H I M A L AYA S P E C I A L

30
DownToEarth
1-15 FEBRUARY, 2023

SCIENCE AND ON
FORTNIGHTLY ENVIRONMENT
POLITICS OF FORTNIGHTLY
DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH Subscriber copy, not for resale `80.00

PLANNED
DISA STER
Haphazard
infrastructure
development
Rapid subsidence in the Uttarakhand
town has once again exposed fault lines
in the Himalayan development model
joshimath

has made
the fragile unplanned growth
How much is too much for the
Himalayas even fragile Himalayan states?
more vulnerable
sustainable strategies
Regulate tourist numbers,
strictly enforce environmental
norms for infrastructure projects

01Cover.indd 1 27/01/23 2:35 PM

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 SUNITA NARAIN \ EDIT
Year for dissent and dialogue
2
022 WAS horrible, just horrible. The last year about the need for vaccine cooperation and interdepen-
brought the world to its knees. This was when we dence, has gone back to shoveling dirt and provocation in
started with a sliver of hope. After two years of others’ faces. Our leaders want to accentuate the
surreal and back-breaking events, when the novel differences, not the common objectives to work together
coronavirus had shut down our world, we thought the for a secure future.
worst was over. We hoped that this new phase of recon- But we must change this. This is not a time for war;
struction would be based on the learnings of the past this is not the age for divisions—even those based on our
years. But how quickly all these unravelled. values and views of the world. We need to have a
By mid-February 2022, when Russia invaded common minimum programme that brings all countries
Ukraine, our world became more divided, more together on the only issues that matter for humanity:
polarised and deadlier. The eventful year, culminating how to avert the existential crisis we face and to build a
with the climate conference in Egypt (cop27), had two just and inclusive world order. This is only possible when
dominant trends. we go back to a rule-based system of global governance—
One, the energy market was in turmoil. Europe one that sets rules for the rich and powerful and not just
learned that its energy policy had left it dependent on for the poor to abide by. In the case of climate change,
Russia and that it was deeply vulnerable to this unfold- this means that we must ensure that there are global
ing crisis. So, in spite of all the rhetoric and big talk, the standards of responsibility that are based on nations'
already developed world has gone back to “drill baby contribution of emissions that all must follow—this will
drill”. Let’s be clear that even if Europe sticks to its set a level playing field so that old polluters and new
green commitment—notwithstanding it being re-invest- polluters are all required to do what is then agreed upon.
ed in brown energy—it is bad for climate and, worse, it is Then we need to reorder the financial systems so
really bad optics. How can the emerging world, that is that there is money available to do development differ-
still in the throes of energy poverty, be asked to move to ently. The fact is that the deck is stacked against the
the costly green transition, when at the drop of a hat, the emerging world when it comes to investment in cleaner
rich go back to fossil fuels, including restarting coal energy sources. There is no money; the cost of finance is
plants and mines. They can call natural gas green or high; and high debt burdens mean that many countries
transitional but the fact is that it is fossil fuel and needs pay more than what they even receive in the name of
to be phased out. This part of the world does not have climate gratuity.
any carbon budget left for the use of fossil fuel, even I write this to say that 2023 can and must be
slightly cleaner natural gas. Let’s also be clear that the different. There is no turning away from the urgency of
idea that these investments (like the opening of UK’s the change that is needed. What will make the differ-
coal mine in Cumbria) are somehow carbon neutral ence, I believe, is our ability to speak truth to power. We
because they invest in “offsets”—in most cases paying for need to start calling it as it happens; not because we
trees to be planted in the parts of the world that are want to name and shame, but because we deserve better.
being told to switch off lights—is hogwash, if not The second is about our ability to listen to each other. It
downright immoral. is not that the world is divided; we are divided in our
The second overwhelming trend of 2022 is the impact minds and thoughts. We do not even know that “another”
of climate change. It is now real, in our face, and is exists. Dissent and dialogue are what we must celebrate
devastating every region of the world. In India, our in 2023. We will then build that new world that we all so
report “Climate India 2022: An Assessment of Extreme desperately hope is still possible. D T E @sunitanar
Weather Events January-September” shows that we
have seen one extreme weather event a day in the first
nine months. This number hides the human face,
particularly of the poor, who suffer the worst devasta- Extracted from State
tions since they have to cope with repeated damages to of India's Environment,
their sources of livelihoods. A Down to Earth
In the face of these two trends—growing insecurity annual publication.
of the rich and growing vulnerability of the poor—we To buy this book scan
have seen the worst manifestation of human behaviour. this QR code
The global community, which till last year, was talking

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 3

03Editors.indd 3 27/01/23 2:36 PM

 Down To Earth
Founded in 1992 to arm you with knowledge
critical to shaping a better world

FOUNDER EDITOR Anil Agarwal

EDITOR Sunita Narain
MANAGING EDITOR Richard Mahapatra
CHIEF COPY EDITOR Snigdha Das
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Aditya Misra, Rajit Sengupta
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Arnab Pratim Dutta
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ajit Bajaj
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REPORTING TEAM Shagun,Akshit Sangomla,
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SUB EDITOR Dakshiani Palicha
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Contents
PHOTO EDITOR Vikas Choudhary
PHOTO LIBRARY Anil Kumar
PRODUCTION Rakesh Shrivastava, Gundhar Das
TECH SUPPORT Rajendra Rawat, Jaidev Sharma
MULTIMEDIA Joel Michael,Aishwarya Iyer,
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Kiran Pandey, Susan Chacko,Madhumita Paul,
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CONSULTING EDITORS Anumita Roychowdhury, HIMALAYA SPECIAL
Vibha Varshney

06
Vol 31, No 18; Total No of Pages: 60
Editorial, subscriptions and advertisements: Joshimath at risk
Society for Environmental Communications, Excessive construction in a fragile terrain may
41,Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062, have led to rapid subsidence in the Himalayan town
Phone: 91-11- 40616000, 29955124,
29956110, 29956394, 29956399 | Fax: 91-11-29955879.
Email: [email protected] 16 Clear connection
Data shows disasters on the rise in the Himalayan region
2023 Society for Environmental Communications.
All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in recent decades
in any manner is prohibited. Printed and published by
Richard Mahapatra on behalf of Society for Environmental
Communications. Printed at International Print-o-Pac
20 Reckless planning
Limited, B-204, 205, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase I, New Rapid and unplanned urbanisation has made the
Delhi-110020, India, and published at ecologically sensitive mountain states more vulnerable
41,Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062.
To subscribe, sms ‘dte Subscribe’ to 56070
or visit www.downtoearth.org.in/subscribe
30 Desire for hydropower
Massive hydroelectric projects planned in seismically active
FOR ADVERTISEMENTS Jyoti Ghosh
areas of mountainous regions
[email protected]
FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS
K C R Raja, [email protected] 38 Compound effect
A warming Himalayas and ecological degradation due to
human actions make a deadly mix
H I M A L AYA S P E C I A L

