Traditional Wisdom, Not Modern Technology Will Save Mountains, Says Sonam Wangchuk

Wangchuk warned against 바카라�para- dropping바카라� modern technologies like building concrete structures in the mountains, which will never withstand the impact of disasters, rather can turn into 바카라�killers바카라�, resulting in massive human casualties.

바카라�It바카라�s always said earthquakes don바카라�t kill but buildings do. Same way, disasters will not kill but lack of preparedness, and its impact will certainly kill바카라� he said at the end of two-day Climate Change Conference -2021, organised by Himachal Pradesh바카라�s department of Science, Technology and Environment .

To drive home his point, Wangchuk drew a parallel about two major earthquakes 바카라� one at Haiti (7.2 at the Richter scale) in January 2010 which left nearly two lakh dead and another at Chile (8.8 at the Richter scale) in February 2010 with just 500 casualties, despite this being of a high intensity .

Similarly in Ladakh, which was hit by unprecedented flash floods on August 9 when 1000 people died or got washed away but the traditional mud-houses, built by the locals using traditional knowledge and local social capitals, survived as against massive concrete structures at Leh.

바카라�This is what we have to learn from the experiences and prepare ourselves to reduce the impact of the major disasters. The people in the mountain know disasters will happen thus they are pre-prepared .It바카라�s high time that we should have confidence in the knowledge and wisdom and blend with modern technologies,바카라� he stressed.

The experts participating in climate change conference shared their concern about fast melting of the glaciers, GLOFs, (Glacier Lakes outburst floods) massive impact of the climate changes seen in the mountains and resolved for taking concrete measures ,like setting 바카라�up of multi-hazard early warning system for disaster risk reductions .

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, German Ambassador Walter J. Linear and Director General, National Disaster Management Authority Kamal Kishore are among those who participated in the deliberations.

Anand Sharma former Director, Meteorological Center at Dehradun바카라�the man who had predicted the 2013 Kedarnath Disaster told Outlook that a multi-hazard early warning system is the need of the hour, especially for the Himalayan region inview of increased vulnerability to climate change hazards and disasters.

바카라�But, it has to be followed-up by steps like monitoring and preparedness, strong communication tools to alert the population likely to be affected by the disaster forecasted and most importantly a strong response at the ground. There has to be a complete harmony in all these four steps. Any weak link will render the early warning system a meaningless exercise. This is what had happened in the Kedarnath tragedy. The loss was massive, unimaginable,바카라� he recalled.

Sharma says Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh's high altitude district for example is a highly vulnerable area, besides Lahaul-Spiti, Kullu, Chamba, Shimla, Kangra and Sirmaur. The state must have an early warning system coupled with other measures to prevent disasters and timely interventions.