Tale of two beauties

A tale of two towns, one in Italy and other in India. Both had a cruel end. For the sake of prosperity and in the name of sustainable development these towns today live amongst the dead, beneath water.

Graun village, Italy

The lake is called Lake Reschen and it is the largest lake in the province of South Tyrol, Italy. In 1940, the village of Graun was not able to stop a proposed artificial lake from being built in order to support a hydroelectric dam.

Due to the war, the dam wasn't finished until 1950. When it was finished, they had created a lake that was 72 ft deep and unified two other natural lakes in the area. The consequence was that 163 homes, and 523 hectares of cultivated land were lost! The most fascinating part about this is that you can still see the highest point of the town (a church tower) in the middle of the lake. You can even walk to it during the winter!

Tehri village, India

With water level of Bhagirathi reservoir rising menacingly, one can now only see the historic Clock Tower, built in 1887 in memory of Queen Victoria as well as few remnants of Old Durbar, the seat of the Tehri kingdom. These are the only few remains of what have been left in the town. Old Tehri is indeed history now.

A big lake is forming around the ruins as bewildered residents of Old Tehri gather at surrounding hills to pay last tributes to their town. “We can only mourn for our dying town,” said a despairing Shashi Chamoli, a mother of three, whose house has already sunk into the deep waters of Bhagirathi. And others, who had been settled in and around Dehra Dun, are pouring out their grief by taking out candle-light marches.

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