss of livelihood and new avenues as an alternative livelihood
Create opportunities for self-employment and reduce migration
1. S&T Strategy for Reconstruction
3.1: Short-term strategy
Multi-hazard risk zoning: The state being prone to multi-hazards, reconstruction must be
based on scientifically sound planning to prevent/reduce recurrence of disaster losses in
future. Spatial zoning based on multi-hazards risks using the scientific data and methods is
therefore an immediate requirement for regulating the construction activities. While doing
this, all risk elements including dynamic occupants in the building, vehicular traffic etc. need
to be considered. Flash-floods, landslides and forest fires being the common recurrent

hazards affecting the mankind and ecosystem must be given priority for multi-hazard risk
zoning. Additionally, reserve forests/ parks, high biological richness areas, wildlife corridors
and other protected areas should also be considered for avoiding (as far as possible) the
human interference. Initial zoning to delineate hot spots for natural hazards can be carried
out based on existing scientific datasets on various aspects through a multi-institutional
effort. Construction activities in the high and very high risk zones identified through this
process need to be regulated through legislation by the government. However, such zones
can still be used for other land use practices based on land suitability. Legislation based on
such a scientific approach will bring a lot of advantage not only in safeguarding the people
and infrastructure from exposure to natural hazards but also conserving the natural
environment. These zones can be subject to revision at some regular intervals based on
additional scientific data and knowledge.
Landslide inventory: During the recent disaster, many new landslides have taken places and
many of the old landslides have been reactivated. Therefore, landslide mapping is needed
immediate using the latest (post-disaster) satellite images. NRSC has used post-disaster
images to map landslides using a semi-automated method in parts of Char-Dham and Pindar
valley; the work is in progress in the remaining part. However, ground truthing of these
landslides is needed for detailed characterisation. Geological Survey of India (GSI) has been
entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out detailed inventory of landslides. The MANU
initiative will also help in this endeavour.
Identifying safer zones for reconstruction: Uttarakhand is prone to frequent natural and manmade/induced hazards which have the potential to cause extensive damage to life, property,
infrastructure and natural resources. The common and potential hazards of immediate
concern to human kind living in this region are flash-floods, landslides, forest fires,
earthquakes, Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) and avalanche. Land degradation
processes, particularly soil erosion, are other major concern as they have adverse impact on
the productivity and environment in the long-term.
Climate change with accompanied environmental degradation poses further threat as it will
potentially increase the vulnerability of the society to natural hazards in future. Therefore,
relatively safe places for human settlements, new tourist sites, and infrastructure should be
identified based on scientific analysis of available spatial and non-spatial data. The multihazard risk zoning and land suitability analysis form the key for reconstruction activities and
optimal land use planning. Geographical Information System (GIS), rainfall-runoff and flash
flood modelling, debris flow modelling, are some of the approaches that could be used for
comprehensive risk assessment and identifying safer and environmentally sustainable zones
for reconstruction.
The tourist sites and supporting infrastructure including the camping sites (which are often
located at the banks of the rivers) need to be evaluated for multi-hazard risks. Wherever
needed/feasible, they may be relocated at safer places based on scientific planning. The
tourist influx to famous places (particularly Char-Dham) needs to be regulated based on the
carrying capacity. Early warning systems and the infrastructure to disseminate the warnings
to the tourists needs to be strengthened.
Reconstruction of houses, roads & communication infrastructure: Reconstruction of
damaged houses and public buildings, and road and communication infrastructure is one of
the top-priorities where the aim should be to reduce the vulnerability to different kinds of
hazards (especially earthquake, flood, landslides and forest fires) and restore access to basic
amenities and services of governance. Any reconstruction activity of houses and public

buildings should be taken up only at safer and environmentally suitable places and as far as
possible close to the original locations.

3.2: Medium-term strategy


Optimal land use planning: Land use planning around the new and old settlements should be
based on land suitability and the local knowledge/ wisdom for optimum returns.
Strengthening emergency communication systems: Communication plays a vital role in early
warning and emergency response. As most part of Uttarakhand is characterised with rugged
and inaccessible terrain, a strong network of space-based communication system needs to be
established to ensure the availability of communication link even during the disaster.
ISRO/DOS has developed Satcom-based early warning and emergency communication
systems, such as portable satellite phones (MSS Type-D terminals), DTH-based system,
Satellite based Virtual Private Network (DMS-VPN), etc. which can be deployed in critical
areas of the state to make satellite communication an integral part of the disaster
management. During the recent disaster, ISRO has deployed satellite phones and DMS-VPN
user nodes through extended C band 1.8m VSAT antennas in disaster-affected areas which
were very useful in supporting rescue and relief operations when the terrestrial links failed.
Strict scrutiny and implementation mechanism for EIA and EMP: Environmental impact
assessment (EIA) carried out for hydropower, industrial and other infrastructure projects
must be based on scientifically sound data and methods and should be subject to strict
scrutiny before granting clearances. Further, effective implementation of environmental
management plans (EMP) in developmental projects must be enforced through a monitoring
and regulatory mechanism.
Tourism sector: The vulnerable tourist sites/ places and supporting infrastructure need to be
relocated to safer places based on scientific planning. New sites should be identified and
developed.
Enhancing Livelihood Opportunities for Rural Population: Migration of people from rural
areas to towns/ cities in search of employment is a serious issue in the state. The main reason
for this is small and scattered land-holdings coupled with low agricultural productivity. New
ways to enhance the income of farmers need to be promoted to enhance the livelihood
opportunities. These could be: improvement in productivity by adopting high-yield varieties
of seed, crop diversification, change from conventional crops to high-value crops, providing
marketing support, promoting the self-employment generating schemes, involving people in
national schemes like MNREGS and IWMP, etc.
Establish few viable models of Rural Bio-resource Complexes / hubs in the flood affected
regions, which can sustain regular livelihood for the community by adoption of integrated
model of farming system including agriculture, animal husbandry, horticulture, post-harvest
and value addition. This would involve the participation of large number of farming
community to provide them tangible benefits with creation of rural entrepreneurship among
the youth, SHGs and cooperatives. The models would also have technology driven with the
establishment of resource centre and village knowledge centre to promote rural innovation
according to the need of hour.
3.3: Long-term strategy

Conservation of Natural Resources and Environment: About 6.6% area of the state is
constituted by culturable wasteland and permanent fallow lands. About 11.6% area of the
state comes under degraded land, most part of this constituted by the wastelands and
permanent fallow lands. Although about 61% of the geographical area is under forest but a
considerable portion of it is under degraded forest cover. Similarly, although there is a large
potential of water resources but water crisis prevails across the hilly region. These facts point
out that there is a lot of scope for conservation of the natural resources and enhance the
productivity by adopting scientific, technically viable and environmentally sustainable
methods and approaches that are also acceptable to local people.
The sectors which need the attention include: (1) forest and biodiversity; (2) soil and
agriculture; and (3) water, including hydropower. The spatial databases on forest types,
biodiversity and biological richness, geomorphology, soil (some parts), groundwater,
glaciers, land degradation, land use/ land cover, etc. prepared by ISRO/DOS in association
with State Remote Sensing Centres and other institutions using satellite imagery with limited
field checks can be used for this purpose.
There is a strong need to involve the local people and use indigenous knowledge in
protection and conservation of natural resources. Community-based land and water resource
development plan and governance need to be formulated and implemented to sustain the
developmental programmes and schemes of the government. The concept of generating the
assets inventory and other baseline information through community including school/
college level students should also be promoted using the latest tools and technologies.
Strengthening scientific observational network: Himalayan region is data scarce and,
therefore, a strong network of instrumented observatories is required to improve the quality
and availability of scientific data on land, water and air. These data are needed essentially for
two purposes: (1) early warning for natural hazards, and (2) monitoring and evaluating
(before, during and after) the developmental activities, projects and programmes and even
the disasters.
Cloudburst and associated flash floods, and landslides which are generally triggered by
heavy rain are recurring events in the Himalayan region. This warrants a strong network of
meteorological instruments, viz. automatic weather stations (AWS), rain gauges, radars
including Doppler weather radar (DWR), etc. for improving the weather forecasts through
numerical weather prediction (NWP) models that will be extremely useful in early warning
of meteorology related hazards. Many organisations such as IMD, ISRO, dam authorities,
Central Water Commission (CWC), universities, research organisations and state government
departments have installed AWS, automated rain gauges (ARG), and traditional rain gauges
at various locations. Attempt should be made to integrate all such systems and share the data
for various purposes. Based on the inventory of such systems, additional instruments must be
installed in gap areas as the accurate meteorological data are necessary in flood modelling/
forecasts and also early warning of landslides. As the cost of AWS/ARGs instruments are
low and there is an improved GSM network in the State, attempts should be made to install
such instruments and collect data at a centralised server for faster dissemination and usage
related to modelling, prediction/ forecast and decision making. However, in view of paucity
of instrumental precipitation data, satellite-based precipitation data available from different
sources (e.g. TRMM, NOAA CPC) also need to be analysed in addition to ground-based
measurements to assess precipitation pattern in spatio-temporal domain.

Recently, TROPMET-2012 Symposium on "Frontiers of Meteorology with Special


Reference to the Himalaya" held at IIRS, Dehradun in November 2012 has strongly
recommended strengthening the meteorological observation network realising the fact that
the research, observations and operational requirements in the Himalayan region are quite
different from the rest of the country. It has even recommended the need for a dedicated
institute for Himalayan Meteorology by the Govt. of India. The observational datasets will
also help understanding the climate variability and change in the Himalayan region and its
impact on different sectors, viz. water resources, agriculture, biodiversity, etc.
River flow discharge is one of the most important parameters for developing flood forecast
models. There should be a mechanism to share the information being collected by various
dam authorities as well as CWC. Such data should be collected on priority at all places
where higher order tributaries meet the main river, such as Mandakini, Alkananda, Yamuna,
Bhagirathi, Pindar, Kali and other major rivers.
The region being prone to seismicity, the existing network of seismograph and GNSS-CORS
(Global Navigation Satellite System - Continuously Operating Reference Stations) needs to
be strengthened in the gap areas. These measurements can also be supported with satellitebased measurements.
Apart from above, measurements on land, water and other air quality parameters are also
critical in understanding the changes not only at specific places but also as a network across
the state and even the Himalayan region, so that preventive/ mitigation measures can be
taken in time.
Strengthening institutional capacity and linkage: An efficient emergency response and
planning process depends on the timeliness of many actions based on real-time, simulated as
well as ancillary spatial and non-spatial information. There is an urgent need to strengthen
the institutional capacity of the state government departments (e.g. State Emergency
Operation Centre (SEOC), Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC),
Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC), Uttarakhand Council of Science &
Technology (UCOST), Geology and Mining Unit) in terms of technical expertise (including
number of staff) and facilityaugmentation. State needs to invest heavily in S&T to enable it
effectively analyse and utilise scientific inputs coming from various agencies. Suitable
scientific staff with research background (PhDs) well versed with ground realities, domain
expertise and well versed with modern tools such as remote sensing and GIS should be
recruited. Technical expertise is prerequisite for synthesis of various spatial and non-spatial
inputs which keep flowing prior to disaster during golden hours of disaster management
from various agencies and field workers/first responders. A policy framework for appropriate
utilisation of remote sensing and GIS data may also be needed.
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), a capacity building institute of ISRO/DOS, can
support in providing short-term/ customised and long-term training to the manpower of the
stakeholder departments.
The linkage among the state government departments must be strengthened to share the data
and exchange of the technical expertise. The linkage between state and central government
departments and centres of excellence also needs to be strengthened.
Capacity building of community and local bodies of governance: Generating awareness
amongst the people and capacity building of Panchayati Raj Institutions are of paramount
importance in conserving and optimal utilisation of the natural resources in a sustainable
manner. Watershed management, awareness of the technological advancements and
innovation for increasing the agricultural and livestock productivity, use of local products for

