Traditional practices of Uttarakhand Inhabitants in disaster risk reduction :

Indepth study of traditional resource management practices of the indigenous people of Uttarakhand Himalaya reveals their appreciably advanced understanding of the causes of various hazards. Through their continued keen observation, experimentation, innovation and recordkeeping these people devised techniques of maximizing resource availability while minimizing the wrath of the hazards. These practices are highly relevent even today and hold the key to minimizing losses due to natural hazards in a cost effective and sustainable manner and are therefore required to be studied, documented and dovetailed with modern science and technology. Some of the traditional practices used by local peoples are :

Water management :

1. The people first developed naturally occurring seepages. For this a stone lined chamber is generally created for collecting the water of the seepage and stone with a through hole is utilized for regulated and continuous discharge of this stored water.

2. These people exploit deeper aquifers and the existence of baked brick lined deep dug wells on the ridges at Almora and Nagthat (in Dehradun district) is testimony to this. Construction of deep dug wells in the hills is not possible without assessing water yielding potential of the perched aquifers with high degree of accuracy. This leads to the conclusion that the people of this region had developed and mastered the art of ground water prospecting.

3. With tap water supply becoming increasingly common and loosening of social bonds that ensured their maintenance and upkeep, these water harvesting structures are fast loosing relevance and large numbers of these have already seized to exist. There is thus an emerging need to conserve these structures and undertake detailed study of naula architecture and art of citing these.

4. Forest conservation : They understood the relationship between healthy forest cover in the upper reaches and the water availability people of the region devised ways of ensuring vegetal cover on the upper reaches of the hills. For this the forest in the upper reaches of the hills is often dedicated to local deities and the exploitation of the same is customarily regulated or restricted. In some places the exploitation of this forest is totally banned while in others the same is restricted through a set of rules. Moreover in many instances use of tools and implements for collecting wood or fodder is banned. All these practices ensure extraction of only limited and required forest produce from these areas.

5. For augmenting groundwater recharge the people of this region take recourse to construction of recharge pits in the mid slopes of the hills. These are called chal or khal in local parlance and are generally ditches dug out in the middle slopes of the hill at places with relatively low gradient where rainwater from the upper slopes naturally runs down.

Landslide mitigation :

1. Jungle gool : In order to restrict the build up of pore water pressure, particularly in the identified vulnerable locations these people resorted to disposal of rainwater into the main drainage channel located in close proximity through a network of stone lines canals that are called jungle gool in local parlance. These were constructed and maintained for this very purpose in the upper reaches of the identified vulnerable locations. These helped in maintaining pore water pressure in the identified vulnerable slopes within the threshold limits and thus minimized possibility of slope failure.

2. Terrace farming : Though done primarily for augmenting area under agriculture and perhaps with scant regard to landslide mitigation, terracing has improved the stability of the hill slopes. Terracing is widely recognized as one of the oldest means of soil and water conservation and is still used throughout the world.

3. Unbunded far flung fields : Washing off of top soil of the agricultural terraces is a common feature in the hills during rainy reason and this depletes productivity of the fields exposed to prolonged erosion. Such fields are easily recognised by preponderance of cobbles and pebbles that are left behind. For conserving the top soil people of the area traditionally resort to construction of earthen bunds along the outer edges of the terraces and plant these with vegetation.

4. Habitation on higher ground : Site selection is the most important aspect of the safety of any habitation. It is the first step towards disaster preparedness in mountain regions and the people have to locate their houses at safe places, away from debris flows, flash floods, and snow avalanches. The people of the region settled down at higher locations that were safe from both landslides and flash floods. These locations at the same time provided strategic advantage. During times when internal strife would have been high one could keep track of the movement of the adversaries from these higher locations and ensure safety of the community.

Earthquake safety :

 Communities residing in areas often affected by earthquakes were quick to understand the fundamental premise of earthquake safety that indicates possibility of avoiding loss of human lives in a seismogenic event by ensuring safety of the structures. This led to the evolution of innovative practices for minimizing human losses emanating from structural collapse.

1. Site selection : The inhabitants of this region also do the same and based upon their experience and accumulated knowledge of generations some persons amongst them have mastered the art of commenting on the suitability of the site selected for construction based on physical inspection of the soil of the proposed construction site. Interaction with these people indicates that soil texture, composition, smell and presence of humus and moisture in the soil being examined is taken note of before pronouncing the final verdict.These people are highly respected by the community and their advise is taken seriously. This practice is still observed to be common, particularly in the remote areas.

2. Elaborate walls : Experimenting with the precepts of seismic safety the people of this region mastered the art of meticulously using locally available wood and stone pieces of different shapes and sizes for the construction of the walls of the houses in a manner that improved their seismic performance. Provision of wooden beams is observed in most of the traditional structures together with through stones and corner stones. Both housing and nailing techniques were resorted to in these for joining the wooden components .

Drought management :

1. Most agriculture in the region is however dependent upon atmospheric precipitation and variation in the timing and intensity of rainfall often results in crop failure or depleted production. In response to this problem that has major adverse impact on the well being of the community the people of the region resorted to a practice that assured minimal returns even during times of water stress or pest infestation. The people thus deliberately fragmented familial landholdings in a manner that ensured that all the households have some irrigated fields together with some rainfed. This ensured that all the families have at least minimal returns in case of crop failure in a particular area.

2. Diversification of crops plays a significant role in maintaining long-term stability by minimizing crop loss due to insect pests, drought or other adverse conditions. It also inhibits or suppresses weed growth, produces a varied diet, diverse types of fodder and straw for livestock and preserves soil from erosion on steep slopes. It is therefore highly required that gene pool of different traditional varieties be conserved.

Road accidents :

Road accident is increasingly becoming a major cause of concern for the people of the area and human lives lost due to these surpass that by natural disasters, mostly landslides and flash floods that are common in the region. The area houses a number of high altitude shrines of Hindus and Sikhs that include Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib. People in large numbers thus visit the state every year, particularly during the pilgrimage season that coincides with the monsoon period. Most of these people are not acquinted with driving in the hills. Fatigue associated with driving in the hills together with steep gradient and high sinuosity is held responsible for increased incidences of road accidents in the region. In order to tackle the menace of road accidents the people of the region have lately resorted to construction of temples of local deities at identified road accident prone places. The motorists often stop at these places to pay their regards and those not sopping invariably slow down the speed and bow their heads. The response of the indigenous people thus reduces the chances of accidents at these places.

                   The traditional practices of the inhabitants of Uttarakhand Himalaya suggests that in response to the challenges put forth by nature these people devised ground rules for effective resource management as also for disaster mitigation. Besides maximizing water availability in the rugged Himalayan terrain these people understood the reasons of various common hazards that include flood, landslide, earthquake and drought and devised ways of ensuring minimal losses due to these. Compliance of these rules in government disaster reduction framework, participation of local peoples in policy formulation must  be utilized  for prevention and  mitigate disaster of any form.