Ecological Land Mines

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"Ecological Land Mines"

Himalayan Land Use and Environmental Degradation

Newspaper article

By: Denis D. Gray

Date: October 23, 2005

Source: Gray, Denis D. "Ecological Land Mines." Houston Chronicle (October 23, 2005).

About the Author: Czech-born Denis D. Gray, the Associated Press Bangkok bureau chief, reports news from throughout Asia. His family fled Czechoslovakia after the Communist takeover in 1948, and Gray spent his youth traveling between France, Germany, South Africa, and the United States. He received a degree in history from Yale University, where he was also enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), and subsequently entered the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. His military assignments kindled an interest in both Asia and journalism. Upon discharge from the army, he returned to the United States and joined the Associated Press bureau in Albany, New York. A series of Associated Press assignments took him back to Indochina, Germany, and finally the Bangkok bureau.

INTRODUCTION

The magnitude 7.6 Kashmir, Pakistan, earthquake of October 8, 2005, killed at least 79,000 people. Another 65,000 people were reported to have been injured and more than 32,000 buildings collapsed. By way of comparison, it was slightly smaller than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (magnitude 7.8) and slightly larger than the 1992 Landers, California, earthquake (magnitude 7.3). The Kashmir earthquake produced waves only 1/100 as large and released energy only 1/1000 as great as the 1964 Alaskan earthquake (magnitude 9.2). Each increment of magnitude, for example from 7 to 8, corresponds to a tenfold increase in seismic wave height and a thirty-two-fold increase in the amount of energy released. According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey, there are on average fourteen earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 to 7.9 and one of magnitude 8.0 to 8.9 somewhere in the world each year. Thus, the Kashmir earthquake was a large but not unprecedented event.

Most of the deaths and injuries associated with the 2005 Kashmir earthquake occurred when buildings collapsed and buried their inhabitants. There were many reports of people swept away or buried by landslides during the days immediately after the earthquake. In other cases, landslides closed roads and hindered rescue efforts in the remote and mountainous region. Gray's article assigns much of the blame for the post-earthquake landslides—as well as many other Himalayan landslides that occur in response to rainfall—to deforestation and overgrazing on steep mountainsides. Gray quotes a young schoolteacher who believed that losses would have been reduced if forests were intact. He goes on to write that commercial logging, small-scale logging by local residents, and overgrazing create erosion and landslide problems throughout the Himalayan region.

PRIMARY SOURCE

'ECOLOGICAL LAND MINES'

JABLA, INDIA—The earthquake didn't destroy Mohammad Shafi Mir's house and bury his mother, but what followed seconds later did—a torrent of bounding boulders that thundered down the mountainside at killer speed.

As he watched in shock from a nearby field, the quake-triggered landslide, resounding like "tank fire on a battlefield," mowed down trees as thick as 5 feet, bombarded houses and enveloped the village with a dust storm that turned day into dusk.

By the time its deadly run ended in the Jabla Nala River far below, nearly half the village's 296 buildings, including the mosque, had been shattered. Only the skeleton of Mohammad's two-story home was left standing, the inside gutted by rocks, boulders and other detritus.

Mohammad's injured mother was dug out from under the rubble and the only other person inside, his leprosy-afflicted father, miraculously survived.

"I had just invested in a new kitchen but I didn't even have a chance to enjoy a single cup of tea in it," said the 35-year-old breadwinner for 14 family members.

Jabla was not alone. Landslides tumbled across the zone of the Oct. 8 earthquake, dramatizing not only the power of one of nature's great killers, but also how humans have brought tragedy upon themselves through massive deforestation and other ecological assaults on the mighty Himalayas.

In Pakistan's quake-hit region, just 1.2 miles from Jabla, landslides swept away uncounted numbers of homes and severed roads, cutting off hundreds of communities which can still only be reached by helicopters.

