Ladakh – All iz Well

A breath of fresh air. A glimmer of hope in the dark night. Here is some positive news in these days when news are full of scams, scandals, calamities and corruption.

Ladakh is back.

The devastating cloudburst in Ladakh on August 6 was over in a few hours. Yes, it’s true that it destroyed large parts of this spectacular region but the magical town of Leh and most parts of Ladakh have recovered and are safe again for tourists. The cloudburst mainly damaged areas south of Leh. The main market and other adjacent areas, including the hotels and guesthouses, remained unaffected.

The roads to popular destinations were temporarily affected. They are now open and safe for travelling. Tourists have started coming again and they can visit the must-visits in Ladakh: Nubra Valley, Pangong Lake, Tso Moriri and the old monasteries. The Leh-Srinagar and Leh-Manali highways have reopened though the roads remain partly damaged. To travel to Manali, one has to now drive via Tso Kar, Mahe bridge and Chumathang because a part of the Leh-Manali highway is badly damaged. Treks to most of the routes are possible, with the only exception of Lamayuru-Padum and Markha Valley.

The people of Ladakh depend on revenue from tourism. So if you plan a holiday there, you will be doing a big service to the Ladakhi people. The flights have started and Ladakh offers many safe and wonderful holidays till the third week of October.

Visit and Have fun in this beautiful region and in the process help the people.

All iz Well

Bhopal Gas Tragedy – Arjun Singh Confesses

Bhopal Gas Tragedy is the world’s worst industrial catastrophe. It occurred on the night of December 2-3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal. A leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of several thousands of people. Thousands died, thousands were affected and injured by it and several thousands more are still reeling under its affect.

Chairman of UIC , Warren Anderson was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh government. Arjun Singh was he then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Then the great ‘Indian rope trick’ happened, Warren Anderson was allowed to escape from the prison in the private jet of the State government to Delhi and then subsequently to USA. Since then, that mas has never returned to India. It has been 26 years now and no charges have been proved against him as the Indian court requires the person to be present physically in the court to prove any charges against him. The Indian government has not tried to extradite him either.

Allegations were made on Arjun Singh about him allowing Anderson to escape. Even half of the Congress party beleived and blamed Arjun Singh for the mess. The opposition blamed not only Arjun Singh but then Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi. Congress party made all kinds of statements to protect Rajev Gandhi, even saying that the prime minister was not even aware of the arrest of Anderson. However the truth is out today.

Arjun Singh in a rare appearance in Rajya Sabha today confessed that he was the person to arrest Anderson and he informed the prime minister about the arrest, thus proving the opposition right that Rajeev Gandhi was fully aware of the arrest of Anderson. Arjun Singh went on to add that he received phone calls from Central Home Ministry and was thus pressurized in releasing Anderson and allowed him to escape. Thus he passed the buck fully to the Home Minister  P V Narsimha Rao for creating the mess. He of course gave clean chit to Rajeev Gandhi, saying he wasn’t even aware of the details of the case. It is very easy to blame Rao. Since Rao has died and nobody is trying to protect him, thus very easy to blame a dead guy as dead guys do not talk and Rao is not Nehru-Gandhi family.

Bigger qustion is that is it possible for the Home Minister of a country to ‘order’ such a big move without the knowledge of Prime Minister ?? Especially, Rao who would not even sign a simple letter without consultation from big boss Rajeev Gandhi. Is Arjun Singh shielding Rajeev Gandhi and blaming Rao ??

One thing is sure that Congress Politicians grow old and die but they do not stop worshiping the Gandhi family.

Ladakh a Region in Turmoil

Ladakh is one of the most difficult terrain in the world.  Leh, the central city of Ladakh region is at an altitude of 11500 feet above mean sea level. Although Leh does have an airport but air travel is restricted to few people. To reach Ladakh one can either go via road from Srinagar- Kargil or another road from Manali via series of high altitude passes.

I was fortunate enough to visit the place just few months back and one thing I can confirm from the trip is that this is the most beautiful region you would ever find anywhere in the world.

The region receives very less rainfall in the entire year as he rain-clouds do not cross over the Himalayas and hence it is an high altitude desert. Ladakh mostly has people living in small villages with little mud houses. When a calamity like cloud burst and flash floods happen in the region, then the amount of destruction is unbelievable.

As per the reports we read and hear on TV channels, entire old town has been washed away, roads and bridges have been washed away by water. At least 150 people have been found dead, thousand injured and many are missing. Typical tourist season in Ladakh region extends from end of May till middle of September. Considering this is the peak tourist season in the region, there are thousands of tourists stuck in the region. Regions like Nubra, Pangong and Zanskar have many tourists at this time of the year for trekking, river rafting, mountain climbing and other adventurous activities.

On top of this the weather is bad and the heavy rainfall has broken the record of last 100 years. The rescue efforts are minimal as roads leading to Leh are still not usable as bridges have been broken in various places. There is a general scarcity of food, vegetables, milk etc. Air force have deployed several planes and rescue material and help has reached the region but it would be a humongous task to restore the region’s roads, bridges, houses and other infrastructure.

Hearing the news, lots of tourists would now cancel their plans to visit the beautiful place, this in turn will hurt the economy of the place as well as the entire region runs on tourism. The hotels, the adventure guides all would be hurt by this.  The Indian army and its BRO ( Border Roads Organization) unit can construct the washed away roads and bridges, this process will go over couple of months. The time window is short as by September end the killing winder season would begin and then it would be difficult to do any kind of work in region as the entire region is covered in snow by October and even most of the locale people migrate to other parts of country during the winter.

What Ladakh needs is tourists to stay away from it for now because of the calamity BUT more than that it needs its tourists back from next season as tourism is this region’s lifeline, without that the region’s economy will not survive. Before that its needs its roads and bridges and houses back.  Indian army has one big task ahead of it

Irony is that the Indian Army which is a no-no in parts of Kashmir valley and are considered as intruders by the Kashmiri locals and is protested against,  is entrusted with task of rehabilitation of the entire Ladakh region, a part of Jammu and Kashmir state.

Hopefully the region will be revived soon,  roads will be made, bridges will be built and tourist will return next year but it will be a long time till the scars of this mishap will be forgotten.