A devastating Himalayan tsunami and a potentially destructive cyber connection

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A week back Kedarnath temple and the surrounding area suffered a devastating natural disaster. While the ancient temple stood the test of nature’s fury, surrounding buildings, shafts and roads were washed away by the gushing water from River Mandakini. The news channels became busy to report the gravity of natural calamity, the human sufferings, the political blames and rescue operations. Some pointed out how the religious pilgrims described the scene as ‘Shiv-Tandav’, the destructing dance of the God. Being fed with stories from Shiv –mythology since my childhood, I was interested to see what has happened to the ancient temple. A search in the Google showed that while the ancient temple and sanctum sanatorium are intact, the calamity was really disastrous. Within days Facebook and YouTube got flooded with still and video images showing roads getting washed away, vehicles both heavy as well as light getting topsy-turvy in the flood water and building constructions moving away like storm wrecked boats. Some of these videos were from local and little known news channels, some were private videos. I was astonished to see the mindset of people who captured these moments. Nonetheless, many news channels were encouraging people to send them photos and  videos of the flood situation and in one way I appreciate this people’s involvement as it is not only cost effective but also it spreads the feeling of remaining connected. But on the other hand, it can prove extremely dangerous and fatal. For instance, I got to see this video where two young men were taking pictures of themselves in the flooded footsteps leading to the ferociously flowing river somewhere near Rambara, the place which was most affected by the flood. The other images that I came across showed similar instances with men, women and children clicking the devastative flood water dangerously flowing in their background. Coincidentally I was reading a BBC report on selfie pictures (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/international/2013/06/130610_social_media_ra.shtml?ocid=socialflow_facebook_hindi ) and I posted my own comments in the comment section too. Never imagined though that there would be a situation so soon which would motivate me to consider the issue.

Then there was this image of flood water almost submerging a tall statue of Lord Shiv in meditating posture, which was shown by almost all the news channels. One should note the comments posted under this very particular scene which was floated in the YouTube by numerous users including news channels themselves. Some of these have every potential to start a religious riot or vicious trolling. Not to end with this, there was this picture of human bridge made by soldiers helping stranded people to move to safer places, which has started getting viral in the Facebook. Undoubtedly the army is doing a momentous job in rescuing stranded people. But my doubt increased when I searched internet for this particular picture. It was not related to Uttarakhand flood, but with some other natural disaster somewhere else. By the time I came back to alert my friend who had got this picture in the Facebook timeline, I got to see many comments. Not to forget what happened last year with the Azad maidan riots in Mumbai and exodus of people of north eastern from South Indian cities including Bangalore and Chennai, which was directly linked to misinformation fed by YouTube videos, I put a small note to my friend regarding the authenticity of the information (related to the Uttarakhand flood) accompanying this amazing act of humanity that is depicted in that particular picture.

It must be noted that while social media can be extremely helpful in times of disasters such as this, it can be dangerously vicious especially when it is used to convey misinformation or when it sets dangerous examples of ‘selfie’ photos to the young users.

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