30
DownToEarth 48 Matter of survival
1-15 FEBRUARY, 2023

SCIENCE AND ON
FORTNIGHTLY ENVIRONMENT
POLITICS OF FORTNIGHTLY
DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH Subscriber copy, not for resale `80.00

Sustainable strategies to ensure development of

mountain states
PLANNED
DISA STER
Haphazard
infrastructure
development
Rapid subsidence in the Uttarakhand
town has once again exposed fault lines
joshimath
EXPERT OPINION

Madhav Gadgil l C P Rajendran l Manoj Kumar and Raj Kiran Dhiman

in the Himalayan development model
has made
the fragile unplanned growth
How much is too much for the
Himalayas even fragile Himalayan states?
more vulnerable

l Anil Joshi l Himanshu Kulkarni l Indra D Bhatt l P D Rai

sustainable strategies
Regulate tourist numbers,
strictly enforce environmental

Cover design: Ajit Bajaj

norms for infrastructure projects

01Cover.indd 1 27/01/23 2:35 PM

Down To Earth does not endorse the content of advertise-

ments printed in the magazine. All disputes are subject to
the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums
in Delhi/New Delhi only.

04Contents.indd 4 27/01/23 3:28 PM

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 RESET THE
CLOCK
The rapid subsidence in the hill town of Joshimath has once
again exposed fault lines in the Himalayan development model.
The world's youngest mountain range has incredibly unstable
terrain, a fact often overlooked in planning. Hasty urbanisation,
along with the mushrooming of infrastructure and hydropower
projects, has an undeniable link with the rise in disasters. There
is a need to change course, plan and build better
6 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

06-15Opener+Joshimath.indd 6 27/01/23 3:26 PM

 A report by Raju Sajwan from Joshimath, Uttarakhand, with Rajneesh Sareen, Mitashi Singh,
Shagun, Seema Prasad, Rohini Krishnamurthy, Taran Deol, Himanshu N, Dakshiani Palicha
PHOTOGRAPHS: SUNNY GAUTAM / CSE

and Swati Bhatia in Delhi; Monoj Gogoi in Dhemaji, Assam; Raja Muzaffar Bhat in Srinagar,
Jammu and Kashmir; Tenzin Jamphel in Leh, Ladakh; Mungchan Zimik in Ukhrul, Manipur;
Rohit Prashar in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh; and Dichen Ongmu in Gangtok, Sikkim
Data analysis by Kiran Pandey, Rajit Sengupta, Pulaha Roy and Nimish Gupta
DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 7

06-15Opener+Joshimath.indd 7 27/01/23 3:26 PM

 JOSHIMATH

A
ROUND 2:00 am on January 3,
I woke up from what felt like an
earthquake. Not thinking much of it,
I slept again. In the morning I saw a crack
in the boundary wall of the Jaypee Colony
nearby and muddy water flowing out from
the ground underneath," says Prakash Sati,
an employee at a hotel in Marwadi area of
Joshimath—a small town on the slope of a
mountain at an altitude of 1,800 m in
Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. A similar
event happened on January 12, when a road
in Singhdwar area of the town cracked open
and muddy water started gushing out.
"It is quite possible that the water coming
out is the same that entered the headrace
tunnel of the Tapovan-Vishnugad power
project during the February 7, 2021, flash
flood in the Rishiganga river. If the water
gushing out now was from a spring or an
aquifer, it would be clean. The National
Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, has studied
the water samples and submitted its report
to Uttarakhand State Disaster Management
Authority (usdma) on January 17. But the
government is not willing to reveal the
findings," says Atul Sati, convener of
Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti ( jbss),
an organisation of town residents formed in
2004-05, when the Tapovan-Vishnugad
Hydroelectric Power Project—Chamoli's
biggest hydropower project of 500 MW—
was announced. The project includes an
over 12 km-long and 6 m-wide tunnel from
the dam at Tapovan, a hamlet on bank of explosives were used," says Atul Sati. From
the Dhauliganga river (running along the the Selang village end, too, a tunnel boring
base of the mountain on which Joshimath is machine is stuck since 2012 due to sub-
situated) to Selang village (roughly on the surface water inflow, as per a 2015 study
other side of the hill) passing a little over published in Engineering Geology for Society
1 km under the mountain surface through and Territory. "The developers are using
its cross-section (see 'Obstacle course', p10). explosives to dig a bypass tunnel to reach
During the 2021 flood, millions of tonnes the machine. The National Thermal Power
of water and rubble entered the tunnel from Corporation (ntpc), which owns the project,
the Tapovan end and blocked it. "Since then, denies the use of explosives, but we hear
work was on to remove the debris from explosions every day. The explosions became
that end, for which boring machines and very frequent around January 2-3 near

8 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

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 Chander Ballabh Pandey
says his nine-room house in
Joshimath developed cracks
in December 2022 and is on
the verge of collapse. Apart
from cracks, there are also
reports of water gushing out
from the ground in the town

Parsari locality, located about 5 km from rate of 6.5 cm a year. But the land subsidence
Joshimath on route to Tapovan. All these phenomenon Atul Sati is referring to was
works seem to be responsible for the rapid witnessed between December 27, 2022, and
subsidence in Joshimath in December 2022 January 8, 2023—a period of just 12 days—
and January 2023," claims Atul Sati. when Joshimath recorded a subsidence of
Land subsidence is a known phenomenon 5.4 cm, as per a January 13 report of the
in the area. A study released by Dehradun- Indian Space Research Organisation (isro).
based Indian Institute of Remote Sensing "Slow subsidence up to ~ -9 cm within the
(iirs) on January 8, which analysed satellite Joshimath town is recorded over a period of
images taken between July 2020 and March 7 months, between April and November
2022, says that Joshimath and its 2022. Between 27th December 2022 and 8th
surrounding areas show subsidence at a January 2023 (possibly on 2nd January