income generation, understanding of the disaster risks and safe construction for building
disaster resilience community are some of the priority sectors for human capacity
development. Young generation, especially students/ children, should be the focus for
generating awareness so that sustainable management of natural resources becomes a culture
in long run and vulnerabilities to natural and man-made/induced hazards are minimised
while adaptive capacity of the society is enhanced.
The long term prospective will be to realize the affected problems and to give emphasis on
R&D to address various environmental and ecological issues to take measures from future
calamities. The development should be promoted by considering the environmental issues.
Establishment of bio-clusters with end to end approach on farm to market concept by
actively involving the Local Community, Government Institutions, Private Partners including
Social Agencies through PPP mode.
3.4: S&T intervention in building knowledge capabilities:
Create Farm Science Centre and Village Knowledge Centre to get updation on
technology front and adoption of sustainable models by the community
Introduce a technology popularization magazine in a local language for the benefit of
the local community and for the school going students and youths
4 Detailed Implementation Plan of Central S&T Ministry/ Departments:
4.1 Department of Science & Technology
Department of Science & Technology has developed a comprehensive scientific plan for 810 month time. During this period, the action plan for mapping damage to National wealth
will be drawn. The whole programme of DST designated as Map the Neighbourhood in
Uttarakhand (MANU). Under this programme, financial support will be provided to R&D
projects submitted by the following Universities and R&D organization to undertake detailed
data collection and analysis to draw a sound scientific action plan.
SOI will undertake Air-borne Photographic Data acquisition for 8000 sq km area for
Uttarakhand which will cover all the Char Dham areas which got maximum damaged. The
output of this project would be in the form of High Resolution Digital Elevation Model with
20cm accuracy and generation of 1:10K scale maps which will be utilized as base map for
integration of all the data to be collected by different groups and it will help in drawing a
comprehensive scientific reconstruction and relocation plan in the State.
Garwal University, Srinagar will carry out the damage assessment mapping of Alaknanda
and Mandakini valley in Uttarakhand and give the details of the infrastructure damaged
during the high floods and suggest alternative development plan.
Department of Geography, Kumaon University, Nainital will focus on preparing the
damaged assessment maps of the Pinder Valley in Kumaun Himalaya and also collect data on
the objects which got damaged during the event and draw a comprehensive scientific plan
for reconstruction and relocation of infrastructure.
University of Kashmir, Srinagar will focus on Assessment of Glacial Lake outburst in
Kedarnath valley and draw a comprehensive, quantified action plan for monitoring the
Glacial Lake which would be important for further planning. Another project of the

University is to synthesize and integrate all the data sets being collected by all participating
agencies. It would draw a comprehensive and scientific action plan for reconstruction and
relocation of infrastructure facilities in Uttarakhand.
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun will carry out damaged
assessment mapping of Baghirathi and Yamunotri valleys in Uttarakhand and draw a
comprehensive action plan for reconstruction and relocation of the infrastructure facilities
which got damaged during the event.
Deptt. of Geology, Delhi University will focus on the study of two highly vulnerable
landslide sites in Char Dham area and collect the data and related information about the
causes of landslide and based on the detailed analysis, develop a suitable scientific
preventive measures to restore the unstable areas.
IIRS, Dehradun will concentrate on imparting training to the students and train them for
collection of data and use the data for analysis and draw a comprehensive scientific
reconstruction and relocation plan using advance technologies like GPS and Mobile
Mapping etc. Further all the information collected will be uploaded at Bhuvan portal for
wider use by the scientific community as well as other concerned stakeholders
4.2 Department of Biotechnology
Department of Biotechnology will promote use of biotechnological processes and tools for
Socio economic upliftment of affected community in Uttarakhand, establish viable models of
rural bio-resource complexes / hubs and rural technological innovation & application centre,
Support R&D component for refinement and validation of technology which can be housed
from any other source in Uttarakhand for addressing the problems of affected groups and
create entrepreneurship development among the youths.
In the short term, DBT will support State Educational Institutions including Agriculture
Universities and labs for undertaking projects in various disciplines of biotechnology. These
projects can be supported with inter-disciplinary involving autonomous institutions,
Government Departments and social mobilizing agencies with end to end approach. Support
will also be provided for interventions for livelihood generation, health, environment and
sanitation, value addition and post-harvest processing including marketing using proven and
field tested technologies. This activity can be supported as an income and employment
generation programme for a period of 1-3 years.
In Medium Term, few viable models of Rural Bio-resource Complexes / hubs in the flood
affected regions, which can sustain regular livelihood for the community by adoption of
integrated model of farming system including agriculture, animal husbandry, horticulture,
post-harvest and value addition. This would involve the participation of large number of
farming community to provide them tangible benefits with creation of rural entrepreneurship
among the youth, SHGs and cooperatives will be established. The models would also have
technology driven with the establishment of resource centre and village knowledge centre to
promote rural innovation according to the need of hour.
To realize the affected problems, DBT, in Long Term, will give emphasis on R&D to address
various environmental and ecological issues to take measures from future calamities. Further,
bio-clusters with end to end approach on farm to market concept by actively involving the
Local Community, Government Institutions, Private Partners including Social Agencies
through PPP mode will be established.

In order to build knowledge capabilities, local R&D institutions and their knowledge
dissemination centres would be linked with the Science communicators for propagating
awareness on technological know-how on biotechnological interventions. Farm Science
Centre and Village Knowledge Centre will be created to get updation on technology front
and adoption of sustainable models by the community and also introduce a technology
popularization magazine in a local language for the benefit of the local community and for
the school going students and youths.
Department of Biotechnology has been supporting a Biotechnology Information System
Network to bridge the gap between bio-informaticians and experimental biologist by
bringing their expertise together through inter-disciplinary project and creating a newer
generation of Scientist and researchers. This facility is also supports to handle massive data
bases on various bio-resources and the scientific research aspects which can be extended to
Uttarakhand in implementation of various R&D and extension nature of projects.
Biotechnology Information System Network of DBT will be extended to Uttarakhand to
handle massive data bases on various bio-resources and the scientific research aspects which
can be in implementation of various R&D and extension nature of projects.
4.3 Ministry of Earth Sciences
Focused observations on meteorology, snow, ice and glaciers are required to understand the
interaction of cryosphere with atmosphere and geosphere. There is therefore a need to
enhance the base of essential observing systems so as to assimilate more and more local
scale observations in to our meso-scale forecast models. MoES has taken up an initiative to
augment the observing and forecast systems in a phased manner covering hilly regions and
particularly the Char Dham Yatra Route in Uttarakhand and other routes of religious/tourism
importance in adjoining states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir with state-ofthe-art infrastructure.
At the same time, investment in human resource is highly essential with the due sanction of
additional scientific posts on a continuous basis with annually staggered recruitments.
MoES has proposed an augmentation of Observing System over Uttarakhand which
includes: 3 Nos. of Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) at Mussorrie/Dehradun; Uttarkashi and
Nainital, 4 Nos. of Compact Severe Weather Detection DWRs at Chamoli; Rudraprayag;
Bageshwar; Almorah, 5 Nos. of Micro-Rain Radars (MRRs) at Kedarnath; Badrinath;
Dehradun; Paudi; Pithoragarh, 3 Nos. of Heliport Aviation Weather Observing Systems at
Kedarnath; Badrinath; Phata, 2 GPS based Upper Air Meteorological Data observing stations
and 75 Nos. of Additional Automatic Weather Stations (AWS)/ Automatic Rain Gauges
(ARG)/ Snow Gauges (SG) [46 AWS and ARG stations are functional currently]
4.4 Department of Space
The vision and Mission of Department of Space are to harness the advancement of Science
and Technology in building a disaster resilient community in the State of Uttarakhand and
develop a model that can be replicated in other disaster prone areas in the country and
rebuild Uttarakhand State sustainably, so that the further impact of disasters on people and
livelihood is minimal.
An accurate assessment of impact in disaster-affected areas, especially Char-Dham and
Pindar valley areas, is of paramount importance to take up the reconstruction activities in
Uttarakhand. This can be done in three stages: (1) analysis of post-disaster high resolution
satellite images taking the pre-disaster images as reference; (2) ground truthing in the

damaged areas mapped through satellite imagery; and (3) collating the satellite imagery and
field data to assess the extent and spatial pattern of damage. National Remote Sensing Centre
(NRSC) has carried out damage assessment in and around Kedarnath and in upper reaches of
Mandakini and Alaknanda valleys using satellite images and the results are available in
ISRO's Bhuvan geoportal. Towards ground truthing for detailed assessment of extent of
damage, a multi-institutional initiative on Map the Neighbourhood in Uttarakhand
(MANU) has been initiated by DST, Govt. of India. In this initiative, field data will be
collected through crowdsourcing by the students and teacher community of the universities/
institutes located in the state. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) in association with
NRSC and Survey of India (SOI) has trained 149 students and teachers/ scientists from HNB
Garhwal University, Kumaun University, and Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology
(WIHG), on using the latest geospatial tools and technologies for field data collection and
uploading the same on Bhuvan geoportal in near real-time using GPS-enabled mobile
application, GAGAN SBAS receiver and other field instruments. The field data collection
process is envisaged to be completed in about two months time (October and November
2013). Then the satellite image results and field data along with ancillary data can be collated
to assess the extent of damage and also to understand the spatial pattern of damage. This
assessment and understanding will be vital in carrying out risk zonation to natural hazards in
the area.
It is very important to assess the vulnerability of biologically rich areas to natural hazards
and interference due to development. Environmental monitoring and protection of biological
richness should be one of the top priorities and remote sensing and GIS can help in this
direction.
The baseline data/information on different aspects of the natural resources, environment and
biodiversity captured through satellite imagery or field-based instrumental measurements
prior to, during and after the project can be used for this purpose. The spatial databases at
medium (e.g. 1:50,000) and large (e.g. 1:10,000) scales prepared/ being prepared by
ISRO/DOS in collaboration with State Remote Sensing Centre and other institutions using
the satellite imagery under different national mapping missions, or that available from any
other organisations/ line departments, can be used as the base data.
The biological richness maps prepared by Indian Institute of remote Sensing (IIRS) /ISRO
will be of great value while undertaking any developmental activities related to
reconstruction and rehabilitation and also for environmental monitoring. The instrumental
data collected by conventional means form the other important sources of data. While it is
obvious that satellite imagery can play a great role in monitoring and evaluating the
developmental activities and even for post-disaster damage/ impact assessment, a strong
network of instrumented scientific measurement observatories is also necessary for not only
validating the satellite-based observations but also for making the measurements which are
not yet operational through space inputs.
It has been reported that there are about 127 glacier lakes in Yamuna, Bhagirathi, Alkananda
and Kali valley. The Chorabari glacier lake breach during the recent Kedarnath tragedy has
highlighted the fact that all glacial lakes and potential sites of snow melt accumulation zones
need to be mapped and monitored to assess their breaching probability and downstream
flooding.
ISRO/DOS is engaged in monitoring of areal extent of the snow covered region; At the
behest of Central water Commission (CWC), ISRO is carrying out inventory of glacial
lakes/water bodies of spatial extent greater than 10ha in the Himalayan region of Indian

