Another argument that falls by the wayside is that the floods were a result of destruction of forests. Uttarakhand is one of the few states in India that boasts of 65% of forest covered area and that is the reason why it gets abundant rainfall. In the last few years, engineering colleges, IITs, technical institutes and universities have come up in the state that help provide much-needed employment, besides imparting skills to the unemployed youth of the state.

In this colossal calamity, people of Uttarakhand have lost their fields, houses, shops and animals, and they are the ones who will reel under the post-trauma effects, unlike the pilgrims who were saved and ferried back to their hometowns elsewhere in the country. Read More

Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.