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 9

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 U R S E
CO
the
r ivers is ject
E
n d a

L
kna pro
the Ala rdham Yatra

S TAC auliga
nga a n d
r the C
ha

B D h n d e

O a, th e road u
e R i s higang d a bypass
f th an
k m s t retch o wer projects
A 60- ur hydropo
fo
site of
HELANG JOSHIMATH
A village of about A town in Chamoli district
150 houses, Helang of Uttarakhand, Joshimath
is also the site of the has witnessed rapid land
dam of the Vishnugad- subsidence of 5.4 cm
Pipalkoti project and the between December 27,
starting point of a 6 km 2022 and January 8, 2023. RAINI
HAAT bypass road under the Residents say the water Site of the dam
Residents of this village Chardham Yatra project lodged in the tunnel during the of the Rishiganga
were relocated to the that connects the February 7, 2021 flash floods, power project.The
opposite side of the village to Joshimath and explosions and drilling dam was swept
hill to make way for the works to clear the debris, away in the February
Pipalkoti-Vishnugad have caused the subsidence 7, 2021 flash floods
power project

3 Dhauli Rish
ganga
igan
da ga
Alaknan 1
2

A 12-km-long head race tunnel to

carry water from Tapovan to
4 Selang for power generation. The
construction stopped after the 2021
flood in the Rishiganga blocked the
Tapovan end of the tunnel

PIPALKOTI
A village 30 km from
Joshimath is the government's SUBHAI
designated rehabilitation site A third of the
for the displaced residents. It is houses in this
also the site of turbines for the village, 17 km
Vishnugad-Pipalkoti project TAPOVAN southeast of
This hamlet is the site of the dam Joshimath, have
of the Tapovan-Vishnugad Project. developed cracks in
SELANG The dam was swept away in the the past year
The village, some 4 km southwest of February 7, 2021 flash floods
Joshimath, marks the end of the headrace
tunnel. Water from the tunnel will run the
turbines installed here to generate power. HYDROPOWER PROJECTS:
Residents say explosions to clear a tunnel 1. Rishiganga hydroelectric project (13.2 MW):
boring machine that has been stuck in the Destroyed in 2021 flash floods
tunnel since 2012 were frequent till officials
2.Tapovan-Vishnugad hydroelectric power project (500 MW):
halted the work after the subsidence at
Halted due to Joshimath subsidence
Joshimath. Almost all the 150-odd houses in
Selang have developed cracks 3. Vishnuprayag hydroelectric plant (400 MW)
Commissioned in 2006-07
4. Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydroelectric project (340 MW):
Under construction

06-15Opener+Joshimath.indd 10 27/01/23 3:26 PM

 2022 as per eyewitness reports) a rapid
The earth may shake,
subsidence event was triggered. The region but life goes on
subsided around ~ -5 cm within a span
16-31 OCTOBER, 1992
of a few days and the areal extent of
subsidence has also increased. But it is THE FRAGILE ecology of the Garhwal Himalaya witnessed
confined to the central part of Joshimath another season of cloudbursts, landslides
and flash floods—made worse by the 1991
town," the report states. earthquake in the Bhagirathi valley. Floods
The day isro released the report, the in the Garhwal region, through which the
National Disaster Management Authority Bhagirathi and Alaknanda flow, usually occur
asked government institutions to refrain when tributaries flood the main rivers with
enormous quantities of debris from landslides.
from releasing data or interacting with the The Alaknanda valley has been scourged
media, after which both the isro as well as repeatedly by landslide-generated floods...
the iisr studies were removed from the
respective websites. But photographs of
cracks in buildings and farmlands across
the town are testimony to the phenomenon.
Durgaprasad Saklani of Sunil ward area

H
is the owner of one such house. On January ouses in many villages around
3, the administration declared his house to Joshimath have reported similar
be unsafe and asked Saklani, who has a events. A third of the 120-odd houses
wife and two daughters, to shift to one room in Subhai village, situated 17 km southeast
in Pahadi Cafe, 200 m from his house, where of Joshimath at an altitude of 2,600 m, have
a room each has been arranged for displaced reported cracks in the last week of December
families. Overall, the district administration 2022, say residents. "A kitchen wall in my
has got 167 houses vacated in Joshimath, house fell in the first week of January 2023,
as per a January 17, 2023 bulletin issued though there was no earthquake," says
by the District Disaster Management Surendra Singh Rawat, a village resident.
Authority, Chamoli. In total, 849 houses "The government should investigate if
have developed cracks, states the bulletin. construction of the dam at Tapovan is
There are no official figures, but experts causing this," says Prem Singh Rawat,
estimate that the town has some 4,000 another resident.
buildings and a population of 25,000, though Selang village, less than 4 km southwest
Census 2011 puts the population at 16,709. of Joshimath, where the other end of the
Saklani says his house developed cracks Tapovan-Vishnugad project tunnel and the
in October 2021, after a bout of heavy rain hydropower plant is located, also reported
in the town. "I informed the administration cracks in houses in the last week of
about it. There were many families in Sunil December 2022. "ntpc acquired land in
ward and in Chhavni bazaar that reported Selang in 2005. They have emptied out the
such cracks. But the government took no mountain and built a seven-storeyed power
notice. Had they taken steps in time, the plant building inside the mountain, right
widespread subsidence in Joshimath could under our village. Railway tracks have been
have been avoided," he says. Suraj Kaparwan laid on which locomotive trains run," says
of Manohar Bag locality holds the same Narendra Bisht, a Selang resident who
view. "I noticed an opening in my fields on claims to have worked in the plant. "When
December 25. By January 2, it had widened the work started in 2007, there were so
to about two-and-a-half-feet (0.76 metres). I many explosions that several houses in the
had constructed a cemented structure on village got damaged and were repaired by
the edge of my field to undertake commercial ntpc. Some residents even received
laundry operations. The crack has almost compensation," he adds. "ntpc gave me a
destroyed that structure," says Kaparwan. one-time settlement of R1 lakh and a job. But

