Dharali Tragedy: A Foreseeable Disaster Ignored by Authorities
Indian Army carries rescue operations in Dharali village in Uttarakhand! (Image Indian Army, X)
Greed is driving people into death traps in the hills — a reality the villagers of Dharali witnessed within seconds.
By MANISH ANAND
NEW DELHI, August 6, 2025 — With the onset of the first few spells of rains, the Ganga River in Rishikesh gave an ominous warning of raging destructions underway up the hills.
On the banks of the mighty river in Rishikesh, the faithful looked at the Ganga with concerns. The waters in the river had turned muddy. Dark grey waters sped past the banks of the river in Rishikesh.
“The river is now carrying too much of mud and silt. The rains have just begun, and the Monsoon will bring fury for the next three months,” said a woman pilgrim at Rishikesh in the last week of June this year. She visits the place regularly.
The Dharali disaster struck on Tuesday, with flash flood washing away an entire village. Unknown numbers of soldiers of the Indian Army are reportedly missing. A wave of mud swept through the village following a cloud burst.
The mainstream media stopped ground investigations some years ago. But one ground report on Char Dham project by a southern English daily some seven years ago had revealed major dumping of debris into the river beds.
“The devastation video from Uttarakhand is of cloudburst induced silt flow in the river. Twenty million tonnes of excavated soil have been dumped in rivers of Uttarakhand, 56000 trees chopped, blasts all around, all for 12 meter highway of 889 kms,” wrote environmentalist Vimlendu Jha in a post on X.
Last month, the Uttarakhand High Court had asked the Chief Secretary of the state to produce the corruption graph. The extraordinary step had followed allegations of illegal stone crushing activities in Hardwar, right under the nose of the district administration.
Circumstantially, it appears that the contractors have been given a license to run riots against environment in the name of development. Road building norms stay on papers. River beds have become dumping yards of debris.
One doesn’t even need to travel high in the hills to know the scale of rot that has set in. Between Hardwar and Rishikesh, one can find riverbeds occupied by cement mixers and heavy trucks. Tents also dot the riverbeds.
Uttarakhand has a fragile ecology. This fact is known to school-going children. But the political masters seem oblivious of the fact that they are wreaking havoc in the hills.
Indeed, plotting for housing is underway at a largescale in Uttarakhand. Villas are coming up. Rookie realtors are tapping into deep pockets of wealthy in the national capital. Greed is driving people into death traps in the hills — a reality the villagers of Dharali witnessed within seconds.
(This is an opinion piece, and views expressed are those of the author)
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