Fighting with NE nature
Natural calamities like devastating floods, heavy rains, earthquake, etc., are major challenges before the development activists.

North East News Agency

People from other parts of the country think that the insurgency-like-social-tension has brought to a standstill the regional economy of North-Eastern region today. Actually, the critical climatic conditions are crippling the regional economy     from macroeconomic point of view. That is, natural calamities like devastating floods armed with   heavy rains, earthquake et al and ‘unique physiography’ of the     region are the major challenges before the development activists here nowadays.

The region has as many as eight-sister states, namely – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Importantly, among these states, Sikkim is fully free from the cancerous disease – militancy or separatist movement. As per figures of the Census of India 2001, the region constitutes about 3.77 per cent of India’s total population. The various issues that these states are experiencing include relatively low economic growth rate, higher growth rate of population, and higher influx of internal and external migration. During 1990s, the economic growth in these states had per capita income less than the national average.

The North-East is physiographically an isolated region from the national mainstream. So, the physiographical features of the region are quite different from the average physiography of mainland India. No one can fight against the mighty nature. The reason is not far to seek. Unprecedented flood havocs and heavy rains wash away all work of any mega projects. Thus, natural calamities freeze almost all developmental activities in this far-flung region.

Insurgency is no longer a major problem for many project operators in the region. Despite the key constraints – engineers, skilled labourers, allied project workers etc. are working hard to complete different development work in the region at an early date.

Burning the midnight candle, they are very busy in giving final shape to a good number of projects on infrastructure facilities like bridge construction, water supply plan, power transmission and distribution (T&D) in eight sister states of the North-East. To them, fighting against nature is a sort of mission possible.

That is, critical climatic conditions have always affected the development work and projects in North-East over the years. Facing many natural hardships, the project workers and developers are carrying forward their activities on a bullish note.

Talking to this writer, R. Raghavan, senior project manager, Gammon India Limited, one of the leading construction companies of Asia, stated that their company had been working for a good number of infrastructure facility-related projects in North-East. Unbalanced activities of Mother Nature are delaying the completion of different development projects in the region. For instance, the Kaladan in Saiha district of Mizoram state undertaken by gammon India Ltd. was projected to be completed in three years; but it took as many as ten years in 1999. This Rs. 500 crore bridge construction plan was delayed due to unprecedented natural calamities in the region.

Accordingly, the ravaging flood fury has made different projects uneconomic as well as time-consuming. This can be better understood from the list of constraints and problems faced by the construction workers of Pasighat Bridge over the Siang river, a leading tributary of the mighty river Brahmaputra, at Ranaghat about seven km away fro Pasighat, headquarter of East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh. The foundation stone of the project was laid by the Late Rajiv Gandhi, former prime minister in September 1987. It’s a border road project under the Chief engineer (Project Udayak), the Director General of Border Roads (DGBR), Government of India.

The saddest part of the story is that unique network of Mother Nature in this part of the world has delayed the project. Initially, the project estimate for this 703.50 meter river bridge was Rs. 11.00 crore. The project cost will now be about Rs. 400 crore. In this particular project, over 250 skilled labourers, hailing from Assam, Bihar and West Bengal are encountering with gigantic boulders and fighting against the flood-wave which is above the actual designed level. It was supposed to be completed in 1991. It is now expected to be completed by 2010.

The swollen rivers of the North-Eastern states rise rapidly, rendering millions of people, standing crops and wildlife helpless every year. Last year, flooding in the tea and oil-rich Assam had alone marooned more tan 10 million people who sought shelter in government relief camps in different districts. The world-renowned Kaziranga National Park, home to the almost extinct one-horned rhinoceros, is also under threat. Incessant rains in the recent past had led to a sharp rise in the level of the rive Brahmaputra. Forest rangers at the Kaziranga Park have been put on maximum alert amid gears that flood waters might yet again submerge the sanctuary. During the floods, four years ago, more than 600 endangered animals drowned. The world’s largest river island of Majuli in eastern Assam was in danger of being inundated. Water levels of the Brahmaputra around the Majuli Island are above the danger mark. Importantly, the entire North-East is in a seismic zone and receives earthquake shocks of moderate to severe intensity from time to time. The situation made avoidable actions in the form of shifting cultivation and non-scientific commercial exploitation. The silt brought in the process gets deposited as the river descends into the plains due to sudden reduction in the slope and with the consequent reduction in the flow velocity and its sediment reduction-carrying capacity. Due to heavy deposition of silt, the river has frequently changed its course.

To conclude, critical climate is always bad, it is detrimental to economic growth as well as the promotion of socio-economic welfare. It can balloon the burden of poverty, malnutrition and unhygienic environment leading to unbalanced growth of ecology in the vulnerable areas. Building houses on the hill tops, illegal earth cutting for commercial use and rapid deforestation drive – despite Supreme Court ban on felling of forest trees – are crippling the ecological balance of North-East. Thus, certain people are disturbing the Nature’s holy plan to maintain ecological balance. To check this misdirected trend, media may play a vital role. It can scathingly criticize their activities. To curb this problematic issue, NGos can also initiate a comprehensive awareness drive among the masses so that they stop anti-Nature activities like large deforestation spree of the scoundrels. Accordingly, planners, policy makers and field managers may unitedly initiate mitigation measures to minimize the losses in different projects here too. 

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