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 EXPERT OPINION
JOSHIMATH

Curb needless exploitation

Empower local communities to conserve, sustainably use Himalayan resources

T
HE HIMALAYAS, formed weakening the highly efficient
50 million years ago due to van panchayats.
a continental drift wherein The Himalayan region’s
the Indian landmass crossed the watercourses have also been
prehistoric Tethys Sea and silted up by quarrying of
bumped into the Asian mainland, limestone, required for the
are still quite fragile. The construction of roads and
mountain range, whose rocks are buildings. As a result, the beds of
made of sediment from the these watercourses, such as those
bottom of the Tethys, are still in Mussoorie, have become
rising slowly and are susceptible broader and destroyed farmland.
to earthquakes. As the Himalayas The government ordered that
evolved, the slopes were covered MADHAV GADGIL mining be stopped only when it
with vegetation of oak and Ecologist and founder of was concluded that the cost of
rhododen-dron that firmly held Centre for Ecological destro-ying the farmland
the soil and water, preventing Sciences, Bengaluru exceeded the benefits from
erosion or landslides. Human mining. However, the courts put a
habitation spread in this stay on this order and the mining
mountainous terrain and over centuries, tiny continued with damaging consequences.
villages and small towns settled in the plateaus, Projects such as the giant Tehri dam also
leaving the forest cover intact. These communities play a role in exacerbating effects of disasters, as
managed forest resources with care. Joshimath seen during the 2021 Chamoli flash floods,
is one such old settlement. wherein several workers at the Tapovan dam
But the system of conservation and site were among those dead or missing.
sustainable use changed when the British It is evident that people are continually
government ruled India. Those in power were overstepping the Himalayan region’s carrying
solely interested in draining the country’s capacity. Therefore, it is imperative to shift
resources to satisfy their ever-growing demands. focus to programmes of ecological restoration,
The British began leasing forests from the ruler which can only be done through inclusive
of Tehri in 1905. When the reserved forests were development and conservation. To this end, the
being demarcated, some officials reported that people of the region should be empowered. The
these could not sustain commercial forestry and van panchayats should be expanded by
recommended that they be converted into implementing the Community Forest Rights
community managed forests. The government provision of the Forest Rights Act. The local
disagreed, but later introduced a provision in the governments must be given powers sanctioned
Indian Forest Act, 1927, to declare reserved by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments
forests as village forests and hand over their to decide on the use of all natural resources,
management to communities. The first van including streams and rivers. The tourism
panchayats (village forest councils) were industry should be reoriented to support
constituted in the 1930s, in Garhwal and homestays and other services provided by local
Kumaon Himalayas. However, the colonial forest communities, as was the traditional practice.
management regime has continued unabated Nature and people-friendly initiatives are the
even after Independence, progressively only hope for recovery. D T E

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 the job was contractual and the contractor
let me go after the work was over," says A greenscape goes black
Shrikant Bisht, a labourer. Almost all the 1-15 MAY, 1994
150-odd houses in Selang have developed
MEGHALAYA FACES a new threat: the degradation of its air,
cracks over the years, though the damage in soil and water by coal mining. It is damaging the greenscape
most houses is not severe, says Gajendra through indiscriminate felling, excavations,
Singh, a village resident. tunnelling and the dumping of debris. In
blind pursuit of black gold, mine operators
On January 3, Chamoli district
ignore the essential harmony of the
magistrate Himanshu Khurana asked ntpc environment and continue to accelerate
to stop the work on the Tapovan-Vishnugad the pace of mutilating terrain by quarrying
project, and the Border Road Organisation wider and deeper into forests and
cultivable land.
to stop the work on the 6-km Helang bypass
(connecting Helang village with Marwadi
locality of Joshimath) under the Chardham
Yatra project, along the Dahuliganga river,
for which the mountain is being cut.

T
he government has not clarified if residents, therefore, want rehabilitation
Joshimath will survive, but experts near the same sites. In a press conference on
say the chances are bleak. "The January 18, Ranjit Kumar Sinha, secretary,
situation has reached a point from where it disaster management, Uttarakhand,
is quite difficult to save the town. The announced that about 130 displaced families
government should focus on rehabilitation will be rehabilitated in Pipalkoti, a downhill
of the people at another location," says S P village 30 km southwest of Joshimath,
Sati, geologist and head of department of located on the same route to Badrinath as
basic and social science at the College of Joshimath. The displaced families that
Forestry, Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali wish to shift to rented accommodation will
Uttarakhand University of Horticulture be provided R4,000 for rent (for the next six
and Forestry. In a press conference on months) and a one-time payment of R5,000
January 14, Atul Sati of jbss demanded to purchase items of daily use, says a
setting up a New Joshimath town and January 4 order of the Chamoli district
constitution of a panel of experts to decide magistrate. So far, R3.45 crore have been
on a safe location that can last for at least a distributed to 261 families in this relief
100 years. "We are aware of the case of Chai package, as per a January 23 press release by
village on the hill across Joshimath. the Information and Public Relation
Tunnels constructed under the village Department of Uttarakhand.
for the Vishnuprayag hydroelectric plant

T
(commissioned in 2006-07) caused cracks to hough Joshimath residents consider
develop in the houses in the villages. Some the Tapovan-Vishnugad tunnel to be
18 families of the village were rehabilitated the cause of land subsidence, the
in Joshimath in 2006-07. Now they face government seems to deny its role. A Janu-
their second rehabilitation in under two ary 11 letter by Union power secretary Alok
decades," he says. jbss has also asked for a Kumar to Uttarakhand chief secretary S S
fine of R20,000 crore on ntpc and demanded Sandhu, accessed by Down To Earth, says:
that the money be used for the town's "Head Race Tunnel (hrt) of the project is not
rehabilitation. passing under Joshimath town. The tunnel
Joshimath's economy is based on its key is at a horizontal distance of around 1.1 km
location—it is on route to several religious away from the outer boundary of Joshimath
and tourist sites, such as Badrinath, Valley town and vertically around 1.1 km below
of Flowers, Hemkund Sahib and Auli. The the ground level. Construction of the tunnel

