For the first time, a company in India will have to pay compensation for damage occurring during a natural disaster: the NGT imposes a fine on GVK for aggravating the impact of the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand.
THE June 2013 floods in Uttarakhand wreaked havoc in the Kedarnath valley and in Srinagar town in the State’s Garhwal region. The floods, which killed thousands and destroyed property worth hundreds of thousands of rupees, were indeed a natural disaster, but various manmade factors aggravated their impact. While the devastation in Kedarnath hogged headlines because it ravaged the shrine and killed thousands of pilgrims from across India, the devastation in Srinagar got comparatively less attention because it was limited to a specific geographical area of the town and involved only the people living there. But the impact of the tragedy was no less horrendous: while the gushing floodwater swept away entire areas, a huge amount of silt came down the hill slopes and buried everything that came in its way, houses, institutions, hotels and restaurants. The local people said at that time in hushed tones that the GVK power company, which is executing the Shrinagar Hydro Electric Project in the area called Alaknanda Hydro Power Co. Ltd (AHPCL), was responsible in a big way for the disaster because it was dumping huge amounts of muck and silt on the hill slopes and on the riverbed without taking adequate precautionary measures. This allegation has now been proved conclusively by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). It has imposed a fine on the company for the environmental damage, an unprecedented move in India, which has a history of companies operating with impunity and paying scant attention to the environmental degradation they cause.
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