Nanda Devi Glacier Burst: Reni Village, Devastated By Floods, Was The Origin Of Chipko Movement

When flash floods hit Reni village on the banks of Dhauliganga river, many houses got destroyed due to the sudden rise in water level.

But the residents of Reni village had anticipated the disaster.

The destruction in the Chamoli region of Uttarakhand was feared ever since the the work for Rishiganga power project started in 2005.

In 2019, several villagers had approached Uttarakhand High Court in 2019 alleging unfair and environmentally hazardous practices by the private company.

TOI

A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the court against it alleged that the company even blocked the historic pathway to the forest that was used by Gaura Devi, one of the prominent faces of the Chipko movement.

The landmark Chipko movement, which started in the early 1970, gained prominence in 1974 when a group of peasant women of Reni village swung into action to reclaim their traditional forest rights.

The residents of this ecologically-conscious village say that they had been trying to divert attention towards the brewing disaster being caused by the Rishiganga hydropower plant but no one paid heed.

The tragedy has now left behind a massive trail of destruction, while the villagers approached almost all the officials of the district administration as well as the forest department. The villagers say that the Rishiganga hydropower plant set up in 2005 was "being built in contravention of all environmental norms".

Reuters

"We also approached the NGT to protect our biosphere and all the nearby villages, but nothing happened and the power project company continued its work unabated. We have pictures of them using bombs to break rocks. There are scores of carcasses of wild animals which died after falling into the dam due to the bomb explosions. Raini was being killed every day, but the authorities remained blindfolded and deaf," SS Rawat, former sarpanch of van panchayat Raini, who played an active role in filing a petition against the Rishiganga hydropower project, told The Times of India.

Incidentally, the hydropower plant is constructed in the buffer zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, which is a UN recognized world heritage site.

In their letter to the SDM of Joshimath in May 2019, a copy of which is with TOI, the villagers wrote, "Since the stone crusher works are going on right in the middle of river, many wild animals, like deer, leopards, black bears etc. are entering our village, which increases risk to the wildlife. Despite the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve being a world heritage site, the stone crusher has not been set even 10 metres away."

The understanding of the tragedy which struck Uttarakhand on Sunday so far points to the fact that the disaster could have been avoided if only the authorities were a little more environment conscious.