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 JOSHIMATH

in this stretch has been done through Tun-

nel Boring Machine (tbm) which causes no
disturbance to the surrounding rock mass."
It further states: "Construction of the tun-
nel in rock mass at a depth of around 1 Km
causes no impact on the surface ground in-
cluding flora and fauna. There are no signs
of sinking around the tunnel alignment at
the overground surface."
The letter also mentions a committee
under the Chamoli district magistrate,
comprising director, National Institute of
Rock Mechanics; director, Indian Institute of
Technology (iit), Roorkee; director, Wadia
Institute of Himalayan Geology (wihg),
Dehradun; and director, National Environ-
mental Engineering Institute, Nagpur, which
concluded, in August 2010, that "there is no
ground evidence of any instability induced by
hrt excavation using tbm".
The letter says that the land subsidence
in Joshimath is an old issue and was first
reported in 1976, after which the government
appointed a committee under then Garhwal
commissioner M C Mishra to examine the
reasons for the instability. The M C Mishra
committee observed that Joshimath is
situated "on weathered, landslide mass of
big un- settled boulders in the loose matrix
of fine micaceous sandy and clayey material"
and the "Probable cause of subsidence/ through Joshimath and nearby villages into
cracks can be hill wash, natural angle of the Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers.
repose, cultivation area because of seepage The A T Nala has a role in “deep cutting and
and soil erosion." The committee recomm- scouring” on the toe of the slope on which
ended "to stop open drain water to avoid Joshimath lies, the survey says. It also says
seepage, closing of soaking pits and constru- that while Joshimath had at the time
ction of concrete sewage line for sewerage." concrete drains spanning 8 km, these were
not maintained properly and let out waste-

S
tudies in the last two decades suggest water collected from households and comme-
that poor civic planning, mainly in rcial establishments, Defence Research and
terms of drainage and household Development Organisation cantonment and
waste disposal, could have played a role in Indo-Tibetan Border Police campus into the
increasing Joshimath’s vulnerability to nalas, which then scoured the nearby
subsidence. A 2006 survey by the Disaster surfaces. Further, the report notes that
Mitigation and Management Centre, an water from streams uphill of Joshimath also
autonomous institute under the Uttara- seeps underground, loosening the soil. The
khand government, notes that there are report recommends pitching all the nalas
nine natural nalas or streams that flow (three of them had been pitched by 2006),

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 The team also observed rainwater seeping
into the ground.
“The rainwater and household waste
water as also that from other sources,
seeping below the ground results in high
pore-pressure conditions in the soil, thereby
reducing the shear strength of the
overburden soil. This is deduced to be the
primary reason of slope instability in the
area around Joshimath,” says the report. In
its recommendations, the report includes
lining of the current drainage systems to
avoid seepage into the ground and proper
maintenance of the system to ensure
disposal of waste water. It also recommends
that setup of a sewage treatment plant in
the area, at the time under construction,
should be expedited.
Both the reports also note other factors
that lead to subsidence, such as natural
erosion of the soil by rivers, floods and
construction, and provide recomme-
ndations to curb their impacts as well.
Suraj Kaparwan of Manohar

I
Bag locality in Joshimath says
he noticed an opening in his n a press conference on January 17,
fields on December 25, 2022,
which has almost destroyed Ranjit Sinha, secretary, disaster
a cemented structure on the management, Uttarakhand, announced
edge of the plot
that research institutes have been asked to
study the subsidence at Joshimath and
submit reports: a 10-member team of csir-
cbri will file a report in three weeks; a
10-member team of the National Geophysical
particularly in areas where they scour the Research Institute, Hyderabad, will file an
nearby surfaces. initial report in two weeks and final report
However, a second report on land in three weeks; a seven-member team of
subsidence in Joshimath, published in wihg will file an initial report in two weeks
September 2022 by usdma, notes that the and final report in two months; a seven
drainage system in the town had not member team of gsi will file an initial report
seen much improvement. Rather, the study in two weeks and final report in two months;
team of scientists from the Council of a four member team of the Central Ground
Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Water Board will file a report in one week
Building Research Institute (csir-cbri), and final report in three week; and the
Roorkee; iit, Roorkee; Geological Survey of Indian Institute of Remote Sensing will file
India (gsi), Dehradun; and wihg notes its initial report in one week and a final
that every site visited during the survey report in three months.
showed improper drainage management, "The chief secretary has already called
with water pipes bent and the natural flow the subsidence a natural disaster; the rep-
of the nalas obstructed due to new orts might reiterate the same. But we know
constructions, all of which did not have a that this haphazard model of development in
proper sewage or waste disposal system. the Himalayas must stop," says Atul Sati. D T E

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06-15Opener+Joshimath.indd 15 27/01/23 3:26 PM

 DISASTER
A DAY

CALAMITY
only one of its 23 districts is on the Himala-
yas. Of the 687 disasters that the country
experienced between 1900 and 2022, as
many as 240 were in the Himalayas.

CAPITAL Consider landslide incidents. Between

April 2021 and April 2022, the Geological
Survey of India recorded 41 such events
across the country. Of these, all but three
Of the 687 disasters witnessed in occurred in Himalayan states. Sikkim saw
the country between 1900 and the highest number of landslide inci-
dents—11, primarily in the months of May
2022, as many as 240 were in and June. Meghalaya recorded eight,
the Himalayan region Arunachal Pradesh followed closely at six
while Himachal Pradesh recorded five. Ac-
cording to nasa’s landslide reporter data,
the region has experienced 1,121 landslide
events between 2007 and 2017.

T
HE HIMALAYAS are an ecological A closer look at the data shows an un-
system naturally primed for comfortable trend. In recent decades, these
calamities. First, being the youngest disasters are occurring more frequently
mountain range in the world, they are and getting more severe, causing a signifi-
highly prone to erosion. Due to continuous cant loss of life and damage to property. In
upliftment of the mountain, the region falls the first six decades of the last century
in a very high seismic zone, and its rivers (1902–1962), the region recorded only five
cut the rocks deeply. Bank erosion is also disasters. Since then, there has been a rap-
extensive wherever the rivers take a sinuous id decade-on-decade increase in disasters.
course. Add to this rainstorms and cloud In 1963-1972, the region reported 11 disas-
bursts that lash these mountains. Together, ters, followed by 13 disasters in 1973-82.
these factors form a setting extremely The last decade (2013-2022) saw the high-
susceptible to natural disasters like est number of disasters at 68, and they ac-
earthquakes, landslides, subsidence, floods,
snow avalanches and even cloud bursting
and forest fires. THE HIMALAYAN DISASTERS
An analysis of data available on the Floods, landslides and thunderstorms
em-dat international disaster database, account for bulk of the disasters
shows that the Himalayan states and union
territories—Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Glacial lake outbursts 2
Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Mass movement (dry) 2
Wildfires 3
Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Droughts 4
Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Assam—
Earthquakes 17
stretching across 2,500 km, account for 18
Extreme temperatures 20
per cent of the country’s geographical area,
Storms 23
but have experienced 35 per cent of the major
Landslides 37
disasters over the last 110 years. The analy-
Floods 132
sis does not include West Bengal because Note: West Bengal, which has one Himalayan district (Darjeeling),
is not considered in the analysis. Source: EM-DAT international disaster database

