On 8th June 2014, two buses carrying students and few faculty members of VNR Vignana Jyothi Intitute of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad on an excursion to Manali, Himachal Pradesh halted at a place near Thalot on NH-21. They were on their way back to Mandi. NH-21 runs almost parallel to River Beas right from Manali to Mandi. The distance between the river and the road varies from a few metres when one gets a exotic view of the river to a few hundred metres when the river is not visible from the road.
So it was that fateful evening when the visitors decided to take a few pictures as close to the river. A few calls exchanged between the travellers of the two buses and the buses stopped near Larji Hydro Power Project (LHPP). Apparently the water seemed to be the closest from this point. However as per media reports the students still had to descend nearly 15 metres to reach water.
Further 15 kms downstream is Pandoh Dam.
About a km upstream at the LHPP the power generation unit received a phone call from the control room in Simla to cut down production from 126MW to 68MW. One generation unit was shut down but then the water level started rising in the reservoir. Further upstream at Aut, it touched the NH-21. Therefore the dam authorities decided to release some water into the river to avoid damage to the Project. The gates were opened at about 6.20pm. The dammed waters gushed out.
The students were totally engrossed in clicking photographs and other fun activities typical to such a young group. Suddenly they found themselves in rising waters. It was all over in 2-3 minutes. 24 young lives washed away. 24 families lose the cynosure of their eyes. How many of these lives had the hopes of their family pinned on them for a better life?
The politicians were quick to get into the act of taking credit for relief work. It was quite disgusting to see the one upmanship being played out between the TRS chief and Telengana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao and the Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu. The HP CM spitting out his two bits asking reporters to check the political leanings of those criticising the lack of warning before the water was released only adds to the disgust. A full scale blame game is on.
Whatever be the outcome of the blame game,what are we doing to prevent such an occurrence taking place again? There are some urgent steps that need to be taken at various levels namely the government,society, educational institutions and most important at the family level.
The government and its departments must be having their standard operating procedures (SOP) to guide the operations. The authorities have to ensure that the staff follows these SOP.
Having said this,there is also a need to identify and mark prospective dangerous areas. Or at least identify the nature of risk/danger and take steps to mitigate the impact. e,g. the Forest Dept has put up numerous boards announcing the presence of tigers in the forests surrounding Kerwa Dam in Bhopal. The visitors are warned and hence they are cautious. Go to any safety conscious project site and you will see warning boards. Cordoning off such areas are also part of safety measures, as in the Metro sites.
While it may not be feasible to cordon the access from the road to the river in this case,warning boards along the road on NH-21 near the river informing the public of the danger in going to the river could have imposed caution on these young free spirited souls and they would have still been with us.
At the educational institutes, inputs on the likely risks to be faced during an excursion should form part of any detailed briefing before the excursion. As someone commented somewhere on the social media that having lived the first 20 years of his life in Himachal, he would never have gone close to the river and more so at 6.30 in the evening when the light is failing. The author goes on to say that he is aware of the flash floods in rivers in the mountains. Creating such awareness in the visiting students could have saved their lives.
Why can't we teach our children to be careful? I hope the teachers accompanying the students tried to dissuade the students from going too close to the river. Only subsequent enquiries and time will bring this out. But even if they did, would the students have listened? I have my doubts. Because we have failed to teach them to be safety conscious.
While we can leave the institutions to do their part, we as citizens can start with ourselves becoming safety conscious and imbuing it in our children or those in our charge as the first step.
So it was that fateful evening when the visitors decided to take a few pictures as close to the river. A few calls exchanged between the travellers of the two buses and the buses stopped near Larji Hydro Power Project (LHPP). Apparently the water seemed to be the closest from this point. However as per media reports the students still had to descend nearly 15 metres to reach water.
Further 15 kms downstream is Pandoh Dam.
About a km upstream at the LHPP the power generation unit received a phone call from the control room in Simla to cut down production from 126MW to 68MW. One generation unit was shut down but then the water level started rising in the reservoir. Further upstream at Aut, it touched the NH-21. Therefore the dam authorities decided to release some water into the river to avoid damage to the Project. The gates were opened at about 6.20pm. The dammed waters gushed out.
The students were totally engrossed in clicking photographs and other fun activities typical to such a young group. Suddenly they found themselves in rising waters. It was all over in 2-3 minutes. 24 young lives washed away. 24 families lose the cynosure of their eyes. How many of these lives had the hopes of their family pinned on them for a better life?
The politicians were quick to get into the act of taking credit for relief work. It was quite disgusting to see the one upmanship being played out between the TRS chief and Telengana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao and the Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu. The HP CM spitting out his two bits asking reporters to check the political leanings of those criticising the lack of warning before the water was released only adds to the disgust. A full scale blame game is on.
Whatever be the outcome of the blame game,what are we doing to prevent such an occurrence taking place again? There are some urgent steps that need to be taken at various levels namely the government,society, educational institutions and most important at the family level.
The government and its departments must be having their standard operating procedures (SOP) to guide the operations. The authorities have to ensure that the staff follows these SOP.
Having said this,there is also a need to identify and mark prospective dangerous areas. Or at least identify the nature of risk/danger and take steps to mitigate the impact. e,g. the Forest Dept has put up numerous boards announcing the presence of tigers in the forests surrounding Kerwa Dam in Bhopal. The visitors are warned and hence they are cautious. Go to any safety conscious project site and you will see warning boards. Cordoning off such areas are also part of safety measures, as in the Metro sites.
While it may not be feasible to cordon the access from the road to the river in this case,warning boards along the road on NH-21 near the river informing the public of the danger in going to the river could have imposed caution on these young free spirited souls and they would have still been with us.
At the educational institutes, inputs on the likely risks to be faced during an excursion should form part of any detailed briefing before the excursion. As someone commented somewhere on the social media that having lived the first 20 years of his life in Himachal, he would never have gone close to the river and more so at 6.30 in the evening when the light is failing. The author goes on to say that he is aware of the flash floods in rivers in the mountains. Creating such awareness in the visiting students could have saved their lives.
We need to inculcate, instill ,imbue into the national consciousness a healthy regard for safety norms. Inculcating safety consciousness in school children from a very early age. But that is possible only if the parents themselves are aware and 'intelligent' enough to impart such education to their children.It distresses me to see even grandfathers with their little grandchild standing in front on the scooter and driving on the wrong side of the road only to avoid driving a few hundred metres extra. The number of parents who drive in this manner is huge.One doesn't need to submit proof to substantiate this point. Minors barely 40 inches tall can be seen driving two wheelers with impunity and the dash of a professional racer in every town/city.
Observe any group of picnickers at a water body. Most of them want to get into the water without understanding the dangers inherent to that place. Every now and then we read reports of minors drowning in water filled quarries.Why can't we teach our children to be careful? I hope the teachers accompanying the students tried to dissuade the students from going too close to the river. Only subsequent enquiries and time will bring this out. But even if they did, would the students have listened? I have my doubts. Because we have failed to teach them to be safety conscious.
While we can leave the institutions to do their part, we as citizens can start with ourselves becoming safety conscious and imbuing it in our children or those in our charge as the first step.