Mountain slopes were shorn away, exposing gray earth and rubble that still emit great clouds of dust two weeks after the quake. Aftershocks continue to trigger new landslides, hampering efforts to clear roads for relief trucks.

"If there had been more trees we would not have lost as much," said Qayoon Shah, a young teacher, standing by the ruins of the village school. "It is our mistake."

Spawned more often by heavy rains and flash floods during the monsoons, landslides and high-speed mud flows plague the entire "roof of the world," the 1,800-mile arc of the Himalayas that runs through seven countries from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east.

In this once remote region, commercial logging, local felling and overgrazing have exposed rock and soil, making the land less compact and able to retain water, which now rushes easily down mountainsides to set off what some call "ecological land mines."

Adding to the threat are watershed mismanagement, wholesale replacements of natural forest by tree plantations, which don't absorb as much water, and greater, irregular waterflows as global warming melts Himalayan glaciers, said Nithin Sethi, of the Delhi-based Center for Science and Technology.

"The problem is immense and it's a daily one," Sethi said.

"New towns are going up in the mountains, urbanization and populations are increasing, so we are now perhaps more aware of the impact than before."

SIGNIFICANCE

This newspaper article is significant for three reasons. First, it documents some of the devastation that occurred during and shortly after a major earthquake in a remote and impoverished area. Modern science, engineering, and land use planning have effectively reduced the number of casualties expected from large earthquakes in developed countries such as the United States. Third World countries such as Pakistan, however, remain susceptible to natural disasters in which thousands, or even tens of thousands, are killed and injured. Weak building codes, government corruption, poor construction, and a lack of land use planning all contribute to the human cost of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and landslides. The situation is exacerbated in areas such as Kashmir, where steep mountain topography is naturally prone to landsliding and land use planning can be ineffective because there are few areas that are not susceptible to one hazard or another.

Second, the article brings to the forefront the potential of humans to alter their landscape to a dangerous degree. It is widely held that deforestation has been responsible for increased flooding and landsliding throughout the Himalayas, because natural forests are thought to act as sponges that absorb rainfall and prevent flooding. The argument that disasters would not occur if it were not for logging, however, does not reflect the full complexity of the problem because landscapes are not as simple as sponges. Landsliding is a natural occurrence in mountainous areas and, although trees can help to stabilize thin layers of soil, they may not be effective during large earthquakes. Geologic studies have shown that large landslides involving millions of cubic meters of rock occurred before any substantial human presence. Therefore, it is impossible to assess whether deforestation caused a particular earthquake-triggered landslide without detailed investigations. Other studies have shown that deforestation does not increase the severity of very large floods emanating from the Himalayas. Dense forests may, however, decrease the severity of small to moderate floods and tree roots can help to stabilize soil up to several feet deep. Research has shown that land use practices after logging are as important as the occurrence of logging itself, and many Himalayan landslides can be attributed to roads that would exist even without logging. Tree plantations planted after logging, which are typically kept free of understory brush, do not appear to be as effective as natural forests in buffering floods. Although human activities may incrementally increase the severity of hazards such as landslides and floods, it is doubtful that they are the sole cause in steep and naturally hazardous areas such as the Himalayas.

Third, this article highlights the difficulty of responsible environmental journalism during a time of crisis. A local schoolteacher is quoted about her interpretation of a complicated natural system and references are made to unnamed experts. But, the relevant scientific literature is not consulted or weighed against public opinion. The result is an article that accurately describes a tragedy but inappropriately casts blame without adequate evidence.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Achouri, Moujahed, et al. Forests and Floods: Drowning in Fiction or Thriving on Facts. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research, 2005.

Periodicals

Ali, Jawad, and Tor A. Benjaminsen. "Fuelwood, Timber and Deforestation in the Himalayas." Mountain Research and Development 24 (2004): 312-318.

Gerrard, John, and Rita Gardner. "Relationships Between Landsliding and Land Use in the Likhu Khola Drainage Basin, Middle Hills, Nepal." Mountain Research and Development 22 (2002): 48-55.