The year 2023 has brought to light how fragile our Himalayan ecosystem is, what with the innumerable ecological disasters such as landslides, raging rivers breaking banks and washing away everything in their wake and cloudbursts.
SDC felt there was a link between these seemingly disconnected unfortunate events, be it landslides, flash floods, land subsidence, cloudbursts, earthquakes or road accidents. Against the backdrop of the climate crisis and rampant unscientific development, we started producing a monthly report titled Uttarakhand Disaster & Accident Analysis Initiative (UDAAI).
(Deep cracks emerging due to land subsidence in Joshimath, Jan 2023. Credits: Khabar Uttarakhand)
The key purpose of the UDAAI Reports is to raise awareness towards the dire need for a holistic disaster management and accident minimization policy framework in Uttarakhand. With the perils of inclement climate, unabated disasters and tragic accidents, the ecologically fragile and earthquake prone state of Uttarakhand needs to take multiple steps to safeguard its people, its guests and its reputation.
(Rescuers engaged in relief efforts during the Gaurikund landslide, August 2023. Credits: Rudraprayag Police, Down To Earth)
It has been our hope that UDAAI will spur political leadership, policy makers, bureaucracy, research and academic institutions, civil society organizations, media and the citizenry at large to initiate frequent conversations and consistent actions on the subject of disasters.
Read our UDAAI Reports, listed in the Uttarakhand Development Network (UDN) Database.
