Santa is agitated. “It’s not fair, Banta!”
“Mohan got a road connection to his new house.”
“So did Sohan.”
“But when I asked the engineer to extend the road just a little further up to my new plot, he refused!”
“He said something about dip–slope-angle and unfavourable geology.”
“Just big, fancy words to avoid doing the work!”
Banta picks up a small, flat stone and a handful of dirt.
He goes to a sloping patch of ground and carefully places layers of dirt and thin stones on top of each other, all tilted in the same direction as the slope.
He creates a mini-layered slope.
“Santa, come here.”
“Let’s imagine this is a mountain, and these tilted layers are like the layers of Barfi inside it.”
“These are the natural weak planes in the rock – be it bedding, joints, or foliation.”
Santa watches, intrigued.
“Now,” Banta continues, “the slope of our little mountain here is, let’s say, 20 degrees.”
“And the layers of Barfi inside are also tilted at a gentle 30 degrees.”
“Everything is stable.”
“The Barfi is resting comfortably.”
He demonstrates that the layers are not sliding.
“But to build a road to your plot,” Banta says, “the engineer would have to cut into the base of this slope.
To make the road flat, he has to make the cut face much steeper.”
He takes a stick and cuts away the ‘toe’ of his mini-mountain, making the cut face steeper, say 40 degrees.
“Now look, Santa,” Banta says, pointing to the exposed layers.
“The cut slope is now much steeper than the weak, slippery layers of Barfi inside.”
“What do you think will happen now that the support from the bottom has been removed?”
He gives the top a tiny nudge.
The entire stack of layered stones and dirt slides down along the weak plane he created.
Santa jumps back. “It all fell!”
“The whole slice of Barfi just slid off!”
“Precisely!” Banta exclaims.
“That is what the engineer meant by unfavourable geology.”
“When we cut a slope where the internal rock layers are already tilted outwards, we can create a situation where the slope becomes a perfect, pre-greased sliding board.”
“It is one of the most dangerous conditions for building a road.”
“The engineer wasn’t being lazy; he was saving your plot, and perhaps even the road below, from a catastrophic failure.”
Santa is silent, staring at the collapsed mound of dirt.
“Santa,” Banta concludes gently, “we must accept that the mountain has its own rules, its own sacred geometry.”
“Our desire for convenience cannot, and should not, defy the fundamental laws of geology.”
“There are some places where a road simply should not go.”
“We cannot connect every single house and every single field with a road.”
“We must have the wisdom to know the Lakshman Rekha of safe development, and have the courage to say, This far, and no further.”
“Otherwise, our greed for a road everywhere could lead us to a land of nowhere.”
संता – बंता की इस जुगलबन्दी से आज हमने क्या सीखा:-
- पहाड़ी और विशेष रूप से हिमालय में सड़क के विन्यास को अंतिम रूप देने से पहले भू-वैज्ञानिक व भू-तकनीकी जाँच-पड़ताल अत्यन्त आवश्यक है / Road construction in mountainous terrain requires careful geological and geotechnical investigation before alignment is finalized.
- सड़क बनाने के लिये ढाल के साथ छेड़छाड़ करने ने पहले चट्टानों की कमजोर सतहों व ढाल के बीच के सम्बन्धो को समझना अत्यन्त आवश्यक है। इसके आभाव में किया गया कटान बड़े भू-स्खलन का कारण बन सकता है / Cutting slopes where weak geological planes (bedding, joints, etc.) dip unfavourably towards the valley is extremely hazardous and can trigger large-scale slope failures.
- अवसंरचना विकास के लिये प्रकृति द्वारा निर्धारित एक सीमा है और हमें हिमालय की संवेदनशीलता का सम्मान करते हुवे हर घर, तोक तथा गांव तक सड़क पहुंचने की अपनी महत्वाकांक्षा पर लगाम लगाते हुवे वैकल्पिक साधनो का विकास करना होगा / There are natural limits to safe infrastructure expansion. The notion that every settlement can or should have road connectivity needs to be critically re-evaluated in favour of a more holistic connectivity plan that includes non-road options and accepts geographical constraints.
- दीर्घकालीन सुरक्षा व लोक हित के दृष्टिगत भू-वैज्ञानिक व भू-तकनीकी जाँच-पड़ताल के आधार पर चिन्हित संवेदनशील क्षेत्रों में हर प्रकार की मानवीय गतिविधियों को प्रतिबन्धित किया जाना अत्यन्त आवश्यक है / A scientific consensus on ‘no-go’ zones for road construction based on geological vulnerability is essential for long-term safety.
संता – बंता की यह जुगलबन्दी आपको कैसी लगी, कृपया हमें जरुर बताये
व
इस जुगलबन्दी को बेहतर बनाने के लिये अपने सुझाव अवश्य दें।
हमें हमेशा की तरह आपके सुझावों, प्रतिक्रियाओं व कटाक्षो का बेसब्री से इंतजार रहता हैं औरसच मानिये इसी के आधार पर हम अपने आप में, अपनी सोच व रचनात्मकता में सुधार करने कोप्रेरित होते है।
सो अच्छा – बुरा जैसा आपको महसूस हुवा हो, कमेंट जरुर करते रहें।
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