16 August 2023 : Indian Express
Indian Express
16-August–2023
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1. Extreme weather events in the Himalayas are a warning. Ecology must be respected while planning development.
Topic: GS3 – Disaster Management
Context: The large toll taken by cloudbursts and landslides in Himachal Pradesh is another reminder to respect the Himalayan region’s fragile ecology. At least 50 people have lost their lives as torrential rains hit the state in the past three days making the already precarious hill slopes unstable.
Reasons for such natural disasters
- According to the Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, higher than normal rainfall claimed more than 150 lives in the state between June 24 and July 22.
- Floods and landslides are not uncommon in the Himalayan region. The young mountains are geologically active and the region has a long history of down slope movement of rocks and boulders.
Statistics
- According to the ISRO’s Landslide Atlas of India, all 12 districts of Himachal are susceptible to land slips. But the slopes seem to have become more unstable in recent years.
- According to the state’s disaster management data, the number of landslides increased nearly six times between 2020 and 2022.
Notable Reasons
- Himachal’s Disaster Management Plan attributes this to climate change and the increase in extreme rainfall events.
- Average temperature in the Himalayas is rising faster than the rest of the country.
- Short but intense bursts of rainfall have become frequent in the state, like in several other parts of the country.
Mans’s role in these disasters
- Ecologically-insensitive development has compromised Himachal’s capacity to with stand inclement weather.
- In the past 10 years, the state has gone on a road-widening spree. Sixty-nine national highway projects have been approved, of which five are four-lane highways.
- Although roads and highways are important for the region’s economic development. But such projects must be mindful of the area’s ecological vulnerabilities. For instance, road expansion drives rarely factor in slope stability.
- There is very little planning on what to do with construction debris.
- Even the Himachal Pradesh High Court expressed serious concerns on the unplanned excavation of the hills and poorly executed construction of roads in the state.
Way Forward
- Installation of Early Warning Systems (EWS) that alert people to impending landslides which are at a nascent stage of development in the country can be used.
- EWS systems need to be more efficient in detecting landslides. For instance in Kangra, the EWS failed to alert people of a landslide in the first week of this month.
- Responding to weather vagaries will require paradigm shifts and interventions at various levels.
- The Himachal tragedy should serve as an example for policy makers against delaying such endeavours.
2. Investigating Manipur
Topic: GS3 – Internal Security
Context: The ongoing violence in Manipur has been devastating. Cases pertaining to looting, arson, sexual assault including gang rapes of women, and coldblooded murders has had a detrimental blow for all of us. Even police armouries have not been spared. Thousands of weapons including automatic weapons like LMG, SLRs with ammunition have been stolen. Such attacks are not only alarming and destructive by their very nature but also embolden criminals elsewhere. The concept of “a State” has been challenged by these incidents.
Issues that might be faced by Police in investigation
- As the intensity of the acts of violence and strife starts to subside, the Police now has to start off with the investigations as they would be taken off public order duties.
Having been overworked for months and facing riotous mobs every day, it would take time for officers to switch to investigation mode.
- When the transition takes place in Manipur, the police would be staring at the humongous task of investigating more than 6,000 criminal cases.
- Some of the serious cases will be taken over by CBI who would have the advantage of availing sound legal advice and also services of Central Forensic Laboratory, New Delhi at every step but such facilities might not be available to Manipur Police though intervention by the Supreme Court may lead to some help from other state police organizations.
- Due to emotional trauma, they initially might miss out on important details while recording supplementary statements of complainants while registering the FIR.
- Examining eye witnesses and recording their statements would prove to be a challenging task. Many witnesses come out late to record their statements as they are scared during disturbances.
- Violent riots of the kind that Manipur has faced disturbs not only citizens but even police officers whose response may also become irrational.
- In certain cases the Police officers even quit the investigation and leave it to the trial courts to decipher the actual event and fix responsibility.
- Getting relevant medical certificates from the doctors also becomes difficult as doctors themselves get overwhelmed by huge number of patients and casualties during a public disorder.
- Collection of scientific evidences also becomes tough with huge number of cases as it might take months to collect samples much of which may already get lost during this process.
- Other issues like recovery of weapons, examining audio and video tapes, mobile call data scrutiny would take ample amount of time if the task is not shared with forensic laboratories of other states.
Issues related to arresting the accused
- Arresting an accused during the emotionally charged atmosphere in Manipur could be a highly sensitive task as such arrests often lead to further violence and protests and might spiral out of control.
- With an understaffed police force such tasks become even more difficult.
Steps that should be taken
- While tightening the belt of its own police force, the state has to seek investigating officers including women police officers from other states fluent with the language to record statements and prepare documents.
- Availing services of legal advisors during investigation and special prosecutors for trials.
- Police and prison officials can avail services of special armed forces sent by the Centre for creating temporary lock-ups and jails as custody of offenders may lead to clogging of police lockups and jails.
- Special courts with their staff have to be sanctioned for trials, which are notoriously slow in India. All this would require extra funds.
- Technology can be used to send summons to witnesses on mobiles. Trials can be online except when crucial witnesses are to depose in courts.
- While dealing with issues of bail, bonds of good behaviour as per CRPC can be resorted to.
- Home guards and special police officers can assist investigators in sundry tasks allowing them to concentrate on investigation.
Way Forward
- “Crime in India 2021”, published by the National Crime Records Bureau, shows that Manipur has 56.1 per cent conviction rate in offences under the IPC. Manipur police has to secure convictions or the message would go out that human lives do not matter and police armouries are easy targets; that the “state” exists only on paper.
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