With the Uttarakhand disaster still unfolding, whispers and murmurs of bad luck and bad omens are already forcing their way out of the cracks of the tragedy. Call it superstition or co-incidence ! Since time immemorial, locals here have claimed that angering Dhari Devi, a form of Goddess Kali, will result in destruction. And their faith has seemingly been avenged, albeit in a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. On the evening of June 16, the idol of the goddess was uprooted from its ancient temple, located near Srinagar (Garhwal), for a hydel-power project. Hours after the idol was moved a cloudburst hit the Kedarnath valley, washing away the entire shrine town and killing hundreds of people.
VHP head Ashok Singhal says, "People staged protest against the hydro power project and opposed the idea of uplifting the statue. Despite this the Dhari Devi idol was removed from her temple on 16 June and placed at the platform created. The goddess exhibited her anger and Kedarnath and other parts suffered damage. The Dhari Devi wanted to teach the atheists ruling this country a lesson and tell them don't touch the Himalayas and its rivers."
Dhari Devi is a much-worshiped goddess of the region. Local people believe that the stone carved deity changes faces - from a girl to a woman to an old lady - as the day progresses. A mythological account says that once a severe flood washed away a temple and Dhari Devi's idol was trapped against a rock near the village Dharo. Villagers heard the wail of the idol and a divine voice directed them to install the idol there. This is the apparent reason behind the stricture not to remove the idol from its designated spot. The shrine is located 10 kms from Srinagar in district Pauri (Uttarakhand).
Downstream the Dhari Devi, construction of the 330 MW Alaknanda Hydro Power Project was underway. Due to opposition from locals, the hydro project - which should have been completed by 2011 - is still nowhere near finished. To top it, once talk of shifting Dhari Devi surfaced, objections to the project started anew. Trying to find a middle ground, the project decided to shift the temple by constructing a platform on vertical beams, away from the power project. The platform was ready but moving the deity was becoming increasingly difficult for the temple committee and the power project company.
Ironically, on 16 June, when the Mandakani started flooding sending waters surging up the steps of the Devi's temple, the temple committee decided to take quick action to save the idol of the goddess. Devi Prasad Pandey, ex-secretary of the Dhari Devi temple committee says, "By the evening the temple was under knee deep water. There were reports that heavy rainfall would take place in the night, so shifting the Dhari Devi statue was the only alternative left. We shifted the idol by 6.30 pm."
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