MUMBAI, June 23, 2013: Much less than shaking people's belief, the Uttarakhand tragedy has reinforced their faith in the twin forces of Shiva and Shakti. Believers insist that nothing remains intact in Kedarnath save the shrine. The shivling remains crowned by offerings of belpatra. 

Devotees blame the disaster on the fact that the statue of Goddess Kali, Dhari Devi in Kedarnath, guardian deity of Uttarakhand, was removed from her temple a day before the cloudburst. The shrine was being shifted for a hydel power project that now lies in ruins. A similar attempt in 1882 had resulted in a landslide that had flattened Kedarnath. Spiritual seeker Mukesh Trivedi from Borivli sounded a note of caution. Mukeshbhai runs the Shri Sumitradevi Seva Sansthan that works for afforestation in Rajasthan. He says, "Man has abused nature to satisfy greed rather than need, and now it is payback time. We cannot have unbridled construction and hydel power projects eating away at the foundation of hill towns with rocky beds." 

Each time Mukeshbhai visits a pilgrimage site he makes sure not to bathe in holy rivers for fear of adding to pollution. "I am a devotee of Lord Shiva, yet I feel we must reduce the number of pilgrims who visit these shrines. We must revert to the teachings of the sages who instructed us to nurture trees and plants, and care for cows," he says. 

Bandra resident Sainath R, whose sister-in-law Uma Sathnur died on this pilgrimage, squarely terms the Uttarakhand tragedy a "man-made disaster". "We are seeing reports of rampant construction, deforestation and the course of rivers being changed for commercial activity and hydel projects. One can hardly turn away from the fact that this was happening in an eco-sensitive zone. Look what government apathy has cost us," he says. 

Source: The Times of India, DT. June 23, 2013.