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 ON THE RISE 157 156

The Himalayan states

experienced almost
40 per cent of India's
disasters in 2013-22 114

Number of disaster events in 97

n Himalayan states n India

68
62 64

1
41 40 39
34
3
12
11 1 6 5 13
11

1903-12 1913-22 1923-32 1933-42 1943-52 1953-62 1963-72 1973-82 1983-92 1993-2002 2003-12 2013-22

Note: West Bengal, which has one Himalayan district (Darjeeling), is not considered in the analysis. Source: EM-DAT international disaster database

counted for 44 per cent of all the disasters While em-dat is the only database that
reported in India (see 'On the rise'). provides such information since the 1900s,
Floods are the most common type of it records only major disasters, defined as
disaster in the region, accounting for 132 of those that have either recorded 10 or more
the 240 disasters recorded since 1903. It is deaths, affected 100 or more people, led to
followed by landslides (37), extreme the declaration of a state of emergency, or
temperature (20) and 17 earthquakes (see called for international assistance. This
'The Himalayan disasters'). Floods (36) have means it does not capture events like the
remained the most common disaster type one unfolding in Joshimath, where houses
even in the last decade (2013-2022), followed and roads are developing major cracks, sub-
by thunder and cyclonic storms, landslides sidence has been reported, but no deaths
and earthquakes. have been recorded so far.
A similar trend can also be seen in
earthquakes. The National Center for Seis-
mology, under the Union Ministry of Earth
Sciences, the Himalayan states have re-
Is the Tehri dam safe? 1-15 JUNE, 1998 corded 2,687 earthquakes between 2009
and 2021, but the majority of the events
A CRACK on a mountain face forming part of the reservoir
of the controversial Tehri dam in Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh, has were of low intensity.
once again cleaved expert opinion on the Himalayan dam’s While no systematic study has been un-
safety. An L-shaped crack has appeared on dertaken to ascertain the reasons for such
the rocky surface above one of the tunnels
S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

DownToEarth growing instances of disasters across the

leading to the dam’s power house. The dam Rs 20.00 JUNE 15, 1998

Himalayas, all evidence point to the unfet-

Bangladesh: Taka 58.00 / Pakistan: Rs 58.00 / Nepal: Rs 38.00 / Sri Lanka: Rs 117.00 / Maldives: Rf 28.00 / Bhutan: Ngultrum 24 / Rest of the World (South): US$ 2.70 / Rest of the World (North): US$ 3.40

TURTLE TRAILS
authorities dismiss it as a mere construction Death by the thousands on the Orissa coast

error. However, it is not known how deep tered and unplanned infrastructure pro-
the crack is. Several non-official experts
SUBSCRIBER COPY NOT FOR RESALE

jects in the region that is already warming

link it to the unstable nature of the rocks faster than the rest of the country and is
and warn of possible future damage due to
earthquakes. No clear policy: where do we go from Pokhran?
highly vulnerable to climate change.
It is time we joined the dots and called a
Nobody’s child: dirty flows the Yamuna
Note of caution: a crack shows up in Tehri dam

spade a spade. D T E

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 17

16-19Devastation follows.indd 17 27/01/23 3:26 PM

 EXPERT OPINION
DISASTER
A DAY

A missed chance to
avert Joshimath crisis
The ecology and carrying capacity of the Himalayan region is not
being adequately monitored despite several warnings

T
CP HE SUBSIDENCE being seen in tored the subsidence, we could have iden-
RAJENDRAN Joshimath did not just happen tified the factors responsible for the situ-
Seismologist and overnight. We have known for a ation and averted the disaster.
adjunct faculty long time that the town is vulnerable to Studies, including the recent space
at National subsidence. In 1976, a report by the com- satellite images shared by Indian Space
Institute of mittee led by MC Mishra, then commis- Research Organisation (isro), have found
Advanced sioner of Garhwal division of undivided that the town has been sinking for a
Studies, Uttar Pradesh, noted that Joshimath while. The January 11, 2023 report by
Bengaluru was sitting on an ancient glacial deposit isro said that the ground surface in
(the report calls it an old landslide zone). Joshimath recorded a subsidence of
The report had warned that the town around 9 cm between April and Novem-
could “sink” if development continued ber 2022 before rapidly dropping roughly
unchecked and recommended minimum 5 cm in merely 12 days in December-
disturbance. Had we measured the car- January. However, the report was pulled
rying capacity of the region and moni- down later as the National Disaster