River basins using satellite data. Monitoring the spatial extent changes of the lakes/water
bodies of more than 50ha is also being carried out on monthly basis during June to October
months. Satellite-based monitoring aided by aerial and ground survey will aid in the
assessment of such lakes. Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) and flash flood modelling
are required for estimating peak discharge/ flood levels, inundation areas in the downstream,
etc. It can also help in scenario generation to generate awareness among stakeholders.
4.5 Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), known for its cutting edge R&D
knowledgebase in diverse S&T areas can contribute significantly to the efforts in rebuilding
the state of Uttarakhand. CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP) situated in
Dehradun, Uttarakhand can be a nodal laboratory for facilitating the required collaboration
of the following sister CSIR laboratories towards development and deployment of the
desired S&T interventions for rebuilding of Uttarakhand.
4.6 Department of Electronics and Information Technology
DEitY has the following plan for post disaster construction of Uttarakhand.
New Communication Technologies: One of the prime concerns during disasters is failure of
communication channels which acts as a major impediment in delivery of relief and support
and in dissemination of critical information to the citizens. Even mobile networks are
rendered dysfunctional and thus ineffective. As a result, in the current scenario, authorities
had to resort to technologies like Satellite phones and VSATs. This has necessitated the need
to identify a set of reliable, new and effective technologies which would cater to the
situations created in a disaster and further compounded by difficult terrains in a state like
Uttarakhand.
Information Systems: It is understood that NIC Uttarakhand, as a part of reconstruction
measures, has designed and implemented a portal to provide information on post-disaster
relief and support. Although failure of mobile networks during a disaster may render mobile
phones to be of limited help for a short period, it can play a substantial role in disseminating
information especially early warnings and alerts to citizens and rescue related details to the
relatives. Mobile solutions based on SMS push and pull, IVRS, mobile applications, USSD
etc. can play a vital role. NDMA and DeitY are already engaged in discussions on how to
leverage Mobile Seva for providing advance warning/alerts and other services related to
disaster management through mobile. Mobile enablement of its services available on the
portal can also be undertaken as a part of enhancing the information systems. Also emphasis
should be made on dedicated modules to manage the entire supply chain of relief and support
measures as they throw huge challenges in managing donations, civic supplies, efficient and
timely delivery of the supplies, storage of the supplies accounting etc.
Leveraging GIS Technology: Utilization of Geographic Information System (GIS) to map
critical resources and geographical date of the state in a manner which is suitable to identify
disaster prone areas, mitigate disasters in these areas, reduce the impact and manage postdisaster activities by proper resource mobilization. NIC has undertaken GIS development at
the national level which can be refined and customized for implementation in Uttarakhand in

the medium/long term. Currently, NICs GIS is at 50,000 scale and work is under progress
to make it to 10,000 scale.
While implementing GIS, few issues of importance are integration of GIS with MIS,
addressing the challenges in collection of data sets from various sources, standardization of
these data sets etc. This will necessitate a close interaction with various state agencies and
DeitY would like to hold such consultations in near future.
Support infrastructure: Implementation of a large scale initiative for disaster management
proper support in terms of infrastructure like data centres, last mile networking till subdistrict level is required. While establishment of such a critical infrastructure has already
been initiated under NeGP, it would require strengthening after undertaking necessary
requirement analysis.
Building-in-Sustainability into the System: Any initiative for disaster management tends to
fade away with time and reusability of the capacity built during a disaster is very limited.
This also leads to reinventing the wheel with each disaster. As a measure to make the efforts
sustainable, it would be essential that the disaster management solutions and the
infrastructure created be included in the workflow of the regular solutions of the
administration with a capability to scale up during contingencies. Moreover, the solutions
need to be replicable at both national level and by other states.
Prioritizing efforts in Fragile and Disaster prone Areas: In the short-term, priority could be
given to the upper hilly areas of Uttarakhand like the districts of Chamoli, Uttarkashi and
Rudra Prayag which are fragile and more prone to disasters. These areas have been under a
recurrent wrath of disasters and majority of the disasters in Uttarakhand happen in these
areas. Even while implementing GIS technologies these areas should be mapped first.
Stakeholder consultation: Developing a strategy for reconstruction as well as managing the
disasters in future in a scientific and sustainable manner require involvement of multiple
stakeholders and setting up of a proper consultative mechanism. All state agencies concerned
need to be engaged in a dialogue in the near future and should be starting point of
development of such strategy.
In addition, Department of Telecom suggested providing more than 100 satellite phones to
the sites to facilitate rescue and relief operations. All district magistrates and Superintendent
of Police may be provided portable satellite phones on regular basis in Uttarakhand with the
permission of MHA. The cost towards this may be borne by State Government or the
NDMA. Further, the provision of VSAT may be made to provide alternate redundant
backhaul and establishment of an early warning system through SMS from mobile tower.
The cost of such VSAT connectivity is Rs. 2.00 lakh per mobile tower may be borne by
service provider, in addition to the usage cost.
4.7 Department of Atomic Energy
Department of Atomic Energy has developed techniques for radiation aided mutant crops
which is helpful in enhancing the yield and quality of certain crops and/or their resistance to
salinity or drought and diseases and in dealing with biotic and abiotic stresses affecting
agriculture; Radiation processing of various foods and food-products for killing pathogens
and insect lavae or for decelerating delaying the biochemical processes that lead of sprouting
or ripening and thus enhancing shelf-life of the (radiation) treated food products, Water
Purification Technologies such as Nuclear Desalination, online domestic water purifier
technology using spiral membrane elements and this has already been commercially

exploited, Indigenous development and production of the required quality of membranes for
Water purification cartridge systems for removal of fluoride, iron, arsenic as well as uranium
contaminants from water and Isotopic techniques which are useful in water resources
management particularly for identifying sources of ground water salinization, ground water
recharge, inter-connection between water bodies, seepage in dams and reservoirs etc.
Department of Atomic Energy will provide technical inputs and expertise to the specific
request of the State Government on the above techniques developed by the department.
5. Identification and Management of Cross-Cutting Technology Issues
As hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment requires several spatial inputs, remote sensing
and GIS can play a very important role. Many of the IT application deployments, including
GIS and other information systems are dependent on and make use of diverse technologies
and products, each of which is emerging and evolving at a rapid pace. Attempt should be
made to use GIS system as a decision making system that will allow assessing all
information related to disasters and also helping to prioritise reconstruction activities and
manage overall implementation and progress. In this scenario, many crosscutting technology
issues are bound to surface and it is necessary to identify and manage them for effective
utilization and exploitation of benefits offered by the technology advances.
5.1. GIS Technology and Information Systems: GIS technology and its usage represents a
combination and integration of multiple technologies, right from space-based/ aerial-based
remote sensing data analysis, computing systems hardware & software, input & output
peripheral devices & GPS to server-based/ web-based GIS and geospatial functionalities
based on algorithms contributed from computer science & domain-specific research efforts.
In terms of systems infrastructure, GIS technology has long since moved from powerful,
expensive multi-user monolithic workstations to client-server & web technology based
deployments. GIS desktop client softwares are now invariably deployed on commodity
desktop PC systems. However, server-based softwares supporting Enterprise GIS, Web GIS
and Map servers have become mainstream requirements and have become realizable due to
the technology advances happening in the field of server & storage consolidation in data
centres. These data centres house the requisite high-end load balanced servers/ server farms,
network & security devices, network mass storage systems (SAN/ NAS), RDBMS engines,
web applications & services, etc. Some of the major influencing factors for developments in
GIS technology.
5.1.1 BHUVAN Geoportal: Bhuvan (Sanskrit for Earth) is a Geoportal of ISRO
(http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in), allowing host of services covering visualization, free data
download, thematic map display and analysis, timely information on disaster and project
specific GIS applications since August 2009 and available in English, Hindi, Tamil and
Telugu. More than 17 TB data consisting of multi-resolution, temporal, sensor raster data,
multi-thematic data of various scales and Point of Interest data along with user added content
are organized as Land Services, Weather Services, Ocean Services, Disaster Services and
Collaboration Services and served with standard cartographic representation towards
societal good.
Bhuvan is also offering a platform to create, visualize, share, analyze Geospatial data
products and services as Spatial Mashups for various user agencies. Thus users can visualise
the High resolution datasets (2.5m) uniformly across the country in 2D and 3D domain. This

ortho-corrected products with online shape file creation utility enables the users to map/
delineate the feature in their area of interest even with multi-temporal data for various
resources mapping ranging from small scale to large scale which nullifies the data cost and
software cost for processing the satellite data and creation of both spatial (vector & raster)
and non-spatial data.
Current development environment for Bhuvan is mainly on open source (PHP, Mapserver
and Geoserver, Postgre/ PostGIS, and Apache) and having the flexibility to customize and
meet the user requirements as per the demands of the project. Thus the initial cost of
procuring the software and annual maintenance of the software is also nullified.
5.1.2 Online processing: A wide variety of thematic datasets organized in central server
enable the user to consume these services as OGC Web Services on their system for further
usage towards interoperability. This nullifies the redundant or duplicate efforts in creating
datasets and in focusing information management. Query shells present in the thematic
datasets provide on-the-fly generation of statistics of any area of interest or administrative
boundary with graphical display besides having provision to run the query and get the output
based on SQL, along with print option.
5.1.3 Crowd sourcing: Crowd sourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or
content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an
online community. Bhuvan enables crowd sourcing/ collaborative mapping from different
methods like add point of interest data, sharing GIS layers, mobile applications, creating
spatial datasets etc. towards enriching location based services. It will also provide the facility
to overlay the imagery / vector / ground data including photographs from the user system to
value add to the existing layers in Bhuvan to derive better plans. Mapping the
Neighbourhood in Uttarakhand (MANU) programme is the best example of crowd sourcing.
With the prevalence of feature-rich smart phones, a comprehensive application has been
developed for field data collection, transfer, organization and management. The developed
solution facilitates (a) collecting field data with location information, photographs and
application-specific parameters, (b) transmitting the collected data to the server in near-realtime or deferred mode, (c) organizing the received data in central database on Bhuvan
servers (d) querying and visualizing the data using Bhuvan viewer applications. The
configurable design allows numerous application-specific field data collection solutions to
be quickly configured and deployed on a variety of devices as well as uniformly handled on
Bhuvan servers by appropriate database schemas and server programs. All the server-side
databases and programs are integrated, deployed and maintained on Bhuvan servers in
operational mode. The application has been customized, configured and implemented to
support the reconstruction and rehabilitation needs contemplated under the Map the
Neighbourhood in Uttarakhand (MANU) project. The application enables collection of
various categories of field data - damage to buildings, roads, bridges/ culverts & other
infrastructures, landslide, river bank erosion and land cover & natural resources. The
application is also facilitates collection of Points of Interest (POI) data.
5.1.4 Free / Open EO Data: NRSC/ ISRO has taken new initiative to provide the free/ open
Earth Observation (EO) data and products coarser than 24 m through Bhuvan-NOEDA
(which nullify the data cost) to the public through Bhuvan to facilitate the students/
researchers/ users for various engineering applications, natural resources mapping and
management. More than 160000 downloads have been recorded in last 2 years.

Development Strategy for the Hill Districts of Uttarakhand

1.1 Background
Uttarakhand State was carved out of the state of Uttar Pradesh on November 9, 2000 It is
divided into two broad regions--Garhwal and Kumaon. The state is comprised of 13 districts,
namely, Chamoli, Pauri, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Dehradun, Haridwar and Rudraprayag in the
Garhwal region and Nainital, Almora, Pithoragarh, Udham Singh Nagar, Champawat and
Bageshwar in the Kumaon region. Of these 13 districts, four districts (Nainital, Haridwar,
Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar) have large areas in the plains, whereas the other nine
districts comprise the hill region of the state. The state is further split into sub-divisions and
development blocks (Appendix 1). The formation of the new state had to fulfill the high
expectations of the local people related to development and better living standards. However,
within Uttarakhand there is a geographical inequality between the hills and the plains that
divides the state critically. Districts in the plains are far ahead on various development
indicators. In 2006-07 the state GDP grew by 10.15 per cent, the manufacturing sector grew
by 17 per cent and the share of the primary sector has shrinked by 2.7 per cent. Industries
have created about 2.8 lakh jobs but these are in the plains, and most of the growth due to
industrialization has been restricted to the plains. The hill region districts are less developed
in terms of infrastructure, i.e., electricity, roads and irrigation. The inter-district inequality in
infrastructure leads to increasing disparity in terms of income and livelihood between the
hills and the plains. Low levels of income not only result in low levels of consumption and
material
deprivation, but also constrain human potential by restricting access to education and health
facilities, thereby creating a vicious cycle of poverty.
More than three-fourths of Uttarakhands total population depends on agriculture for their
livelihood and the economy is predominantly dependent on mountain agriculture. However,
the land holdings are small and fragmented, and irrigation facilities limited. Soil and water
conservation is another issue for inclusive development. For physical, geographical and
environmental reasons, the scope for agricultural policies based on modern input-intensive
agriculture is severely constrained in the hill regions. As a result, the majority of the rural
population in the hills either survives on subsistence agriculture or migrates to other parts of
the country for employment. The state faces the challenge of promoting livelihoods to retain
people through local employment and income generation and to enhance their quality of life.
At the same time, the hill districts of Uttarakhand have tremendous potential. The vastnatural
resources add to the states attractiveness as an investment destination, especially for tourism
and agriculture- and forest-based industries. Uttarakhand is the first state in the country to
have created a Tourism Development Board by legislation. Also, it is the first one to be
called an organic state.
This study proposes a strategy for a planned approach to rapid and inclusive growth of the
hill districts. The development of agriculture and an agriculture-based system that is linked
with the growth of industries and tourism can be the way towards inclusive development of
the hill regions. This, along with a watershed approach, is proposed as an efficient way to
improve land productivity and sustain it. New opportunities are available through the use of
quality seeds suitable for hill agriculture and multicropping systems combined with animal
husbandry through cattle rearing, poultry, fishing, bee-keeping, etc. Organic farming and
agri-based employment opportunities need to be encouraged. The processing of fruits and
vegetables, vocational training for youths, and banking and insurance in the service sector

