The road crossing through Nachani and Harariya is a lifeline for residents of Bageshwar district and Munsyari block of Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. And Jaman Singh Bisht is the 'recreator' of this main road.
During the monsoon, the Ramganga river floods, causing erosion at the bottom of the hill, often causing the collapse of half of the road. And the other half is blocked by landslides whenever it rains. This means traffic comes to a halt, the commuters are stranded, and the supply chain is cut off.
Bisht, a 60-year-old excavator operator, clears the road and rebuilds it from scratch by cutting down the hills. And he has been doing this every monsoon season for the past decade in Harariya.
On Wednesday, for nearly twelve hours, the Nachani-Harariya road was blocked due to landslides. The river had eaten away half of the road. This forced the local commuters to either cancel plans or climb the mountain and embark on an unsafe journey to reach the crossroads of Nachani village market.
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"There was no semblance of a road here on Wednesday. I and several others had to climb the mountain, take a risky and unsafe journey. But we don't have a choice. That's our life here," Kamla Devi, a cook in a nearby educational institution told India Today.
She added, "One can choose to stay back at home. But many have to buy groceries, there are medical emergencies, and you have to step out to earn bread for the family. We know there are multiple risks to climbing and coming down the mountain and taking the jungle route, but we don't have a choice."
That day, despite incessant rain, Bisht and his coworkers remained at the job. We worked for 12 hours that day. We didn't stop even when it was raining. We managed to open the path around 6 in the evening, Bisht said.
His colleagues added that either there is no traffic in the night, or the locals stop the travellers from embarking the journey if the weather is bad.
Bisht and his co-workers reach the landslide prone zone by six in the morning every day. Using bulldozers and excavators, they begin clearing the road.
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Diman Singh Bhatiyal, who has been working with the PWD department since 1988, is Bisht's helper. While Bisht rolls his excavator, Bhatiyal signals him how and where to move, and more importantly, when to stop.
"He doesn't listen easily to everyone. You have to keep signaling him about impending danger," Bhatiyal said.
On Thursday, as Bisht was expanding the road near the landslide zone along with another excavator operator, the rocks and rubble started to roll down. It was Bhatiyal who alerted the crew.
"He [Bisht] knows the danger and has seen it from close quarters ever since he started working at this site since 2012," Bhatiyal added.
"Last monsoon, while I was clearing the road, a sudden landslide happened. The rocks started to fall from the top. Everything happened so quickly that there was no time to jump from the bulldozer and ran away," Bisht recalled.
"I managed to move my face away. But I wasn't lucky enough that day. The rocks hit my stomach. My co-workers took me to my room. I called my family. My sons managed to reach Nachani. I was taken to a hospital in Haldwani," he told India Today.
He was admitted to a private hospital for eight days. While he risks his life every monsoon to open a path of opportunities for hundreds of locals, tourists and traders, Bisht expressed his displeasure against the PWD department.
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"Ask anyone in these villages, they recognise me, they speak to me respectfully. My work has been recognised and awarded. But my department didn't even check on my health when I was at the hospital," the 58-year-old excavator said.
He ponders at times whether to leave the job and spend the rest of his life with his two sons and ailing wife. But it is the loss of earnings that stops him.
"I started to work with department as a cleaner around 1985. Due to certain circumstances, I was given the responsibility of operating the bulldozers. I went to difficult terrain such as Gwaldam (paramilitary forces cantonment in Chamoli). In 1999, my services were unfairly ended. In 2012, I was reinstated after a court order. But that meant I would not be eligible for the pension scheme," Bisht said.
It is lack of pension availability which is making Bisht take these risks even today.
Meanwhile, Danu, a local journalist, showed wires hanging loose from a dead end of the road. The mountain had caved in. The wires were laid to establish internet connectivity in the area.
"There used to be a permanent all-weather road here. Those wires that you are seeing were underground ones. The Ramganga river's stream eroded the base of the mountain, eventually causing the collapse of the road nearly a decade back," Danu said.
"We have even witnessed days when pregnant women had to be carried in a palanquin because the roads vanish," the Nachani resident said.
There have been attempts by the Uttarakhand government to stop the landslide in this danger zone. However, those attempts seem to be failing too.
Local residents showed us the part of the road where various techniques are used to stop landslides. Welded wire meshes bind the stones together to create big boulder walls. Another green mesh thrown on the surface of the mountain supports plants and grasses.
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"The silt and mud that you are seeing accumulated along the boulder walls is the result of the first heavy rains this year. A lot was talked about this new technique and how it would resolve our problem forever," Mohan Pant, a local commuter, said.
"But it seems, this technique is failing as well. The mesh at the top has been partially torn away, giving way for the silt and mud to slide down."
While this main supply chain for villages between Bageshwar and Munsyari block of Pithoragarh continues to face perils of erosion due to Ramganga and monsoon landslides, Bisht will continue to bring relief, atleast for the next few years.
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