We were born to die.

It is now feared that thousands may have died in flash floods in Uttarakhand due to the recent heavy rains. The sudden early onset of monsoons with torrential rains caught out thousands of pilgrims who visit Hindu holy places at this time because the weather is usually dry and schools are closed. However, mother nature is being blamed when the fault lies with people. Uttarakhand is in the foothills of the Himalayas and the rains come every year in the second week of June anyway so it is wrong to say that they are early. They may have been a little heavier than normal but the real reason for the disaster is the indiscriminate cutting of trees by the land mafia. Since Uttarakhand was carved out of UP land prices have increased by a hundred times. Dehra Dun, the capital, used to be a garden city with beautiful trees, hundreds of years old. Almost all have been cut down to build ugly houses, one on top of the other, so that it now looks like any scruffy town in UP. People are living in unauthorised houses on dry river beds. When a huge volume of water comes down the mountain at high speed either the houses will be washed away or the water will deviate from its usual course to find a new channel. This is what has resulted in collapse of buildings. All politicians in India are corrupt but those in Uttarakhand could take the prize in being especially rapacious. In 2007 Maj Gen BC Khanduri of the BJP became the Chief Minister and proceeded to clean up the administration. He stopped the sale of agricultural land to outsiders, increased the circle rate on houses and clamped down on rampant cheating by construction companies, aided by civil servants, in infrastructure projects. So great was the anger among the thieves that they poured vast sums of money to ensure that Congress won all the 5 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP took fright and forced Gen Khanduri to step down in 2009 and allowed rascals to take over. In 2010 a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General warned that large stretches of the Ganga will dry up if proposed hydroelectric power projects were built. HT, 20 June. It also said that projects had been awarded to cycle manufacturers, paan masala firms and garment manufacturers with no experience of building hydropower, especially in earthquake prone zones of the Himalayas. Too many dams, illegal sand mining, blasting of tunnels and illegal houses blocked normal channels for water to flow in while rampant deforestation means the soil cannot hold any water. This is nothing. The weight of concrete on the mountainside could result in half of Mussoorie to collapse into the Dehra Dun valley. After all we were all born to die. The politicians are just making money of our deaths. So what?