can provide livelihood security and support. Development of all these areas along with
infrastructure development and better education facilities can be a direction for sustainable
development of the hill regions for better quality of life to the inhabitants and to help halt
migration from villages.The state of Uttarakhand encompasses a geographical area of 53,483
sq. km which accounts for only 1.63 per cent of Indias area. The state contains about 4.53
per cent of Indias forest area and about 3.1 per cent of Indias agricultural area (Table 1).
43.6 per cent of the agricultural area is under irrigation as against the national average of
40.3 per cent and average rainfall is also above the national average. The ratio ofirrigated
area in the hills and plains is 10.2: 88.8 in Uttarakhand (Ref: DACNET)
There are a not many research papers and books that have tried to identify growth and
development in Uttarakhand in the 7-8 years since the creation of the state. Bisht (2006)
argues that the state has to sustain forestry and agriculture for the survival of the people who
largely live in rural and hilly areas. A study by Kar (2007) highlights the importance of
equitable growth focusing on GDP growth and distribution of growth to all sections of the
population and geographical regions of the country. The study shows that the higher growth
rate of the state in the initial years has helped the state to transform itself, but most of the
growth has been restricted to the plains, while the hill areas have grown slowly due to
structural problems. The development has been mainly in the plain districts of the state and
not the hills, which have remained cut off from the rest of the country. Thus, there is a need
to modify or reschedule the current schemes according to the hill districts of the state. It is
the geographical inequality between the hills and the plains of Uttarakhand that divides the
state most critically. This geographical disparity manifests itself in the form of inter-district
inequality, which is most acute in the areas of infrastructure like electricity, roads and
irrigation. The inter-district inequality in infrastructure leads to inequality in terms of income
and livelihood between the hills and the plains, and results in rampant underdevelopment in
the hills while the plains are relatively prosperous. In order to change this situation, the study
suggests a strategy that is based on long-term planning. The first step is to identify sectors
that impede growth as well as sectors in which the region has a comparative advantage. The
current state of infrastructure is clearly a constraint on development in this region and must
be the focus of a strategy for inclusive growth. The study identifies priority sectors that
needto be developed in order to achieve the goal of inclusive growth; these include
infrastructure, health, education, horticulture and tourism. The states vision is to include
both human and economic development (Dewan and Bahadur, 2005), and economic
development should be supported with environmental conservation. Crucial for social
development is the development of women, youth and children of the society. It is important
to address womens development and raise awareness through education; the development of
youths should focus on further training, providing employment opportunities, and making
then self-reliant. They should be able to get both self-employment and wage employment.
Children are the future of the state and thus their education must be emphasised. This will
also help reduce and eradicate poverty in a phased planned manner. To improve the social
conditions of the state, attention should be paid to indicators, such as health conditions, water
availability, electricity, sanitation, and infrastructure (roads, markets, telecommunications,
etc.). Agricultural productivity and movement from a traditional to a modern system are
crucial for growth and development of the state and districts.
Sekhar (2007) found that womens participation in the rural economy is significant. In
Uttarakhand, young men generally migrate to the plains in search of employment, whereas

women are left behind to cultivate the land and take care of the children and the older
generation. One option to reduce the drudgery of women in agriculture is to identify
alternative economic activities that are viable given the economic, social, and institutional
constraints. The study highlights seven economic activitiesdairy farming, mushroom
cultivation, bee-keeping, quilt-making, poultry farming, papadmaking, and petty business.
As alternate/supplementary economic activities, the last three, namely, poultry farming,
papad-making, and petty business contribute more than 50% to household income. These
activities provide a level of income higher than the poverty line income of the region.

Timber and fuel form the major produce group, while bamboo, drugs, grasses, gum, resins,
etc. constitute the minor produce group. Forests are the major source of raw materials for
industries, buildings, railways and other tertiary sectors, but the increased pressure on forests
for fuel, fodder and timber requirements has increased the exploitation of forests. This has
begun to affect the desired level of forest density and the area under forest, as well as the
productivity of forests. However, large areas of degraded land in the state can be reclaimed
since most of the land needs only basic water and soil conservation measures and some
amount of plantation and protective work. HIMCON, a voluntary organization, is working
on these issues. The study describes how environmental legislation has slowly taken away
the traditional livelihoods of vast numbers of people. Wood carvers, whose handiwork can be
seen in the traditional houses, have disappeared over years, nomadic sheep and goat herders
are slowly dying out and now wool has to be brought from Ludhiana; weavers find it
difficult to compete with machine-made goods; and agriculture is back-breaking work that
does not yield enough for subsistence. The new jobs and opportunities are concentrated in a
few urban areas that are administrative centres. These jobs often need knowledge, skills, and
capital that are difficult for a local person to obtain. The study by Pai (2005) focuses on the
role of Van Panchayats. About 70 per cent of the total forest land area of the state is under the
forest department, but 11 per cent lies with the Van Panchayats. At present, there are 6,777
Van Panchayats managing an area of 5,241 sq. km. of a total forest area of 34,662 sq. km. in
the state. The better management and performance of forests under Van Panchayats are due
to .the
villagers commitment, the quality of the sarpanchs leadership, and the availability of funds.
The programme covers all categories of forest areas, i.e., reserved, protected and panchayati.
It is an attempt by the government to encourage community participation even in forests that
are not under the jurisdiction of Van Panchayats. Women, who are the backbone of the rural
economy but have been marginalized in the process of decision-making and implementation,
are given due importance both in the Joint Forest Management Program (JFM) and the
National Forest Policy. Women are more intimately related to and dependent on forests,
because they .spend a lot of time collecting fuel and fodder from forests, fetching water, and
looking after cattle. One of the objectives of the JFM has been to ensure active and effective
participation of village women right from conceptualization to the implementation stage.
Kumar (2005) has examined the potential of micro-hydropower in Uttarakhand. Apart from
its large and medium hydropower potential, which is estimated to be 20,000 megawatts,
Uttarakhand also has enormous potential for small, mini- and microhydropower generation.
The overall hydropower potential of the state is estimated as 40,000 megawatts, which is half
the additional power projected to be realized during the next two decades for the entire

country. Surveys show that about 20 per cent of the total number of villages in the state are
yet to be electrified. The per capita power consumption of the state is much below the
national average, which itself is very low by international standards. The low per capita
power consumption level is attributed to the high level of poverty, the unregulated supply of
power and the un-electrified marginalized areas. The hydropower potential of Uttarakhand
can be harnessed for its development and to raise the quality of life of its people. Hydroelectric power generation provides electricity at a cheaper price and in an environmentfriendly manner. This crucial price advantage of hydropower-based electricity may act as a
catalyst for the economic development of the state and its people by increasing their
purchasing power. Hydro-electric power can be a boon in sectors of the state economy, such
as agriculture, fiber-processing, and tourism. Though there are problems related to the
financial viability of such decentralized power generation by the public sector, nongovernment community efforts have proved it to be a success. A national-level NGO,
Foundation for Rural Recovery and Development (FORRAD), has assisted in setting up two
community-owned hydropower stations of 20 kw in Tehri-Garhwal district. Poor people,
who cannot afford electricity under government schemes, contribute labour and marginal
cash as part of a community effort to gain access to reliable and cheap electricity. On the
regeneration and conservation of forest resources, Dewan and Singh (2005) say that the
forest department of Uttarakhand has not been able on its own to protect the forests and their
bio-diversity. The active involvement of people in conserving and managing these
community conserved forest areas has resulted in high biodiversity along with meeting
peoples biomass requirements.

Government Initiatives
A review of the plans for hill states reveals that the main emphasis has been on the
development of infrastructural facilities and social and community services during both the
Fifth and the Sixth plan periods. This thrust was necessary to cover the backlog in
infrastructural facilities. Production sectors and sectors that have a direct bearing on
ecological preservation and restoration received less attention; these sectors were given
attention during the Seventh Plan period. The Annual Reports (since 2001) of the Planning
Commission, Government of India, show that special programs were designed for the
development of the hill regions. The Special Area Program of the Annual Plan 2000-01
focused on the implementation of the Hill Area Development Program (HADP). Special
central assistance under the program was provided as a 90% grant and 10% loan. The funds
available under
HADP are divided among the designated hills areas9 covered under the program. The main
objectives of the program are eco-preservation and eco-restoration with an emphasis on
preservation of bio-diversity and rejuvenation of hill ecology. For the hill areas covered
under HADP, a sub-plan approach has been adopted. The concerned state government
prepares the total plan consisting of flow of funds from the state plan and special central
assistance made available under HADP. In its 49th meeting, the National Development
Council (NDC) discussed placing Uttarakhand on the list of special category states. The
Planning Commission had initiated a programme for preparation of State Development
Reports which includes many states including Uttarakhand. During the year, a note for the
cabinet on Granting of Special Category State status to Uttarakhand was sent to the
Cabinet Secretariat to be placed before the Cabinet for its consideration. An agenda paper to

make Uttarakhand a special category state was prepared for the full Planning Commission
meeting. A note on setting up the first State Finance Commissions (SFCs) of the newlycreated state of Uttarakhand along with many other states was also prepared. The
Department of Elementary Education and Literacy implemented the Mahila Samakhya (MS)
Program in 1989. This program recognizes the centrality of education in empowering women
to achieve equality. Adopting an innovative approach which emphasizes the process rather
than mere fulfillment of targets, it seeks to bring about a change in womens perceptions
about themselves and societys perceptions with regard to the traditional role of women. The
effectiveness of the Mahila Samakhya strategy has resulted in its being adopted by other
basic education projects. Several evaluation studies have shown that the MS program has
helped generate a demand for literacy, given women the strength and ability to demand
accountability from government delivery systems, increased womens participation in
Panchayati Raj bodies, and created an awareness of the need to struggle for a genderjust
society. Disaster Management and Natural Calamity Relief programs have also been
launched under the state plans. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in
April 2005 (in the Tenth Plan) for a period of seven years (2005-12) with a view to bringing
about dramatic improvement in the health system and the health status of people in the
country. The Mission seeks to provide universal access to equitable, affordable and quality
health-care, which is accountable and responsive to the needs of the people, reduction of
child and maternal deaths as well as population stabilization, and gender and demographic
balance The Annual Report 2008-09 of the Planning Commission, Government of India
highlights the continuous state emphasis on the development of the social sector. This
is also clearly reflected in both the Eleventh Plan and Annual Plan proposal. Over 37 percent
of the plan outlay would be ear-marked for social services. Further acceleration to develop
infrastructure -- roads and bridges, urban infrastructure, power and tourism development
with the help of external aid -- has been proposed. One of the major concerns expressed by
the state government is the remoteness and inaccessibility of the interior hill regions. As such
areas constitute more than 50 per cent of the total land areas of the state, the government has
laid its prime emphasis on construction of roads and bridges across the state and
improvement in the transportation sector. Some gray areas like agriculture, soil quality,
hydro-electricity, health and education have also been highlighted. The scope for improving
organic farming in Uttarakhand, and public-private partnership for exploring various avenues
of development in the state are under consideration. The new industrial policy of 2008 has
been launched with the objective of promoting economic development of the hill and remote
areas of the state where industrialization could not take place in the past. Both industrial and
power policies were announced together because these two sectors complement each other.

