While a lot of agencies assume that the relief phase is over in Uttarakhand, the ground reality is that it can be over only when all the people are covered. Relief has not yet reached many parts in sufficient quantities since they are as yet inaccessible, primarily due to lack of basic roads that were washed away by the flash flood and cloud burst in June.

Many pockets are still out of reach, and relief can be sent there only through airdrops. So you have to be really innovative and think of ways to reach these places.

This disaster is very different from many other disasters because in most cases the relief process can begin from the second or the third day after the tragedy. But plans have to be made for the long term here. For instance, some areas that were connected till only a few days ago are now cut off. It is the middle of monsoon now and landslides are frequent, which also come with its set of problems.

Besides, we need to understand that we might feel great by giving 25 kg of ration to a family in affected areas and claim that the relief has reached but that is barely sufficient for a few days. We have to address the question, “what after that?”, as neither roads are going to be connected soon nor is employment going to return any sooner.

Transportation
The need of the hour is good transportation – anything available right now costs much higher than normal rates. That is why we did not wait (for transportation) and made our own way by engaging rafting associations, trekkers, villagers and porters. We have so far sent over 30 truckloads of materials in far-off areas. We used porters, local people and smaller vehicles to reach those places.

With roads damaged, many areas like Bhatwari in Uttarkashi are totally cut off. Relief was sent there through porters, who are charging anything between '600 and '1,000 for every 25 kg they carry. But one has to understand it is pretty risky for them – they are trekking six to eight hours and returning. The kind of cost being incurred now shows how inaccessible these areas are.
As for the damage, they are everywhere. The Guptkashi belt, for instance, has seen more deaths than Uttarkashi but the latter has also faced severe damage. Most pilgrims and tourists died in Kedarnath but areas in Badrinath have also seen huge devastation.

Sustained relief
The disaster struck at the peak season for tourists and pilgrims, when locals generate their livelihood and store for the winter. But this source of income for the locals has been severely affected, and people will not start earning till tourists and pilgrims start coming again. The region is directly or indirectly dependent on tourists and pilgrims. But since roads cannot be repaired any time soon, the relief process has to be sustained till the livelihood of people is restored.

While the army and air force have played a major role (in rescue operations), I feel there need to be many more machines to clear the roads to pave the way for smoother and faster delivery of relief material. Even if relief materials are ready for distribution, the process is often halted due to inaccessibility. There is a gap in the coordination of central agencies, and correct and updated information was not available. Several volunteers and organisations had approached the government, (but) the data offered to them was not relevant or updated.

So, updating data should be a priority.

There also needs to be some kind of support from the government till livelihood of locals is restored – besides, a lot of people gave away their ration and food supply to the pilgrims and tourists stranded in the disaster and later faced acute problems themselves.

Post disaster, with most crops destroyed and agricultural lands filled with stone or silt, the supply of material has to be a continuous process. I have said from the beginning that this is an absolutely different disaster, and we do not yet know how long it will take to move out of it.

Relief process
We did not approach the government. The situation was such that people’s needs had to be addressed immediately – it was not possible to attend meetings and discuss possible situations; action needed to be taken immediately.

We are committed to the relief and rehabilitation process in the region for at least two years now and have created a big base in Rishikesh and base camps at Guptkashi and Gangotri in Uttarkashi. We also operated from Helang to help the largely neglected but hugely affected area of Joshimath. Apart from general relief, our focus is on health, schools, solar (power) and livelihood.

We draw succour from a series of successful experiments in Kosi area, where we reached over 300 villages after the floods.

I often wondered when even smaller vehicles were not able to go up why hundreds of huge trucks were being sent by so many agencies, individuals and parties. That’s why everything was stuck on road. The only logical way to operate was to create a hub in Rishikesh, or at the most in Dehradun, and convert big trucks into smaller vehicles from there.

We are doing just that: we have taken over a huge community hall in Rishikesh from the local municipality where we can store about 30 truckloads of relief material. So big trucks go up to Rishikesh, from where materials are transferred to smaller trucks that go up till a particular point. Jeeps are then hired to go farther ahead and finally mules, porters or villagers carry the relief material to the place concerned. Until you break up the transportation of relief materials (in segments), large parts of the disaster-hit areas will remain inaccessible.

For us, the response from people has been overwhelming – right from money and material (received) to volunteers, people have really stood behind Goonj. It’s good to see so much faith. When we chose to go to places that were completely cut off, we tapped the locals and sourced through them. They are our biggest source of information.

Gupta leads the NGO Goonj. He spoke to Puja Bhattacharjee.

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