Man made boon turned into a recipe for disaster in Karnataka

For the 1,500 people of Gopinatham, an obscure hamlet nestling at the foot of the thickly forested Mahadeswara Malai hills in Karnataka, the construction of an irrigation tank was the most important economic development since Independence.Taken up in 1977 at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh, the tank, with a capacity of 70 million cubic feet, was to have irrigated 1,254 acres, lifting the village from the depths of poverty. When the tank was completed last August the villagers watched with eager anticipation as monsoon showers filled it up to its maximum level of 138 feet.In the early hours of October 19, as a storm raged, water poured into the 28-square-mile catchment area of the tank, converting the Yaraki, a small stream that fed the dam, into a roaring river.Within minutes the swollen waters lifted the water level in the tank to 3.9 feet beyond the maximum, and overflowed into the waste weir with typhoon force. The water burst easily through the recently constructed earthen bandh, and raced to the sleeping village two furlongs away at the rate of 11,500 cubic feet per second.Sorrow writ large on their faces the women of Gopinatham mourn their dead relativesThe tidal wave smashed into the hamlet, and within a minute swept away 100 huts, killing 47 people, injuring 33, rendering 300 homeless, and destroying 360 acres of cultivated land. For Gopinatham a nightmare had begun. "Mine was the first house to be washed away," said 45-year-old Rajamma, mother of six. She was dressed in a flimsy, frayed saree and combed her disarrayed hair with her fingers, for the flood had taken away all her belongings.Her lined face revealed the horrifying ordeal she and her family had gone through. "I was sleeping soundly," she recollected, "when all of a sudden I felt myself being lifted from the ground. I woke up and I could only feel not see the water which was dragging me. I tried to hold on to whatever I could reach, but the force was too much. I hit against something hard and hurt my back. I screamed but there was no help. Finally, I hit a branch and clung to it. Everything was dark and I could see neither my children nor my husband. I thought they were dead but God saved them too."Sudden Death: While Rajamma was carried a furlong away by the rush of water her husband and children had been thrown to higher ground and this saved them. She was lucky that her family came through intact. A rescue team in operation: A horrifying ordealOthers like 40-year-old Kanju Perumal, his hand broken, his back bruised, his right leg sprained and his body covered only by a shawl and loincloth, sat weeping next to the graves of his wife and four children.Ironically, the 37 bodies found after two days of search in the nearby Cauvery river were buried where their homes had once stood: a permanent reminder of the tragedy.Sixty-year-old Govindswamy, a wizened old man whose house had survived the onslaught, said that on the fateful night he had been awakened by the noise of the storm and had watched the rain from his door.Around 4 a.m. he noticed that the water level on the cobbled street was only about a foot high. But all of a sudden the water rose to his waist. Said he: "I knew I was in great danger and I was frightened. I could not even scream and stood rooted to the ground."A hut behind his house was washed away, but Govindswamy did not hear the screams of the drowned because of the deafening thunder. "It was only when someone waded to my house and told me that many huts had been washed away that I knew of the tragedy," Govindswamy said with a shudder.Late Relief: Relief measures were woefully inadequate for the stricken villagers, mainly because of the relative inaccessibility of Gopinatham. The village is 250 km from Bangalore and is located on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border.No trace remains of the bandh washed away by waterAn unpaved road connects Gopinatham to the nearest highway, 18 km away. Because of the heavy rain two bridges and a nullah had collapsed, marooning the village. The first report of the tragedy was sent over a forest guard's wireless set in Gopinatham only at 11 a.m., five hours after the waters went on their murderous spree.By the time sand-bag bridges had replaced the destroyed ones it was 2 p.m. Even then a nullah 1 km away from Gopinatham prevented vehicles from reaching the spot. Only 12 hours after the disaster could medical aid reach the village.Karnataka Chief Minister Gundu Rao arrived in the evening in his helicopter. He sanctioned Rs 2,000 each for the bereaved families and promised to rehabilitate them. Initially it was reported that 110 people had been killed but the toll was later pegged at 47.Among these were 35 children and nine women. The army was called