Uttarakhand Floods

The recent Uttarakhand floods, brings to the people’s eye the usual story of Indian Disaster management system; its inability to deal with a crisis situation time and again. It raises a huge question over various Institutions working day and night to quell this situation. But let us ask ourselves, is it correct to blame these Institutions, who are putting up a huge effort, braving their life and the unfriendly weather, to rescue thousands, still trapped under debris, under water, or left stranded without food or water for days?

The real villains are the politicians and the superstars, the so called symbols of the country, who are putting pressure on these institutions to save their kins and themselves ahead of “the common people”. But who gets blamed in the end? The army, the only institute people still trust in recent times.

What else are the politicians doing; they are blaming the meteorological department, whose forecast was ignored by the state government, resulting in the death of thousands.

Even when people are pouring in millions, and few politicians (read BJP) giving away their month’s salary for the victims of these floods, others are busy celebrating their birthday in some other country with the hard earned money of the common people, which could have been put to better use in these floods. Even the media is laughing when the General of Indian Army says he is deploying 200 soldiers of Elite commando unit for rescue operations. What they fail to realize is that each of these soldiers are equal to 10, so it’s more like 2000 and not 200. While the army is using up 8000 soldiers to save the stranded, the politicians are trying to blame each other for this mishap.

Now the question arises, why are these disasters taking such a toll? Have we not learnt from the past? Do we not need to improve facilities and infrastructure in places of such mythological importance, where thousands of people visit every year? What were the state governments thinking, while rejecting a proposal of setting up of a National Disaster Management task force in every state? Had this task force been set up, the tragedy could have been stopped, as thousands could have been saved in a matter of hours.

With the roads and bridges all washed away, it’s on the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force to save the people as swiftly as they can. Even google has set up a person finder, which it had first set up in 2010 during the devastating Haiti earthquake. All this and various governments donating huge amounts of money, the rescue operation will be easier and faster if various ministers avoid visiting these places. It’s also a request to the various local people of the tragedy hit area to not sell a 20rs water bottle at 200, or a 5rs biscuit packet at 100. It’s the little show of humanity that will help in fast restoring order in the state, which has been vastly affected.

The various helpline numbers are:

Following is the list of Uttarakhand control room numbers (district-wise): 

Pithoragarh - 05964-228050, 226326, 09412079945 

Almora - 05962-237874, 09319979850 

Nainital - 05942-231179, 09456714092 

Udham Singh Nagar - 05944-250719, 250823, 09410376808 

Chamoli - 01372-251437, 251077, 09411352136 

Rudraprayag - 01364-233727, 09412914875, 08859504022 

Uttarkashi - 01374-226461, 09675082336, 09410350338 

Dehradun - 0135-2726066, 09412964935 

Haridwar - 01334-223999, 09837352202 

Tehri - 01376-233433, 09412076111 

Bageshwar - 05963-220197, 09411378137 

Champawat - 05965-230703, 09412347265 

Pauri Garhwal - 01368- 221840, 08650922201 

Here's the list of contact numbers for information regarding pilgrims in Uttarakhand from different regions: 

Madhya Pradesh - 0755-2556422, 09926769808 

Maharashtra (Mantralaya numbers) - 022-220279990, 022-22816625, 022-22854168

Andhra Pradesh - 40234510 

Other numbers: 

Uttarakhand State Emergency Operation Centre - 0135-2710334

General enquiry numbers - 0135-2710334, 0135-2710335, 0135-2710233

Army Medical Emergency numbers - 18001805558, 18004190282, 8009833388

Joshimath, Karnaprayag and Govindghat - 01372-253785

Uttarkashi - 01374-226126/161

Chamoli - 01372-251437

Rudraprayag - 01732-1077

Tehri - 01376-233433

ITBP helpline and control room - 011-24362892, 09968383478

Disaster Control Room, Police Headquarters, Uttarakhand - 0135-2717300, 09411112985