ILLUSTRATION: YOGENDRA ANAND / CSE

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 Management Authority on January 13 imposed a recognised as a cause for subsidence. In Joshi-
“gag order” on scientists from government insti- math, tunnelling and other engineering projects
tutes, preventing them from interacting with the could have damaged water-bearing aquifers,
media or sharing data on social media on matters leading to leakage of massive amounts of water
related to the Joshimath incident. Such restric- from the inter-bedded clays and silts within the
tions on information flow are self-defeating. So, glacially-deposited sediments on which the town is
from a scientific point of view, we missed the built. This would reduce the pore pressure, caus-
chance to understand the crisis at Joshimath. ing sediment shrinkage and land subsidence.
There are currently many speculations about The Himalayas are home to many rivers, steep
what could have happened. Experts are being slopes and forests. The kind of infrastructure built
deputed to undertake detailed studies to in the plains cannot be built here. We must assess
understand the events that led to the disaster. On whether an area is suitable for construction before
January 10, 2023, Jitendra Singh, Union Minister setting up infrastructure. Building of roads and
of State for Science and Technology and of Earth freeways must be sustainable and not lead to more
Sciences, said the government would install landslides. The region has seen many disasters,
numerous micro-seismic observation systems at and most of them are directly related to massive
Joshimath to investigate whe-ther small earth- engineering projects planned in the area. Such
quakes (with a magnitude of less than 3) and projects impact the environment and destabilise
tremors triggered the subsidence. I do not think the slopes. We must learn from earlier mishaps,
earthquakes caused the current accidents and disasters, monitor
disaster. Large earthquakes, A PLAN THAT the region and devise plans to
which can contribute to land reduce human impact. In 2021,
subsidence, happen when two CONSIDERS THE some 509,503 people participat-
tectonic plates on either side of CARRYING ed in the Chardham Yatra. The
the fault line go up or down with government is deploying mar-
respect to each other. There have CAPACITY OF keting strategies to expand
been no reports of such surface THE TERRAIN IS roads for pilgrim tourism;
deformation at Joshimath.
Micro-earthquake activities
THE NEED OF millions more will visit the
region if high-speed railway and
and slow movement along faults THE HOUR motor traffic is allowed. It will
also contribute to some amount not be easy to regulate them. At
of subsidence in the long run. Only sensors can pick the same time, the Himalayan region is an active
up such activities. In such cases, areas adjoining seismic zone. Damaging quakes could strike the
Joshimath should also have some fault-related sur- region in the future.
face-level changes. But so far, subsidence is An implementation plan that considers the
restricted to the town area. isro’s findings on long- carrying capacity of the terrain is the need of the
term slow subsidence also rule out the possibility of hour, as is a proper land zonation and land utilisa-
any micro-earthquake being the causative factor. tion strategy. We need to strictly implement these
Of course, monitoring seismic activities in the strategies and also listen to people living in this
Himalayas, including Joshimath, is essential. But region for centuries. The government argues that
a different kind of mechanism appears to be at infrastructural development will increase employ-
play here. Some experts from the government-run ment. But the impacts seen now are leading to the
institutes have stated that poor drainage due to opposite; people are losing livelihoods and their
population pressure has impacted the surface run- homes. The best course of action is to suspend all
off disposal and the consequent pressure exerted current massive infrastructural activities in the
by the percolating water, as what would be expect- Himalayas, until a proper impact assessment is
ed in a landslide, could cause fissuring and sink- made and whetted by independent experts. D T E
ing. Across the world, groundwater depletion is (As told to Rohini Krishnamurthy)

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 19

16-19Devastation follows.indd 19 27/01/23 3:26 PM

 UNPLANNED
GROWTH

RANDOM
SPRAWL
How much is too much?
This question should have
been an integral part of the
development plans for the
fragile Himalayan region

T
HE EVER-INCREASING rate and
severity of natural disasters in the
Himalayan region in recent decades
exposes the fault lines in the development
plan for a region that occupies a strategic
position along the entire northern and
northeastern boundary of the country, has a
wide-ranging ecological, socio-economic and
cultural significance and is crucial for
ensuring food, water and energy securities
of the country. But managing sustainability
of these resources appears to have taken a
backseat as region urbanises rapidly but in
unplanned and haphazard ways.
Today, the Himalayas is one of the has seen a 1.5-fold increase in the 50 years.
densely populated mountain ranges in the In places like Uttarakhand, where there
world, with urban centres serving as the are very few flat plains, buildings can be
centres of growth. The "Handbook of Statis- constructed on either old landslide debris
tics on Indian States" released by the Re- like Joshimath or near rivers, explains
serve Bank of India shows that as recently Hemant Dhyani, social expert and activist
as in 1971, only 11 per cent of the Himala- with Ganga Ahvaan, a citizen's forum
yan population lived in a town or city. By spearheading Save Ganga campaign.
2021, population projections based on Cen- “There is no planning to determine the car-
sus 2011 shows that 24 per cent of the Him- rying capacity, or how much [burden] a
alayan population were living in urban ar- small town in the hills can hold,” Dhyani
eas. In absolute numbers, the urban popu- says. As population grew, this exerted pres-
lation has increased over four times from sure on the limited natural wealth like
3.7 million in 1971 to 19.6 million in 2021. springs and forest cover.
This is when the region’s total population Information available on the Bhuvan

20 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

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 Managing the sustainability
of vital and unique resources
appears to have taken a
backseat in the Himalayan
region, which is urbanising
rapidly but in unplanned and
haphazard ways

portal, a geoportal of the Indian Space

Research Organisation (isro) which provides
services such as weather forescasting and Beating retreat 16-30 APRIL, 1999
monitoring, indicates that tremendous land HIMALAYAN GLACIERS, source of water for the innumerable rivers
use changes have taken place in the past that flow across the IndoGangetic plains, are receding. And that
two decades across the Himalayas. Built-up too at a phenomenal rate. As they continue to recede, incidents
areas in Arunachal Pradesh increased by of landslides, changes in river regimes
and floods will increase. But only while the
S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

236 per cent, the highest in the region, from DownToEarth

glaciers last. If global warming is the cause Rs 20.00 APRIL 30, 1999
Bangladesh: Taka 58.00 / Pakistan: Rs 58.00 / Nepal: Rs 38.00 / Sri Lanka: Rs 117.00 / Maldives: Rf 28.00 / Bhutan: Ngultrum 24 / Rest of the World (South): US$ 2.70 / Rest of the World (North): US$ 3.40

2005 to 2021. The state was followed by

HIMALAYAN GLACIERS

of this decline, then we can expect glaciers to

Mizoram (where built-up area increased by disappear one day. In the long run, with large
sections of these glaciers gone, the rivers will
SUBSCRIBER COPY NOT FOR RESALE

162 per cent), Uttrakhand (137 per cent),

dry up. Impacts on the flora and fauna, and
Nagaland (116 per cent) and Manipur (109 the 500 million people inhabiting the great
per cent). This concretisation was accompanied Indian plain are hard to imagine. A major earthquake rocks Chamoli
Malaysia to cull a million pigs
A kala-azar epidemic threatens Bihar

Continued on page 24 >>

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 21

20-29Urban Himalayas.indd 21 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 EXPERT OPINION
UNPLANNED
GROWTH

Certain Himalayan
towns at greater risk
While the entire Himalayan region is fragile, the zones that receive
snow and rain are the most unstable
MANOJ

