A farmer from Indore, Gabbu Singh went to Kedarnath as part of a group of 50 people. Only seven have managed to survive the disaster. “The Mandakani's killer currents took 30 of them,” he says. “The remaining 13 are still untraceable.” According to Gabbu and his friend Anil Sisodia, even after 48 hours of the tragedy, the Uttarakhand government had no clue how to act. “There was no water to drink and nothing to eat,” said Gabbu. “We collected rainwater in a leaf and drank it. No relief measure reached us. Half of those who died could have been saved if food and blankets had reached Kedarnath. Many people died of cold and others succumbed to hunger and thirst.” Survivors say the state government's lackadaisical approach has worsened their plight. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna camped in Delhi even as rescue and relief operations started in Kedarnath. He made no efforts to go to the badly affected areas, and he went for an aerial survey only after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had done so. And when the government advertised helplines, the numbers were wrong. “There was utter lack of coordination between the chief minister and officers dealing with relief measures,” said a bureaucrat. Realising that Bahuguna had failed miserably, the Congress high command dispatched senior leader Motilal Vora to supervise the rescue operations. But, even as the government struggled to contain the damage, some ministers turned the tragedy into a public relations exercise. During his visit to the state, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had ordered that no minister, except the chief minister, should take choppers to affected areas. Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat ignored it and flew several times to Kedar valley along with journalists in a bid to boost his image. According to an official deputed at the helipad, a chopper had to offload relief materials to accommodate Rawat and two reporters. Local people, exasperated, directed their anger at Kedarnath MLA Shaila Rani Rawat at Nala village. Yashpal Arya, minister for disaster management, admitted that there were problems even though the government was doing its best to evacuate people. “When such a massive catastrophe strikes, one always comes across problems and minor lapses. I'm not defending the government. But while blaming us, one should keep in mind the hostile circumstances under which we are functioning,” he said. According to Arya, the government has pumped in all its resources to rescue stranded people. “So far, the government has rescued more than 80,000 people from different areas and has shifted them to safer places,” he said. Experts say the tragedy could have been averted had the government been serious about disaster management in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region. According to a Comptroller and Auditor General report, the government is yet to convene a meeting of the disaster management committee formed in 2007. “The government did not learn any lessons from tragedies like the Uttarkashi earthquake and Rudraprayag landslides. Natural disasters occur here quite frequently, and people have become used to it,” said environmentalist Avadash Kaushal. A 2001 report by the Space Applications Research Centre and Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad had classified Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Karanprayag, Nandprayag and Srinagar as extremely sensitive and warned of floods comparable to the Alaknanda floods of 1970. The report is gathering dust. Arya, however, insists that the government will work out a comprehensive disaster management plan in the near future. “We need to work in this direction... especially keeping in mind the most sensitive eco-zones in the Himalayan region,” he said. “Our plan will have a 360-degree angle so that it can take care of all aspects and help in avoiding mishaps like Kedarnath.” Expert view Digging, drilling, destroying As head of the Himalayan Environment Studies and Conservation Organisation, Anil Joshi has been studying the ecologically sensitive Himalayan region for years. He attributes the floods to a formidable cloudburst, followed by excessive rains and lack of temperature variation in a particular area. According to Joshi, the disaster should not be seen as a natural calamity; it was strictly man-made. The affected areas were encroached upon and densely populated, damaging the fragile ecological system. “The environment of the area has changed a lot in the past two decades. Temperature has gone up and reckless development has worsened the situation,” he said. Joshi said digging, drilling and other construction activities in the hills had put a strain on the ecology. Developmental activities did not take into account the environmental peculiarities of the Himalayan region. The casualties, he said, could have been averted if the government had a disaster management plan. Even though other parts of Uttarakhand also had received heavy rainfall, most of the deaths were reported from the Kedar valley. Why? “If 20,000 pilgrims assemble at a place that can accommodate only three or four thousand people, such tragedies are bound to happen,” said Joshi. Cloudbursts are a frequent phenomenon in the Himalayan region. But the toll, he said, never goes this high. If the government knew that the hostile weather could wreak havoc, why did it not control the inflow of tourists? asks Joshi. “Unless we have a proper system of forecast and disaster management in place such tragedies will keep happening,” he said. Built to last The flash floods swept away everything in the valley but the Kedarnath temple still stands. Even the idol of the bull Nandi in the courtyard is intact. Wonder why? There is no divine reason for it but rather a practical one. Built with heavy stone slabs, the temple is meant to withstand the turbulent mood swings of nature. Buildings around the temple complex were washed away because they stood on soil. In contrast, the temple has a strong stone plinth and a deep foundation. Rescue act * The Air Force has deployed its entire aircraft class, including HAL Dhruv, Mi-17, Mi-26, Cheetahs and C-130s * It has conducted more than 1,500 sorties since June 17 * The force has rescued more than 13,000 people * It has lost five men in the operation, named Op-Rahat * The Indian Army has deployed more than 8,000 troops * It has evacuated over 25,500 people on foot Nature's wrath * More than 80,000 people were stranded after the flash floods * The worst-hit was the Kedarnath valley, with people stranded all over Rambara, Guptkashi and Junglechetti * Many villages still remain cut off and local people have suffered a loss of lives, property and livestock * As many villages are without electricity and potable water, there is the fear of epidemics * 94 bridges are believed to have been washed away * The estimated loss is more than Rs.4,500 crore