Development of SMEs
Uttarakhand has seen strong industrialization during the past five years, but that was mainly
in the plains, following the special package announced by the Centre in 2003. Thus an
Integrated Industrial Development Policy 2008 was launched in February especially for the
industrial development of hilly and remote areas in the state. This policy has aimed at the
economic development of the hill region. With the objective of inclusive growth, the main
concentration is now on the hill districts. This policy aims to accelerate industrial
development in the industrially backward and remote hill districts of the state, to develop
industrial infrastructure, and to encourage entrepreneurial development through market

encouragement and financial support to entrepreneurs. The creation of employment


opportunities along with the removal of economic backwardness is expected to help control
the migration of the population towards the plains and other states in search of better
livelihoods. This policy targets industries in the manufacturing and services sectors. These
steps are in addition to the Industrial Policy, 2003, which aimed to provide a comprehensive
framework to enable a facilitative, investor-friendly environment to ensure rapid and
sustainable industrial development in Uttarakhand and, through this, to generate additional
employment opportunities and to bring about a significant increase in the State Domestic
Product and eventual widening of the resource base of the state. The policy looks at
providing single-window facilitation in the state to expedite project clearances and to
provide an investor-friendly climate. It also looks to provide and facilitate expeditious land
availability for setting up industrial ventures and infrastructure projects. The policy aims to
provide assured, good quality, uninterrupted and affordable power for industries and to
simplify and rationalize labour laws and procedures in line with current requirements while
ensuring that workers get their due share in the economic prosperity of the state. For smallscale industries, cottage, khadi and village industries, handicrafts, and the silk and handloom
sectors, it will assist them in modernization and technological upgrading and provide
necessary common facilities and backward and forward linkages, including product design
and marketing support so as to make them globally competitive and remunerative. The State
Infrastructure & Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited21 (SIDCUL),
a government of Uttarakhand enterprise, was incorporated as a limited company in the year
2002 to promote industrial development in the state. It provides financial assistance to
promote industries and develop industrial infrastructure in the state of Uttarakhand directly
or through Special Purpose Vehicles, Joint Ventures, assisted companies, etc. Most of its
major industrial infrastructure has been developed in the plains with limited concentration in
the hills. Some of its major projects include the Integrated Industrial Estate at BHEL in
Haridwar, the Integrated Industrial Estate at Pantnagar, an IT Park in Dehradun, Pharma City
in Selaqui, Dehradun, the Growth Centre at Pauri, and the Integrated Industrial Estate at
Sitarganj. SIDCUL enables industrial projects to be set up in a short time. The Corporation
administers all promotional schemes of the government for industries and uses the singlewindow system.

Industrial profile of Uttarakhand


Against this background, this section of the paper examines the status of industrialization
and employment in the state of Uttarakhand and hill districts of the state. Table 21 presents
the overall comparison of the state of industrialization in Uttarakhand and India. There has
been an impressive increase of 18 per cent in SSI units in India from 2001-02 to 2006-07 and
in Uttarakhand this increase is 22.8 per cent. Of these SSIs registered units showed an
increase of about 50 per cent and unregistered of about 15 per cent in Uttarakhand, whereas
the figures for India are 32 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively. This increase in scale of
SSIs in Uttarakhand can be attributed to the industrial policy of 2003. Thus, after the
industrial policy of 2008 is implemented, the industrialization process is expected to
strengthen even in the hill regions. Similarly, Table 22 shows that the relative improvement
in industrialisation in Uttarakhand has been much better than in the country over the period
2001-04. In Uttarakhand over the periods 2001-02 and 2004-05 the number of factories
increased by 7.2 per cent with an increase in workers of about 23 per cent. Gross fixed

capital formation increased by 72 per cent and profits by 98 per cent. This shows a very
positive impact on the employment status in the state as a result of industrialisation. Table 23
shows the status of industrialisation in the districts of Uttarakhand. Table 24 shows these
numbers as a percentage of the total for Uttarakhand. It is clear from the table that
industrialisation took place in the plains of Uttarakhand much before it did in the hill
regions. Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar have about 89 per cent of the
factories set up in Uttarakhand. Also of all the workers engaged in Uttarakhand, 94 per cent
are employed in the plains. Many of these workers have migrated from the hill districts or
even from neighbouring states. Among the hill
regions it is only Almora that has set up small-scale industries and Khadi/ Gram Udyogs.
Almora has about 31.3 per cent of the states small-scale industries, which is similar to that
in Haridwar and also about 13.7 per cent of the Khadi and Gram Udyogs. The number of
employees of khadi units and SSIs in Almora are about 9.8 per cent and 38.9 per cent,
respectively. Pithoragarh has shown a relatively better setting up of Khadi and Gram Udyogs
in relation to other hill districts. Bageshwar, Champawat, Rudraprayag and Uttrakhshi are the
least industrialised hill districts, where even the setting up of Khadi and Gram Udyogs is
almost negligible. It is expected that the new industrial policy will focus on these districts.

Small-Scale Industries and employment


Industrialization is an opportunity for people of the hill regions and it is not only production
but also activities related to tourism and agriculture that can be given the status of industries.
For successful industrialization, participation of women and inhouse employment need to be
given importance. For the development of the hill regions, creation of feasible employment
opportunities is very important. Industrial activity in the hill regions can be tapped in local
agro-based industries (e.g. herbs, fruits, frozen tulsi, fruit juices, and jams) and handicraft
industries (e.g., shawls which are warmer than quilts). There is a need to provide the latest
technology and easy accessibility to raw materials in order to improve the output. At the
local level it is necessary to create cooperatives of small-scale industries, as well as good
artisan
cooperatives that will coordinate with an external marketing agency to sell the products.
Some of these employment opportunities are presented in the form of the case studies of the
Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO) and the
Ajeevika program. Most crucial for the development of any business is the development of
entrepreneurial skills. Since in the hill regions men have migrated towards the plains and it is
the women who are engaged in various activities, it is important to develop the
entrepreneurial skills of women. There are a number of alternative economic activities that
women can engage in but these petty businesses are unable to yield reasonable levels of
income to the households. This is due to various constraints like raw materials and services
in the case of dairy farming, lack of technical guidance and marketing in bee-keeping, and
lack of awareness and marketing facilities in the case of mushroom cultivation. Households
engaged in petty business mainly face credit problems. Here the role of micro-credit
institutions becomes very important. In the case of small home-processed food products,
marketing facilities pose a major bottleneck. The government should adopt successful
models like lizzat papad to make some of these activities economically viable. The study
by Sekhar, 2007 showed that development of entrepreneurship levels in women helps
provide them with a level of income that is higher than poverty line income (Table 26).

Although there is potential for income generation in the case of mushroom cultivation and
beekeeping, it remained untapped mainly because of constraints and indicates that certain
corrective action should be taken (Table 27). A case study of Rural Litigation and
Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) shows how creating awareness and training can also help in the
development of entrepreneurial skills.

Promoting Tourism
An Uttarakhand Tourism Development Master Plan for 2007-22 has been developed that is
coordinated by the Government of India, Government of Uttarakhand, United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and World Tourism Organization. The aim of this plan is
to develop high-quality sustainable tourism infrastructure, facilities and products in the
prime tourism zones of Uttarakhand state. The plan attempts to identify, define and describe
these zones and their unique resources. It also proposes how such resources can be utilized to
create different viable and sustainable natureand culture-based products of various standards.
The prevailing resources of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions need to be utilized along with
trying to sort out the problems associated with the development of tourism in these regions.
There is wide and diversified demand for tourism in this state from both the domestic and
international markets in terms of content and standard of facilities and utilities. The state
attracts tourists for pilgrimages, cultural tourism, nature tourism, adventure tourism, wildlife
tourism, eco-tourism, and amusement and leisure tourism. The approach to tourism
development in Uttarakhand has to be based on the strengths of this state. Since Uttarakhand
is rich in natural beauty with a unique mountain environment as well as rich historical and
cultural assets, diverse products have to be designed for various categories of people who
travel to this state for different motives. Along with the development of tourism, the present
environment assets must be conserved and the areas where deterioration has taken place
should be upgraded and
improved. The main problem in the development of the state is proper infrastructure to
support
sustainable tourism. Tourist zones have to be connected by formal and informal links in the
form of roads, trails, tracks, and thematic circuits. The seasonality of different kinds of
tourism and tourists to be attracted should be taken into account, so as to create employment
for year-round tourism. The tourism plan needs to develop new tourist options that target
different types of tourists as well as showcase the culture, handicrafts, and cuisine of that
tourist option. Proper publicity and marketing are required along with the development of
skills in tourism sub-sectors to provide worldclass service. Training institutions that impart
skills and partnerships with the public sector to develop the resources need to be integrated
into this plan. Resources have to be mobilized for marketing and creating infrastructure.
There are already some master plans by the government for both the Gharhwal and Kumaon
regions (Appendix 6) that need to be implemented appropriately and in integration with
upcoming government plans.

Status of Tourism Sector


Trends of tourist arrivals show that in Uttarakhand both foreign and domestic tourists have
gradually increased. The per cent change in number of foreign tourists over the previous year
was lower in Uttarakhand than in India until 2003-04, but after that the state witnessed

growth in the number of foreign tourists (Table 28). However, overall tourist arrivals in
Uttarakhand are much lower than arrivals in India. As shown in Table 29, of the total number
of tourists who arrive in India only 3-4 per cent visit Uttarakhand. This situation has
remained unchanged since the state was created in 2001. Among tourists, the majority are
domestic tourists and the foreign tourist share is less than 1 per cent. This portrays a gloomy
picture of state tourism development and also shows that there is a lot of potential for
developing this sector. Even seven years after the creation of the state and despite the
potential for all kinds of tourism, the state is not able to attract tourists because of the poor
tourism infrastructure. The total number of tourist arrivals in Uttarakhand was 19.45 million
in 2006; with the infrastructure facilities currently available the situation is very poor. Table
30 shows that per annum Uttarakhand has only 8.4 tourist rent houses per million tourists,
102.5 hotels and guest houses per million tourists, and 337 beds available for every million
tourists. At the district level, regions in the plains have relatively better infrastructure. Of the
total number of tourists visiting the state, 67 per cent visit regions in the plains and only 33
per cent venture into the hill regions (Tables 31 and 32). In terms of foreign tourists, 40.73
percent go to hill districts and of the domestic tourists 32.54 per cent visit the hills of
Uttarakhand.

Issues and recommendations for tourism development


The issues that hinder the effective marketing of the state as a tourism destination are lack of
awareness of Uttarakhand as a tourism destination; ineffective branding of the state; lack of a
marketing strategy and expensive annual campaigns that are not sufficiently focused;
development and operational issues; and the virtual nonexistence of public-private sector
coordination. In the international market there is little awareness of Uttarakhand as a tourism
destination with the exception of Rishikesh and Haridwar for religious visitors, Dehradun for
being the capital city, Nainital as a hill resort, Udham Singh Nagar for commercial visitors,
and Corbett National Park for its famous tiger reserve. However, tourism in the state is
making its presence felt in the international market and adventure tour operators are also
approaching this region. There is immense potential for tourism in the hill districts
(Appendix 7) and developing a coherent plan to attract tourists is of prime importance for the
development of the hill region.

Infrastructure
Issues in infrastructure development pertain to transportation, electricity and drinking water
supply, telecommunications, emergency services, restaurants and hotels, and waste disposal
(these are discussed in detail in the next section). Transport linkages within the state and to
the rest of the country are critical. Urban public transport needs must be addressed within an
urban renewal planning framework. Within the state, buses and taxis need to be added in
every district to handle increased passenger loads. In addition, an efficient and competitive
level of

service should be introduced; routes, schedules and fares should be advertised, tickets should
be sold over the Internet, and a variety of transport options offered to provide varying levels
of service. To reach inaccessible places, cable cars and ropeways offer an alternative to roads
but care must be taken to embed such infrastructure into the scenery to minimize their visual
impact. On Tehri Lake a car and passenger ferry service can help cut the travel time between
the north and south shores of the lake; this would also serve as a tourist attraction. Railways,
roadways and airways should be developed to link the state with the rest of the country and
reduce travel time. Electrification of the remainder of the Delhi- Dehradun line will make
travel faster. It is recommended that railway connections should be created between Jolly
Grant airport and the Delhi-Dehradun line to allow future rail access to the airport. In
addition, schedules and connections in coordination with the Delhi urban rail system should
be improved. No further recommendations beyond those brought forward by the Aviation
Master
plan has recommended plans for connecting the state with international and national airports.
However, air links are being developed and six airplane strips have been proposed in the hills
by the government. Helicopters services should also be introduced; for these services,
facilities for refueling and hangers within the state have been proposed along with the
installation of beacons at major helipads to allow operations during bad weather. These
services will attract NRIs and wealthy travelers, increasing the number of tourists and
resulting in development.
A frequent criticism is that the positive effects of tourism development do not reach the local
population and income generated from this sector might get drained out instead of being
utilized within the state. Three types of tourists visit Uttarakhand. High-end tourists come on
weekends and spend a lot of money on hired taxis but that does not contribute to the local
economy. Pilgrims stay 10-15 days and the money they spend filters down directly to the
economy of Uttarakhand. Modern tourists who come for a holiday spend money on their
stay, which directly benefits the local population, but they cause pollution, which is at a
heavy cost to the environment. It is important to set up motels on small pieces of land to
strength tourism. In tourist areas, toilets and restaurants should be provided. Panchayats
(Appendix 8) can be
involved to facilitate this construction activity and generate employment within the
villages rather than getting laborers from neighboring states. There is tremendous scope for
religious tourism in the Garhwal region. The government should develop the route to
Badrinath. Basic facilities for tourists, particularly women and children, need to be
developed especially along the Haridwar- Badrinath route (Char dham plan is already with
the government) and sulabh shauchalays should be set up every twenty kilometers. Class
tourism for NRIs can also be promoted by improving facilities in the region; for this, a
public-private
partnership model can be developed. For the Kumaon region, the focus should be general
tourism. Currently, the government is implementing a Rs. 12-13 crore project for cleanliness
in Nainital and the Tehri dam area is a potential tourist spot. Cities can be created that focus
on medical tourism including medication as well as medication teaching. Spiritual tourism
also needs to be leveraged to generate employment for the locals and revenue for the state by
creating adequate infrastructure at spiritual destinations. The Vaishno Devi temple model is
suitable for Uttarakhand and can prove to be a growth and development driver that adds to
the income of the state. To prevent soil erosion, trails, steps, simple drainage channels, and
slope protection have to be created. This creates a neat infrastructure and also protects the

