Editorial | Haunting questions

It was a sad day for those who were caught in that disaster and lost their lives. As humans, we must feel the tragedy and our sympathies must be with the families of those who died in this terrible disaster. As the news of this catastrophe spread, we were reminded of the earlier such disasters. The videos grabs of such tragedies send chill down the spine. The first response on all such occasions is to rescue people who are stuck, and try to minimise the loss of human lives.  This is what the central agencies that were rushed into service did. The humanitarian part of the operations should be carried as swiftly as possible, and as efficiently as it can be. There are no ifs and buts about it. Even the independent, non-governmental groups can be pressed into service to give relief to the affected people. But there are long term questions that cannot be ducked anymore. This is not the first time such a tragedy has struck. Earlier also we have seen such natural disasters.

The question that looks us straight into our eyes is this; do we contribute to such disaster? The experts in the field have always been raising alarm over the human interference in such ecologically sensitive areas. They have been underlining the importance of putting a check on humans travel to such areas, and as a consequence putting pressure on the pristine nature of such places. At the same time we have development experts who have been warning about the unchecked, and massive development projects, that adversely impact the glaciers and forests. It is time that all such expert views are seriously considered, and a committee is formed that can look into the matter with all scientific data at its disposal.  An unchecked movement of people into ecologically fragile zones, and a ruthless commercialisation of development projects ends up in a battle between humans and the nature. And once nature is in fury, it spares none. For the sake of nature and the human lives we need to revisit the entire scheme in this case.

   

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