in to search for the bodies with two speed-boats: on the first day 25 corpses were recovered and on the next 12. So far 40 bodies have been recovered.A family left out in the open with their few remaining possessionsWhile the Government announced that it would carry out the repairs to the breached tank on a "war footing", it did not appoint any inquiry commission to find out why a newly-constructed bandh wall had collapsed. Nor has any action been taken against the engineers who had constructed the tank.What is all the more shocking is that exactly a month ago on September 19, the same wall had given way around 10 p.m. but fortunately the villagers were awake and immediately repaired the breach.Said Natarajan Mudaliar, a former vice-chairman of the village panchayat: "We had warned the PWD officials that the bandh might break at any time. They had agreed to raise it by three feet and strengthen the sides immediately but nobody bothered to do so."Big Breaches: The earthen wall stretches for 5,400 feet and acts as a guide for the excess water in the tank to drain into a valley nearby. It had actually burst at three spots, each breach being almost 60 feet wide. The first breach had expelled water which washed away a part of the village, the second and third emptied the water into the fields, completely destroying the crops and killing cattle.Said Natarajan: "If these did not give way then nobody would have known what Gopinatham looked like. They saved some of our lives but completely destroyed our crops." A PWD official claimed that the breaches were not their fault. A dead goat being flung onto a pyre: Not enough funds to rebuildSaid he: "The bandh was built only to withstand a pressure of 8,000 cusecs. We never expected it to touch 11,000." Natarajan retorts: "Why didn't they check the rainfall pattern before building the dam?"The villagers also pointed out that the irrigation sluice which may have been able to reduce the pressure of the water was jammed. A month ago when water started leaking through the sluice gates the officials found that they could not operate them. So they dumped sand-bags and blocked the gate.There was no official to look after the tank and check the water level so that the moment it crossed the danger mark, the excess water could be released. The callouseness of the PWD is indicated by the fact that in Kolar district 23 irrigation tanks were said to have burst this year and two lives lost.With the death toll not being as high as initially reported, the Gopinatham disaster, first referred to as 'Karnataka's Morvi', appeared to have diminished in importance in official eyes. On the third day after the tragedy relief efforts had slackened considerably.An injured woman survivor: The nearest hospital was 60 km awayThree unidentified bodies found 4 km away from the, village lay on the banks of the Cauvery untended for two days. A dog ate up half of a child's body.While the state Government has promised to shift the village to a safer place, the 300 homeless are now in dire straits: they live on the ungenerous ration of food that the Government distributes.Forgotten Village: A tragedy of this magnitude should at least have made the Government aware of the village's problems. The nearest hospital is almost 60 km away and organised health care is unknown. The village was electrified only a year ago.Repeated requests for a tar road have been ignored by the Government: such a road may have hastened relief measures. The village has only a sub-post office and to send a telegram the villagers have to go to another village 24 km away. There is only a middle school for children. As for transport, only one bus makes a trip every day.The villagers are very vocal in their rancour. Said Govindswamy: "The Government had really forgotten our village. When the bandh burst many of the officials did not know where we were located. I saw Chief Minister Gundu Rao for the first time in my life. After the deaths we thought they would take some action to improve our conditions but even the relief measures seem to take a lot of time. How can we build our houses when we don't have money to buy food?" With such official indifference, even the ghosts of the drowned might not be able to frighten the Government into action.Photo feature by Bhawan SinghText by Raj Chengappa in GopinathamPublished By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 26, 2013 11:32 IST--- ENDS ---

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Man made boon turned into a recipe for disaster in Karnataka

For the 1,500 people of Gopinatham, an obscure hamlet nestling at the foot of the thickly forested Mahadeswara Malai hills in Karnataka, the construction of an irrigation tank was the most important economic development since Independence.

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