environment. Along the trail quality rest stops that have toilets and waste disposal facilities
should be created. For tourists who are interested in nature walks, walkways need to be
created. Frequent pedestrian areas are also proposed. Rope bridges and river crossings
provide excursions as well as security for travelers. The existing rope bridges need to be
maintained and a similar style followed for new bridges. Low-cost but safe river crossings
over seasonal rivers are also suggested.
Appropriate Skill Development
Models like the Veer Chand Garhwali Programme should be developed; this is the model
of the Village Inherited Tourism Mode, in which each household has a separate room for
tourists, but the government will have to provide funds and investment. This model is also
good as a self-employment scheme. To ensure that the benefits of local tourism actually
reach the villagers, it is important to involve women in restaurant activities, youths as drivers
of taxis and guides, and local uneducated men as porters. There is a need to develop human
resources and hold capacitybuilding training programmes. The supply of competent
managers does not meet the demand for mid- and high-level managers and, even at the
policy planning level, they
are in short supply. There is a shortage of quality institutions and teachers to impart training
to the new generation and to upgrade the skills required for foreign tourism. The level of
education is quite good but there are a large number of unemployed educated youth in the
hills. There is an immediate need o improve the communication skills of personnel in the
hospitality industry. There is a similar requirement for organizing local training of personnel
employed at front offices, housekeeping, food production, restaurant services, travel
agencies, etc. These training programmes can be organized off-season. To meet the
manpower requirements of the accommodation sector alone, the state should set up at least
one training institute without any further loss of time. Skills in English and other languages
should be given high priority.

Government policies
There is potential to re-use the existing local resources to develop tourism in Uttarakhand.
The social and cultural environment of the state is prepared to take up tourism as a major
opportunity to create jobs. Though tourism is considered to be an industry, the benefits are
not accessible to the state. There is still no proper tourism management plan; added to it is
the problem of lack of connectivity. In Uttarakhand, the tax load on tourist vehicles is much
higher than that in other states like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir (Table 32).
Also, these states charge a single entry tax, unlike Uttarakhand which charges tax at multiple
points. Therefore, tour operators discourage tours to Uttarakhand. Hence, there is a need to
reduce the tax differences to tap the tourist potential of the state when there is competition
from other states.

Developing Infrastructure
In the earlier sections of the paper, it has been repeatedly envisaged that infrastructure
development is one of the biggest constraints that the state faces for its development and

growth. The situation of infrastructure is even worse in the hill regions because of the
difficult terrain. The major infrastructural issues to be discussed are drinking water and
irrigation facilities, electricity, transportation and communication facilities, banking
infrastructure, and social infrastructure like housing and education

Water Issues: Drinking water and irrigation


Uttarakhand has acute water scarcity. Water is a problem both for drinking and for irrigation.
The high population growth in Uttarakhand over the decades has placed enormous pressure
on its natural resources, mainly forests. The forest cover has been significantly reduced both
in density and area, which has created other serious problems like soil erosion and loss of
water-storage capacity in the hill areas. It has increased the scarcity of water as the natural
springs started drying. Increased loss of top-soil (soil erosion) combined with a drop in
already poor irrigation facilities have affected agriculture and the large population dependent
on it. Further, it has added to the plight of the hard-working women for whom natural water
sources provide water for daily household use. The government of Uttarakhand has been
working on various programmes and plans to rectify the problem. A comparative analysis of
the performance of five different approaches to meeting the drinking water needs of the rural
areas shows that the
traditional community management approach performs best. However, all the approaches
failed to achieve equity in access to drinking water. It is recommended that the issue of
drinking water supply must be part of integrated water resources management, and water
resources management itself must be part of an integrated natural resource management plan,
based on a watershed development approach22. Panchayati Raj institutions must play an
active role regarding control and management of water, land, and forest resources.At present
in Uttarakhand drinking water supplies are available to 15,545 villages, covering about 64.65
lakhs of the population. At the district level, the coverage of drinking water supply seems to
be very good in Rudraprayag with almost 100 per cent of the population covered (Table 34).
However, in other hill districts the situation is not so good. The worst are the districts of
Champawat and Uttarkashi where only 75 per cent and 80 per cent of the population,
respectively, have access to drinking water. Since agriculture is the main source of
livelihood, irrigation infrastructure is one of the prime requirements for Uttarakhand. The
major sources of irrigation in Uttarakhand are the canal system, tube wells, lift irrigation,
ghuls (hill channels), water-harvesting tanks (hauzas), hydrams, shallow tube wells and deep
tube wells in the Tarai belt. The gross irrigated area of the state is 549,345 ha and the net
irrigated area is 337,696 ha (Table 35), of which only 12 per cent is in the hill districts and
88 per cent in the plains. Of the total area irrigated through various irrigation sources, the hill
districts have 19.6 per cent of the states canal-irrigated area, 52 per cent of the states tankirrigated area and 60 per cent of the states area irrigated by other sources. Only 44 per cent
of the cropped area is irrigated by the present irrigation system of which about 81 per cent is
in the plains In the hill regions the irrigation infrastructure is very poor (Table 37). A large
portion of the agricultural area is situated above rivers, with the result that they cannot be
irrigated using the gravity system (surface water system) and can only be irrigated through
lift irrigation. The lift irrigation technique is sophisticated and cost-effective; it is
implemented through an automatic pumping device known as a hydraulic ram pump or
hydram. Hydrams, which do not use any external energy or power such as diesel or petrol,
work on the principle of the water hammer and convert the available static head to kinetic

energy. Water can be carried to a height of 30 times above the available head. However, to
make more water available for irrigation and to reduce the wear and tear on the plant, for the
time being the department is trying to lift water
only up to 15 times the height of the head. The lift irrigation technique can act as an
important tool to improve the status of irrigation in Uttarakhand, in particular the hill
districts. The advantage is that the land below the supply channel (guhls) can be irrigated
directly from the supply channel; in addition, by increasing the scale of the supply channel,
water mills for grinding wheat and other cereals can be driven.
Consequently, dependence on power and diesel will be reduced, new employment
opportunities will be created, the nutritional value of the cereals will remain intact, and labor
will be saved. Also, the maintenance expense is minimal and has no adverse impact on the
environment. A traditional but effective canal irrigation system (guhls) is used to irrigate the
fields using gravitational force which brings water from a distance of many kilometers.
These guhls were maintained by the local beneficiaries until they were taken up by the minor
irrigation department of the state government. Another traditional irrigation method which is
prominent in Uttarakhand is water mills. The water mills, known as gharats in Uttarakhand,
have traditionally been used for milling grain and extracting oil. The estimated number of
water mills varies from 3,50023 to 70,000. These water mills, with little technological
upgradation, can also be employed for hydropower generation. Now, the water millers have
an increased level of awareness and access to the technology required to upgrade water mills
to be used as micro/small hydropower plants. NGOs like HESCO have been instrumental in
successfully implementing several micro-hydropower projects in the state. The contribution
of institutions like HESCO for promoting water mills to generate hydropower is significant
and noticeable, especially since government efforts in this direction have not produced the
desired results. Public sector organizations found these micro-plants too expensive and were
unable to recover the costs; thus, financially these were not viable in the long term. The
NGO approach basically involves large-scale community participation which makes the
installation as well as running of the micro-plant economical. This results in the
sustainability of the plant after it is completed. The grain milled by these micro-hydro plants,
gharats, are being sold in the market under the brand name Gharat flour which has been wellreceived by customers. The use of the water mills as microhydropower plants will not only
meet the consumer power requirements at remote villages but also generate a vocation for
the people. Definitely, it is one of the main avenues for sustainable and inclusive
development of the hill regions.

Electricity and other sources of power


Electricity consumption in the domestic sector of Uttarakhand has been quite substantial and
higher than the countrys average, but over the years this proportion has shifted in favor of
the industrial sector. In 2001-02 around 45 per cent of the total electricity consumption was
in the domestic sector which dropped to 29 per cent by 2006-07. With the increasing demand
from the industrial sector, in 2006-07 almost 40 per cent of the total electricity consumption
was by industries (Table 38). The share of electricity consumption for farming purposes has
declined substantially from 14.4 per cent in 2001-02 to 9.9 per cent although the total actual
electricity consumption has marginally increased. The consumption of electricity in different
sectors in the hill regions is shown. However, of the total state electricity consumption very
little is consumed by the hill districts. It is mainly four districts in the plains where electricity

consumption is the maximum. This shows the poor situation of electrification in the hill
districts of Uttarakhand. Around 96 per cent of the rural villages in Uttarakhand are provided
with electricity by Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd. UREDA, Micro-Hydel and Kuteer
Jyoti connections are also prevalent but in less so in villages. Table 40 presents the status of
electrified villages in districts of Uttarakhand. Of the hill districts only Pauri has 20 per cent
of its villages electrified by Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd. and 10.5 per cent by Kuteer
Jyoti connections. Almora and Tehri Garhwal have about 13 percent and 7-9 per cent villages
electrified through these two sources of electrification. The status of village electrification in
the remaining hill districts is very poor.Power supply through the grid system to interior
villages in mountainous terrain is expensive and challenging due to poor load characteristics,
adverse topographical features, harsh weather conditions, scattered households and low
population density. Though there are problems related to the financial viability of such
decentralized power generation by the public sector, non-government community efforts
have
proved to be a success. A national-level NGO, Foundation for Rural Recovery and
Development (FORRAD), has helped set up two community-owned hydropower stations of
20 kw in Tehri Garhwal district. Poor people, who cannot afford electricity under
government schemes, contribute labour and marginal cash as their contribution to their
communitys efforts to get access to reliable and cheap electricity. The key to the success of
these power stations is community participation, willingness to work persistently by building
local capability to maintain the unit, and making full use of this power either by using it
themselves or by selling surplus power to the national grid. Uttarakhand has got enormous
potential for hydropower generation. Apart from its large and medium hydropower potential,
which is estimated to be 20,000 megawatts, it also has huge potential for small, mini- and
micro- hydropower generation24. An estimate puts the overall hydropower potential of the
state at 40,000 megawatts. The hydropower potential of the state can be harnessed for its
development and to raise the quality of life of its people. Hydro-electric power generation
provides electricity at a
cheaper price and in an environment-friendly manner. This crucial price advantage of
hydropower electricity may act as a catalyst for the economic development of the state and
its people by increasing their purchasing power. Availability of cheap power by way of
inexpensive water lifting systems for irrigation will boost agriculture. It will also encourage
establishing agro-processing units such as milling, drying, and threshing, and cultivators will
be able to process the crops in the village. Fiber-processing, and other processing activities
like carding, spinning, dyeing, drying, and calendaring can be mechanized with small-scale
technology to reduce the processing time by at least a third. Availability of cheap power
coupled with appropriate technology for processing fibers will enable people to add value at
competitive rates. Availability of low-cost power, particularly in remote areas, can be
instrumental in providing basic comforts and facilities sought by tourists, which will in turn
will help attract more tourists to the region. If sufficient low-cost electricity is available, it
will act as an incentive for people to use it for cooking and heating, rather than using wood
(currently, around 80 per cent of the people use wood as fuel); this will help protect the
forests and environment. Better-conceptualized initiatives and planned management of the
existing watermill resources of Uttarakhand can give effective results for power generation
for domestic use. Alternative energy sources like solar energy should be encouraged.
HESCO has

demonstrated certain advances in this source of energy. An investment in this direction can
be both a cheaper and more eco-friendly source of electrification. Solar installations should
be complemented with battery banks. Solar installations that are connected to the grid must
be allowed to feed electricity into the grid and compensated at the same rates they pay for
electricity consumption. It is important to decentralize energy generation to overcome
transmission impasses. Since the climate of Uttarakhand is cold, it is important to propagate
solar water heaters and reduce the reliance on electric water heaters, thereby helping
electricity suppliers to overcome shortages. Due to the mountain terrain, it is difficult to
transport CNG and LGP cylinders for cooking; in these cases also solar cookers and solar
panels can be used.

