Politicians of all hues of Uttarakhand have been defending
reckless deforestation and dynamite blasting of Himalaya
in the name of development. But the mute question is can development be at the
cost of Himalaya? Green cover is indispensable
for the existence of Himalaya
has been explained by Atkinson in 1882.
Atkinson in vol. 1
part 1 pp. 108-109 of Himalayan Gazetter writes about impact of rain on Himalaya in following words.
“Rains has
had even a more constant and penetrating influence on the mountain masses than
any or the preceding forms,* for it has
furnished the materials from which the ice has been formed and is more
universal in its operations. The salts and acids contained in it have also had
a peculiar action of their own. Rains while falling through the air takes up
some portion of carbonic acid and when it reaches a rock dissolves and carries
away certain portions of its texture. The result of this process is that not
only is the rock reduced in bulk by chemical action but what remains also
becomes more easily operated on by the mechanical action of falling water in
the next shower….For those who have seen the long gneissic range extending from
Almora to Deve Dhura in Kumaon, there could not be a better example of the
influence of rain or rock then is there exhibited. Along the road on each
side where the rock has been exposed to
the whether, the outer layer is
removable by the hand, and at the base will be found a little heap of sand that
has been weathered away in the course of time. Many of the more loosely formed
shales, especially those that contain alum, speedily decompose on exposure to
the atmosphere and it is on this account that in the midst of rocky formations in the Himalaya it is so
often very difficult to obtain good building stone….This waste of rock material
has been in progress for centuries and has produced a soil in which trees have
taken root and shed their leaves to
produce by decomposition and mixture with the waste rich vegetable mould that
overlies our forest clad hills. The presence of these trees has had the further effect of retarding the removal of
the newly formed soil not only by absorbing a portion of the chemical elements
carried down by the rain-water, but also by breaking the force with which the
rain would otherwise fall on the soft soil. Thus we find that of well wooded
hills the depth of useful is considerable and that springs are numerous and
abundant. On the other where the hills have been cleared of forests , the finer
soils are soon washed away by almost tropical rain. The rocks from which the
soils has been formed again appear at
the surface and the rainfall rapidly drains off
leaving so supply for springs, and if the process be continued over any
considerable area, cultivation becomes impossible and the climate is
essentially altered. What deforesting has done for Almora can be seen in its
scanty rain-fall , its barren slopes. And few springs, although the area
affected is so small.
preceding forms,* are glaciers, avalanches, and ice-wedges.
कोई टिप्पणी नहीं:
एक टिप्पणी भेजें