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20th, August, 2022

 

 

Topic: National IPS Women’s Conference

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

  • Inauguration of the 10th National Conference of women in police at HP Raj Bhavan on 21st of August 2022.
  • The inaugural session was presided over by Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Home, Shri Nityanand Rai in the presence of Shri Balaji Shrivastav, Director General, Bureau of Police Research & Development and Shri Sanjay Kundu, DGP H.P.

 

Who will conduct?

  • The national level conference will be held in collaboration with the Union Home Ministry Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) and Himachal Police. It will include 250 women constables to DGPs and para-military officers.

 

Background:

  • The first conference was held in 2002. In this, the issue of toilets for women in the police station was raised.
  • After this, the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had released 90 thousand rupees each for each police station.
  • There was talk of appointing women as SHOs in the districts. In Himachal, the first woman SHO was appointed in Solan.
(Source: Amar Ujala)

 

 

Topic: Landslides in Himachal Pradesh

 

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

  • Massive landslides blocked two roads in Dharamsala today. The road leading from Kangra to Dharamsala was blocked early this morning near Mid Way Hotel. The traffic to Dharamsala had been diverted to alternative roads.
  • A massive landslide blocked Shimla-Kalka road, National Highway 5, near Shoghi on Saturday.
  • Monsoon has caused heavy damage to two departments in Himachal. The department and the government are now completely dependent on the Centre to recover from this loss. The compensation from the Centre will now compensate for this huge loss. The figure of damage caused by the monsoon so far has reached 1150 crores.

 

 

Lets understand the causes of Landslides in Himachal Pradesh:

 

What vulnerability does Himachal Pradesh have?

  • The mountainous terrain of Himachal Pradesh means that erosion and geological forces will always be at work making the region especially vulnerable to natural disasters.
  • Between July and the first week of August, the State has experienced major natural disasters in the last month and over the last three months, so many have lost their lives to natural disasters, according to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment.

 

In 2012, the State environment division had prepared a State Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan as part of the National Climate Change Action Plan:

“Deforestation, landslides, land degradation, desertification and Glacier Lake overflow (GLOF) are some of the common but critical environmental issues in the Himalayan regions. The main challenges currently facing the Himalayan environment are the escalation of these problems in the atmosphere and human-caused interference,’ states the report.

Himachal Pradesh, although a small Himalayan state, nevertheless plays a crucial role in maintaining the livelihoods of downstream areas. The conservation and subsistence of these ecologically fragile regions is the biggest challenge we face at the moment, which can worsen due to financial constraints and limited resources.”

 

What are the causes of landslides and flash floods in Himachal Pradesh?

 

Senior scientist Vikram Gupta of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun shared:

  • This is because of the concentration of precipitation, which is very dangerous for the stability of the slopes. If you look at the cumulative rainfall, it is not that much. But the frequency of rainfall in which there are heavy downpours in a shorter period of time is very dangerous.
  • Another important factor is the anthropogenic intervention in slopes for cutting hills in the construction of roads. This is being witnessed in Himachal Pradesh as well as in Uttarakhand for construction of new roads or widening of existing roads, but in maximum cases no stabilization measures are being taken.
  • We visited Dharamshala recently and the primary reason for the recent flash flood at McLeodganj was mainly wrong land use planning where a nullah (drain) was closed. We visited Dharamshala recently and the major reason for the recent flash flood in McLeodganj was mainly poor land use planning where a nullah (drain) was closed. We had witnessed such incidents of landslides on Dehradun-Mussoorie road last year due to concentrated rainfall.

 

 

Is climate change to blame for the landslides?

  • It is difficult to attribute a single event to climate change because the latter refers to a broader change in average temperature in a region. The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) while pointing out that a global rise of 1.5 C (from pre-Industrial times) was inevitable in the next two decades, it also references, studies that show rising temperatures would lead to increased glacier melt as well as snowlines (the portion of mountain tops that are perennially snowy) rising higher.
  • This ties into forecasts of extreme events being on the rise — that is longer, more intense bouts of droughts as well as short, intense spells of rain.
  • This implies that activities such as road-building, heavy-concrete constructions at higher elevation are all at increased risk at being beseiged by natural disasters and will have knock-off effects on people and their habitations.

 

Have impacts of climate change manifested in Himachal Pradesh?

  • The environmental report has already noted such effects. The temperature in the NW Himalayan Region has risen by 1.6°C in the last century. The warming rate of Shimla was higher during 1991-2002 as compared to earlier decades. About 17% decrease in rainfall in Shimla was observed from 1996 onwards. The decreasing trend in seasonal snowfall in Shimla has been very conspicuous since 1990 and it was lowest in 2009.
  • Monsoon discharge in Beas River has shown a significant decrease. Winter discharge in River Chenab too has shown a significant increase.
  • Satluj is showing an increasing trend in winter and spring discharge.
  • The quality of apples, a major crop, has been affected and cultivation has shifted upwards. Areas that traditionally grew apples are being diverted to vegetables due to rising temperature. Incidence of pest and disease had also increased.

 

What about unabated and haphazard construction in hilly terrains?

 

Senior scientist Vikram Gupta of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun shared:

  • The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had constituted a committee for Shimla in 2017-18 It recommended that the construction activity in 17-18 green zones of Shimla should immediately stop and the town decongested. Though report was accepted and later the NGT eased some of the riders.
  • State government authorities are very serious about stopping unabated constructions. We had worked for over a year to prepare the report and we thought that it could be a very tight example, which we could also replicate in Nainital in Uttarakhand and Darjeeling in West Bengal. But nobody was happy with our report and we started receiving threatening letters.

 

What is the impact of hydel power projects in Himachal and Uttarakhand?

 

Senior scientist Vikram Gupta of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun shared:
  • Himachal Pradesh has done some good work in coming up with small hydel power projects of 4-5 megawatt where they do not need to store water like big hydel projects like in Nathpa Jhakri.
  • We have noticed in Nathpa Jhakri as well as in Uttarakhand that many natural springs have dried up due to rock blasting. If we play with nature, it will definitely react as per its own style. Even big hydel projects like Tehri Dam in Uttarakhand are made earthquake resistant, which could survive at least 8 magnitudes of earthquake. But the main problem with such projects is that these require infrastructure like roads, tunnels and storage space for which slopes are cut.

 

What steps are required to save loss of lives and property?

  • Firstly, they need to identify such slopes or zones where landslides could take place due to rainfall. We had earlier done this exercise in Kinnaur district. This will solve nearly 60% of our problems. We need to take further required steps if there is some village or settlement in the path of that predicted landslide spot.
  • We even take help from the local villagers to understand the perspective of such incidents as they have a lot of information about earlier incidents of landslides and blockage in rivers.
  • Every state has a disaster management cell and this cell needs to become less proactive in its approach and they can take our help.
(Source: The Hindu and timesofindia aticles)

 

 

Topic: Panchayati Raj Institutions

 

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

  • A center of excellence in dairy and a center for training members of Panchayati Raj Institutions were being set up at Basal village

 

Purpose:

  • Center of excellence in dairy and a center for training members of Panchayati Raj Institutions were being set up in Basal village in district Una at a cost of Rs 47 crore and Rs 8 crore.
  • The diary center would be built with technical assistance from Denmark, where entrepreneurs would be able to get training and technical knowhow regarding the latest interventions in dairy farming.
(Source: The Tribune)