Transportation and Communication


Roads and connectivity with other regions, villages and states is a big problem in
Uttarakhand hill regions. The main problem is the maintenance of the roads due to heavy
rainfall, soil erosion and even snow fall in certain regions. Road maintenance is usually
undertaken by the PWD but as seen in Table 41, in the case of hill districts the maintenance
is usually done by urban local bodies and district panchayats are not involved. In terms of
road infrastructure, only Almora, Pauri and Uttarkashi are linked to national highways.
District roads are the fewest, but indicators to judge their quality and all-weather usage are
not available. It is important to link these districts with one another, state highways and
national highways, because only after the roads are constructed is it possible to link them
with the markets, which are a must for the development of agriculture and allied sectors. It is
recommended that Uttarakhand should be linked with the freight corridor. Between the
villages of the hill districts, a simple and cost-effective trolley system should be introduced,
because road transport fails when it rains or snows. This will also help develop every district,
town and village as a tourism hub and provide employment. Roads connections and
maintenance should be given priority and all the important destinations of each district
should be linked; moreover, the responsibility should be assigned to a single agency at a
decentralized level. The infrastructure of communications services in the hill regions is also
poor. Table 42 shows that around 76 per cent of the states post offices are in the hill regions.
Pauri has the maximum number of post offices while Champawat has the fewest. Telegraph
office coverage is only 25 per cent in the hills and only 26 percent of the public telephones
are found in the hill regions. BSNL also covers only 26 per cent of their total connections in
the hill regions. BSNL connections work in all areas but there are no Hutch or Airtel
connections. However, a revolution in communication services through mobile phones is
expected soon.

Banking Sector
In 2005-06, Uttarakhand was served by 285 branches of the State Bank of India (SBI) and its
associate offices as against 14,016 branches in India. The offices of Regional Rural Banks
(RRBs) in the state declined from 177 in 2001-02 to 171 in 2005-06; this decline was also
observed for their branches in the country. Other private commercial banks registered a
growth of 12 per cent in Uttarakhand, whereas they increased by only 4 per cent in the
country. SBI is the leading bank in all nine hill districts of Uttarakhand and mainly supports
agricultural and industrial activities in these districts. It even provides loans to the landless. It

is trying to achieve the objective of 100 per cent financial inclusion in the state. Through this
scheme Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Nainital achieved 100 per cent financial inclusion in 2007
and Rudraprayag, Champawat, Haridwar and Dehradun are expected to achieve it in the first
quarter of 2008. SBI has adopted several different methods to achieve financial inclusion. It
opens a zero balance account, provides a general purpose credit card, and a kisan card to hill
people; a loan of Rs. 25,000 is provided to hill people without asking for collateral; at
Pithoragarh the bank. has undertaken a project where they are provide tiny SBI cards through
mobile phones; it provides biometric cards that stores the customers photo and data in a
chip;
and it provides Customer Service Points (CSPs) that are clustered around villages. Since
there is a problem with road connectivity, SBI is trying to link households with the banks
through mobile phones that get connected with the banks server; this way, customers can
make bank transactions through their mobile phones. These steps by the SBI are very helpful
for the hill people of the state. However, wide disparities still exist between the plains and
the hill regions in terms of banking structure in Uttarakhand (Table 44). The presence of
banks remains quite low in the hill districts except for Pauri Garhwal. The status of loan
disbursements through financial institutions in the hill districts of Uttarakhand is presented in
Table 45. Of the total loans, the share that goes to agriculture and related activities varies
across districts. While Bageshwar and Tehri Garhwal account for 55 per cent and 60 per cent,
respectively of the total loan towards their agricultural activities, the share of loans disbursed
to these activities in Pauri is almost negligible. Instead, Pauri Garhwal has around 45 per
cent of the total loans disbursed for the development of small-scale industries and 54 per cent
for other activities. This low loan disbursement for agricultural activities can be one reason
for low development of the hill regions. Uttarakhand has the lowest Credit Deposit Ratio
(CDR) in central India. CDR is the proportion of loan-assets created by banks from the
deposits received; the higher the ratio, the higher the loan-assets created from deposits. To
explain the poor credit disbursal, banks claim that there are few bankable projects worth
lending to in the state. It can be seen that poor CDR is a consequence of poor development of
the state, particularly the hill districts. In the hill regions the low CDR is not due to the small
number of credit accounts, but the relatively small
average amount in such accounts. With the objective of 100 per cent financial inclusion,
servicing a large number of small accounts entails higher costs than servicing a few large
loans. Table 46 shows that all the hill districts have a CDR that is lower than the state
average. To improve the CDR it is important to know if there is sufficient demand for loans
or whether people go to the informal sector to meet their credit needs. Another factor to be
considered is that hill district people do not go to the banks because of the difficulty in
approaching them. A third reason is that people are not aware of the possibility of collateralfree lending for their entrepreneurial endeavours. Whatever the reasons, the result is that low
CDR hampers the development of the region. SIDBIs credit guarantee scheme can be used
to overcome the difficulty of providing collateral security.
Besides the SBI, NABARD also plays an important role in the growth and development of
the hill districts. NABARD focuses on the development of rural India by facilitating credit
flow to promote agriculture and the rural non-farm sector. It prepares a Potential Linked
Credit (PLP) plan annually for each district of the country by assessing the potential of the
agriculture and rural sector. This serves as a guide for banks and government agencies to
prepare their own investment and credit plans in the district and state. The PLP for the hill
districts of Uttarakhand is presented. A summary of the table is given below, showing that in

particular sectors the specified districts have the highest potential for the development of
certain activities and sectors.

Self-help groups (SHGs) and micro-finance institutions are the main motivators and
providers of micro-credit to people in the villages of the hill districts. The presence of microfinance institutions in remote areas is quite prominent but the SHG bank linkage program is
still not progressing well in the region due to the conservative policy of the banking sector.
Inter-governmental departments need to come together to create awareness among the people
and to make the credit and banking sector work effectively in the hill regions. The informal
credit delivery system plays an important role in reaching the rural people. It is through the
collaboration of the nationalized banks, regional rural banks and SHGs that the linkages can
be strengthened. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is actively
working in this field. Another institution is MIMO Finance, which is a four-year-old
organization with 8,500 loan clients. Of these clients, 96 per cent are women. Except for 250
loan clients, the remainder are from Uttarakhand. It is a purely commercial finance
organization and does not give any grants. MIMO believes that there can be a large market
for financial services. It provides loans averaging Rs. 25,000 to joint liability groups, each
having 5 members. All loans are made available to women who are not able to access banks,
and are at the mercy of private money lenders. MIMO provides loans at the doorstep without
any guarantee, and makes collections through easy weekly and monthly installments. Life
insurance cover for all clients and their spouses is mandatory. The Reserve Bank of India

(RBI) has suggested measures to improve banking services in Uttarakhand. They recommend
that the help of local agricultural
universities, agribusiness centers, and Krishi Vigyan Kendras may be taken to improve the
quality of input and output. Banks should also be made a party to negotiations with
producers to settle the credit issue on the spot. These may act as single window clearances or
tie-ups. Banks may also extend such facilities to the entrepreneurs, at least in their
specialized SME branches. In order to facilitate borrowers in using the loans more profitably,
banks should have a credit plus approach in their financial inclusion schemes. They would
need to extend insurance, marketing, consultancy services, etc., as they can access
technological developments taking place in agricultural universities, IITs, and research
institutions. Considering the time, distance and cost for customers to reach a bank branch,
especially in remote areas, banks can aggressively use the business facilitator model to
increase their
outreach. Banks may also identify well-respected local persons like school teachers,
postmen, primary health workers or retired army officials. Certain banks have set up Rural
Development and Self Employment Training Institutes (RUDSETI). Such measures have
evoked a good response from borrowers and have enlarged the bank clientele. Major public
sector banks in the state may consider setting up similar institutes in major cities. Foreign
tourists face difficulties exchanging foreign currency in banks and hotels in the state. There
have also been problems making payments through national/international credit/debit cards
by both domestic as well as foreign tourists. Given that the staff of banks, hotels, shops and
emporia do not know how to handle foreign currency, the RBI and banks may organize
seminars/workshops in matters related to foreign exchange at major centres in the state at
regular intervals. In order to provide hassle-free cash withdrawal from banks to the tourists,
major banks operating in the state may set up Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at Tourist
Information Centres and Wayside Amenities Centres for the convenience of tourists.
Broadband connectivity will help banks establish ATMs at places of tourist interest and
accept international debit/credit cards from foreign tourists. Bank branches dealing in foreign
exchange may be provided with broadband connectivity immediately so that foreign tourists
are extended hassle-free conversion facilities without any delay.

Literacy and Education


On social indicators, Uttarakhand fares quite well with a literacy rate of 71.6 per cent against
the national figure of 64.8 per cent. Some hill districts have a literacy rate above the state
average. As expected the literacy rate for females is lower than that for males; more than 80
percent of the males are literate and the female literacy rate varies across districts. However,
the unexpected part is that these numbers are much higher than the national average. This
can be considered a unique feature of the state and is also the reason behind the rapid growth
of this state In terms of basic education, the number of schools/colleges in the state in 200304 was 19,700 which accounted for 1.7 per cent of the national figure. Figures for 2001- 02
show that there were 1,946,343 students in the state compared to 194,946,000 in India, i.e.,
around 1 per cent. The number of students in the hills is 53.5 per cent of the state total,
whereas students in the plains make up 46.5 per cent. At the district level, the school
infrastructure is not bad; it is the availability of teachers and the teacher-student ratio that
creates doubts about the quality of education. The literacy rate is high because the people of
Uttarakhand are interested in getting jobs, but the quality of skills imparted is doubtful

because it does not actually help them get good jobs. To create jobs in the industrial sector,
ITIs have been set up in the state and even hill districts, but the students do not find work in
the local job market either due to scare jobs or their low skills. Thus they migrate to other
states. The industrial requirements for a skilled work force are far higher than the availability
due not only to the shortage of ITIs in the state but also, more importantly, due to the quality
and orientation of education and training imparted at these institutes which does not fit job
requirements at the factories. It is estimated that around 70 percent of the ITI-trained local
persons do not get employment in the industries, whereas outside candidates are given
employment opportunities. Vocational courses should be encouraged to meet the shortage of
skilled labour and the government should take steps to tackle this problem. The Navodya
Vidyalayas provide a good model of how to provide high-quality education to talented
students who cannot afford it. Thus there is need for training that includes industry-specific
training; for example, there are different requirements for the paper industry and the
pharmaceutical industry, so the same training may not be applicable at both places. Given
this scenario the state unit of the CII has suggested that the state government privatize five
ITIs to impart industry-oriented training that matches industry requirements. These training
institutes should tie up with industry. Creating education centers would lead to development
in a radius area around it. High-level vocational training is required for which polytechnics
should be set up; they could train students for the hotel and construction industries. Course
development is also required in every block of the
state but it should be customized and not standardized. Since soft skills are very important,
10-20 per cent of training time should be spent on developing these skills.

