This article was recently published in the Journal of the Indian Institute of Architecture – a postscript to the disaster in Uttarakhand. To me, the disaster was more of a man-made calamity rather than a natural calamity. We are gravely concerned with the kind of construction that is going on in the mountains. Not just dams, but roads and buildings without understanding the consequences or restoring the damages caused during the process. It is said that we think that Man is the most intelligent being on the planet – How many intelligent beings destroy their own habitat.
errata: in the subtitle of the photos below: the first photo on the left is the photo after recent disaster and the second one on the right is the historic one when the construction was done done in the line of flow of water from the lake above.