Development Strategy and Sectoral Perspective


Uttarakhand, in spite of being a small state, has certain key features that make it distinct
from other states of the country and highlights its potential for development. Uttarakhand is
the first state in the country to have created a Tourism Development Board by legislation. It
is also the first state to propagate organic farming on a wide scale. However, the
development has predominantly been in the plains and the hill districts have been left behind.
All the hill districts have farming and crop husbandry as their main economic activities,
along with dairy and poultry farming to diversify their source of earnings. But these are only
subsistence activities that have led to migration and a remittance economy in the hill
districts. Thus, the hill districts have a demographic bias towards women who are not skilled
in earning money. In addition,
female literacy is only 57%. Overall, the hill districts are characterized by low productivity,
shortage of inputs, and lack of marketing that have confined the villages to producing only
for self-consumption. These regions are land-locked with huge distances between the
markets and resources. Because of these constraints, traditional agriculture cannot be the
lead sector for development. The positive features of these hill districts are that they have
huge tourism potential, a suitable climate for highvalue agriculture, and a pleasant
environment due to 60 per cent forest cover. These have to be harnessed to create a
development strategy. The development strategy for the Uttarakhand hills should be based on
developing brand equity under the name of Organic Green State.
An Uttarakhand Brand Equity Fund should be developed in line with IBEF (Appendix
10). This can beachieved through:
Developing infrastructure

Propagating tourism
Diversifying agriculture
Promoting poultry- and wool-based livelihoods
Establishing SMEs based on the above
Capturing linkages with industry and tourism
Although some hill districts are rich in mineral resources, mining should not be promoted.
Modern mining which is highly mechanized will not create significant additional
employment. Further, mining can be a threat to ecology, disturbs the natural environment and
affects agriculture. This would discourage tourism and works against the states brand equity
of Organic Green State.

Agriculture Diversification and Development of Allied Sectors


Since the hill regions are very different in their ecosystem from the plains, it is essential to
use a different approach to agriculture in the hill districts of Uttarakhand. The green
revolution of the 1960s benefited only those areas that had irrigation facilities, but this was
not possible in the hills, which lacked this resource. Thus the recommendations for
development of the hill districts based on agriculture diversification are as follows:
1. Promote agriculture that is based on high-value herbal, medicinal and aromatic plantation.
Since markets are a problem, links with retailers and ayurvedic firms should be propagated.
A memorandum of understanding should be signed with retailers and firms backed by
legislation in order to prevent exploitation of farmers; this will help in evolving rules for fair
transactions. This should be in coordination with the Herbal Research and Development
Institute (HRDI) to help farmers in selecting village-specific commodities.
2. Alternative areas of diversification are towards horticulture crops, spices and condiments
(chilies, ginger, and garlic), tea plantation, floriculture, oilseeds (sesamum, rapeseed &
mustard and soybean) and traditional hill grains (mandua, bhatt, sanwa, urad, gahat).
Intercropping of aromatic plants with conventional grains can also help in diversifying the
income basket of small and marginal farmers.
3. If these commodities are grown organically they can increase incomes in the hill regions
because discerning buyers prefer and are willing to pay more for organic goods. Organic
farming methods are the preferred option for the agriculture-based hill region. It is necessary
to promote the Organic Uttarakhand brand in order to secure the interests of the small
organic agriculturalists of the state and develop the brand image of the state.
4. A cluster approach should be adopted in the hill regions. The cluster approach includes the
provision of extension services, financial services, inputs, production process and facilitation
of processing. This will help reduce the cost of production, improve yields and generate
marketable surpluses. Performance-based credits and subsidy policies can incentivise small
and marginal farmers to adopt the best practices.
5. Develop mandis and create linkages between producers and buyers; even contract farming
can be promoted, but under a suitable legislative framework. Mandis have to be created for
the sale of good quality produce at reasonable prices. For unique biodiversity products,

separate markets should be developed in the hills. Low-cost collection centers and facilities
should be created and then aligned with the terminal market in Chandigarh. In the long run, a
terminal market can be created specifically for Uttarakhand.
6. Rural infrastructure development should be in line with the focus on diversification that is
suggested above.
7. Animal husbandry and forest resource use are a part of hill livelihood; these need to be
developed on a commercial basis. Measures should be taken to improve the genetic stock of
sheep and goats. There is a need to rejuvenate the governments agriculture extension and
veterinary systems.
8. Forest and land development. Forest trees offer an alternative source of livelihood. The
state should connect with agencies in other countries like Israel and China for expertise on
the development of semi-arid land. Research firms should be contacted forcommercialization
of jatropha for bio-diesel. Land Army- Doon Valley model should be spread to other districts.
Agro-forestry can play an important role in the rural economy, making it essential to
regenerate degraded forest and wasteland. Wasteland can be converted to grow plants, fodder
and fuel, barren land can be used for non-farm activities, and land that is left uncultivable
due to lack of credit, inputs, etc. can be adopted by organizations and clusters and diverted
towards high-value cultivation.
9. The active involvement of people in conserving and managing the forests can result in
high biodiversity as well as meet their bio-mass requirements. CarbonTrading should be
encouraged and Carbon Credit facility should be given for environment
conservation/maintenance. This should be done through the Planning Commission or by the
state government.

Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)


The Integrated Industrial Development Policy 2008 was launched in February 2008
especially for the industrial development of hilly and remote areas in the state. Under this
policy, small-scale agro-based industries and cottage industries should be promoted for the
development of the hills.
1. Encourage agro-processing SMEs. Industrial activity in the hill regions can be tapped
from local agro-based industries (e.g. herbs, fruits, frozen tulsi, fruit juices, and jams) and
handicraft/ cottage industries (e.g. shawls, woolens, and hosiery). To improve the output, the
latest technology and easy accessibility of raw materials should be provided
2. To facilitate the development of these SMEs, the land acquisition process should be
handled with sensitivity, stable power supply should be provided by the government, and
single-window clearance and licenses should be made availablewithin three days. The
findings of the World Bank survey, Doing Business should be fully implemented.
3. Create a task force for vocational training and skill upgrading with the active participation
of local industries. Upgrade the ITIs and revise their curriculum to suit local needs.

4. For the development of business skills in people, the development of entrepreneurial skills
is crucial. Creating awareness and training can also help develop entrepreneurial skills. Since
in the hill regions it is equally important to develop the entrepreneurial skills of women,
vocational training should be imparted in activities like dairy processing, poultry raising,
papad-making, mushroom cultivation, bee-keeping, quilt-making and running a small
business.
5. Link up with CDRI, Lucknow for research and development in pharmaceuticals, aromatic
cosmetic industries, etc. This will help add value to agri-products. Seed testing laboratories,
organic certification centers, etc. should be developed in the hills.

Promoting Tourism
Tourism should be given the highest priority because it can be the biggest source of
employment and it also creates linkages for local area development. Tourism should be given
the status of an industry. The Uttarakhand Tourism Development Master Plan for 2007-22
has already been developed with the coordination of the Government of India, Government
of Uttarakhand, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Tourism
Organization.
1. The state attracts tourists for pilgrimages, cultural tourism, nature tourism, adventure
tourism, wildlife tourism, eco-tourism, and amusement and leisure tourism. It is crucial to
identify the seasonality of different kinds of tourism. Tourists should be attracted taking this
into account so as to create round-the-year tourism-based employability.
2. Tourism should be developed in an environment-friendly manner so as to harmonize with
the effective branding of the state as an Organic Green State. The objective should be to
nurture the existing beauty rather than to create modern tourist destinations.
3. Uncontrolled and unplanned tourism is not healthy. Thus tourist zones have to be
connected by formal and informal links in the form of roads, trails and tracks and thematic
circuits. A strong regulatory framework that oversees quality of service is necessary.
Implementation of rules and security should be given utmost priority.
4. Proper publicity and marketing is required along with the development of skills and the
associated service sector to provide world-class service. There is lack of awareness of
Uttarakhand as a tourism destination because of ineffective branding of the state, the lack of
marketing strategies and unfocussed annual campaigns. For tourism development, there
should be a tie-up with major tour operators like Thomas Cook and Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
To develop hotels in all categories, there needs to be a tie-up with national and international
hotel groups.
5. The bed-and-breakfast model should also be propagated for low-budget domestic
travelers.

6. Investments in hotels and inns can be promoted/ facilitated if the investor is granted a
long-term lease. In selected cases, a collaborative partnership between the local land-owner
and investor can also be implemented.

Developing Infrastructure
The major infrastructure issues are drinking water and irrigation facilities, electricity, road
and communication facilities, banking infrastructure, and social infrastructure like housing
and education. For all infrastructure development projects it is important for targets to be
specified.
1. The issue of drinking water supply must be part of an integrated water resource
management plan, which in turn is part of an integrated natural resource management based
on a watershed development approach. Lift irrigation techniques, such as hydrams and guhls
can be used to improve irrigation in Uttarakhand, particularly in the hill districts.
2. Gharats in Uttarakhand, have traditionally been used to mill grain and extract oil. The
contribution of institutions like HESCO25 (Himalayan Environmental Studies and
Conservation Organization) to promote the use of water mills in generating hydropower is
significant, and such efforts should be encouraged.
3. The availability of cheap power by way of inexpensive water-lifting systems for irrigation
will boost agriculture. Alternative energy sources like solar energy should be encouraged.
4. Road networks should be further developed. In addition to roads in smaller villages, a
simple and cost-effective trolley system should be introduced. Road connections and
maintenance should be given priority and important destinations in each district should be
linked. The responsibility should be assigned to an agency at a decentralized level.
5. The ideal approach involves large-scale community participation which makes the
installation as well as running of the micro-plant economical. Panchayati Raj institutions
must play an active role regarding control and management of water, land, forest resources
and maintenance of the roads.
6. The banking sector offers a low credit deposit ratio (CDR) that is only 25 % in hill
districts as against 45% in the rest of the state. Only the State Bank of India (SBI) is active in
the hill regions where it is trying to achieve the objective of 100 per cent financial inclusion.
To achieve the stated objective of financial inclusion, the RBI should be approached to
impose a Universal Service Obligation on all commercial banks that will facilitate the faster
spread of rural/ hill area banking,
7. People in the hill regions should be made aware that loan schemes are available, e.g.,
SIDBIs credit guarantee scheme. The setting up of self-help groups and micro-finance
institutions as motivators and providers of micro-credit should be facilitated.
8. Special emphasis on female education is needed. For the school education system it is
important to meet the shortfall in teachers and quality educational institution. Thus, measures
are needed like removing institutional licensing, drawing up a plan for teacher training,

raising teachers salaries (in other words, immediately implementing the recommendations
of the 6th Pay Commission), and giving additional incentives to teachers in hill regions.

Development Strategy for Hill Districts


Infrastructure development is a common development agenda to facilitate development in
the hill districts. In addition, specific issues pertaining to each hill district are identified and
listed below. The listing is based on the areas that should be given priority Organic farming
methods are recommended for all in order to create the brand equity of Organic Green
State.

Conclusion
The highlight is on the tourism disasters vulnerability of the tourist trade to unforeseen
events which also signifies the principles of disaster management, the content also elaborates
on how to pro-actively deal with the potential for future crisis related to tourism, steps in
disaster management would give a brief overview about the various stages involved in
disaster management. Further discussion in this paper leads to a systematic approach which
improves destination restoration techniques and also describes about the reasons for the
collapse of tourism destination areas and enumerating on the aspects of an ideal area
development, with relation to Uttarakhand.
In terms the losses faced by the tourism industry, due to the
disaster are extensive as said by an official to Madhav (2013) that, speaking on the possible
lossesthe season accounted for 30 per cent (around Rs 3,500 crore) of the tourism sector's
annual earnings. Due to the calamity, they were witnessing 99 per cent cancellations from the
affected travelers and from pre-bookings. Thus when the Char Dham yatra has been
cancelled for three year the possible losses can be imagined. So through the implementation
of destination management and the several disaster management techniques, such losses can
be avoided and the credibility of a destination restored.

References
(1) 2013 North India floods.(n.d.). In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_North_India_floods.
(2) National Workshop on UTTARAKHAND DISASTER 2013: LESSONS
LEARNT Monday, August 19, 2013.
(3)
Community Based Disaster Risk Analysis (CBDRA): Case
Studies from Uttarakhand, India.
(4) Char Dham yatra may resume from 30 September without Kedarnath. (2013).
Retrieved from http://www.chardham-tours.com/char-dham-yatra-may-resume-from30-septemberwithout- kedarnath.
(5) Development strategy for the hill districts of uttarakhand (working paper no. 217)
Indian council for research of international economic relations (icrier) july 2008.
(6) Uttarakhand tourism development master plan 2007-2022.
(7) Strategy paper on S&T Intervention for post disaster reconstruction efforts in
uttarakhand.
(8) Bisht, D.S. (2006). Poverty, Planning and Development - A Case Study of Uttaranchal
State (submitted to the Planning Commission). Central Himalayan Institute. Dehradun.
Trishul Publications, Dehradun.

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