T
KUMAR HE LAST few decades have The warming climate has the
Former director, recorded rapid and magnified maximum impact in the areas
Geological natural catastrophes across the intermediate between glaciated and non-
Survery of India world, with scientists linking such glaciated terrain—these are the areas
extreme events with global warming. that receive snowfall as well as rainfall.
The Himalayas have recorded such It is pertinent to mention that most of the
calamities like earthquakes, avalanches, disastrous catastrophes, including the
cloud-bursts, intense rainfall landslide Kedarnath floods of 2013, the Chamoli
lake outburst floods (llofs are breaching flash floods of 2021 and the subsidence in
of lakes formed by obstructions due to Joshimath, have occurred in such
landslides), and glacial lake outburst intermediary climatic zones.
floods (glofs are a sudden release of a Such intermediary climatic zones,
significant amount of water retained in a with picturesque glacial landscape and
RAJ KIRAN glacial lake) in their most furious forms; easy access offers a natural choice for
ground studies indicate a warming tourism and subsequent developments.
DHIMAN
climate as the cause. With the sudden change in topographic
Research fellow,
altitudes and availability of perennial
Panjab University
sources of water, such places also offer
the best suitable sites for the development
of river valley projects. But while the
entire Himalayan region is fragile due to
its immature topography under continued
active erosional and weathering
processes, the intermediary zones may
be regarded as the most fragile and
unstable belt on account of the interplay
of glacial and fluvial (dominated by rivers
and streams) processes.
Like Joshimath, most human
settlements in the Himalayas are
ILLUSTRATION: YOGENDRA ANAND / CSE

located on north-to-easterly directed

valley slopes, which see less solar
insolation and are called sun-
shadow slopes. As a result,
these areas have seen
prolonged glacial activity
that resulted in gentler,
deeply weathered slope

22 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

20-29Urban Himalayas.indd 22 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 Imagery by US
GIS software
company
ESRI with
intermediary
topography
and climate
zone in parts
of Himachal
Pradesh and
Uttarakhand
affected by
major natural
calamities

covered with thick fluvioglacial debris (erosion and keeping in mind the historical and existing
deposition of sediments caused by glacial geological, geomorphological and climatic
meltwater). The debris comprises large boulders attributes. It is high time that all the hill area
set in a mixture of clay and pebble-sized rock establishments are geologically investigated to
fragments. Scars of ancient landslides and some calculate the possible risk and hazards, and
amount of creep (slow, downslope movement of soil accordingly fine-tune the existing code of practice
and earth materials) are common on such slopes for building construction. The stability of any slope
primarily due to the permanent wetness of the requires managing the surface and subsurface
ground, however, the areas turn to a “sinking water and gaining an understanding of the
zone” or debris slide due to excessive ground bedrock surface and other geological features as
saturation clubbed with unscientific surficial well as the climatic zone, so that one can plan the
loading, slope modification and toe removal or distribution of superficial load and necessary
erosion. Several areas of Himachal Pradesh, like safety measures.
Kothi near Manali, Prashar Lake Rari village Upslope areas should be investigated for
near Bajaura in Beas valley and Reckong Peo, landslide and avalanche or debris flow, to avoid
Urni in Kinnaur district are on such slopes. deadly incidents like the landslides in Boi and
On the other hand, the south-to-westerly Batseri, Himachal Pradesh, which occurred last
directed slopes on the Himalayas, which see year. Downslope or valley establishments must, at
sufficient solar insolation, are steeper, dissected, the same time, be checked for risk of high-level
rocky, and marred with rock-fall and rockslide. floods due to cloud bursts, glofs or llofs. A policy
Such show talus (loose to semi-consolidated rock mandating geological inputs during pre-
debris) at altitudes suitable for human settlement construction, construction stage and post-
and so are rarely preferred. construction monitoring of proposed or existing
With better construction technology and settlements and projects is also needed. D T E
population increase, the development of (As told to Rohini Krishnamurthy.
infrastructure and growth of settlement is This article is only an abstract form of observations
inevitable on such conducive slopes. Past based on more than two decades of field experience
experiences show that solely administrative and in the Himalayas and literature available on the
civil engineering approaches have not yielded any internet. It is not conclusive in any way and
fruitful results in terms of maintaining requires further research. Any critical site will
sustainability. It is necessary to re-evaluate such require detailed methodical geological and
developmental activities in critical terrains, geotechnical investigations.)

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 23

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 UNPLANNED
GROWTH

by forest loss. Bhuvan satellite data shows Ganga Ahvaan, says the 889-km Chardham
just between 2013 and 2015, Himalayan road project that seeks to connect four
states lost a substantial forest chunk, with religious sites in lofty terrain—Badrinath,
Uttrakhand and Nagaland losing the most; Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri—has
over 200 sq km of forests. caused more than 200 landslides in all the
As mountain slopes lose their protective stretches. She attributes the landslides to
layer due to felling of trees and indiscri- the 10 m intermediate width of the roads
minate construction works, the region that, as per the initial 2018 circular of the
becomes even more vulnerable to landslips, Union Ministry of Road Transport and
landslides and rockslides. On June 30, 2022, Highways (morth), were to have 5.5 m tarred
a massive landslide occurred at Makhuam surface and 7 m width. “In the wake of the
village under Noney district of Manipur, Joshimath disaster, it is pertinent that the
killing more than 60 people. Manipur’s remaining areas in the Chardham project
Directorate of Environment and Climate follow the 5.5 m intermediate road width
Change states that Noney district received rule," Bhanot says.
329.9 mm of rainfall during June, which

G
might have triggered the landslide. But rowing concretisation and loss of
preliminary reports by the Geological forests have also altered the hydrology
Survey of India (gsi)'s Imphal office notes of the towns and cities. Most rainfall
that the landslide was caused by a slope cut is now lost through surface run-off, which
for the construction of the Jiribam-Tupul- has led to drying up of springs and lakes.
Imphal railway, a broad gauge railway line According to a 2018 study by researchers
being built under India's Act East Policy, from Kumaun University, Nainital, 45 per
which focuses on building economic cent of natural springs have dried and 21
cooperation and strategic relationships in per cent have become seasonal, and stream
the Asia-Pacific region. gsi also mentions discharge declined by 11 per cent in the
that the area where the landslide occurred heavily urbanised lake region of the
is a highly susceptible zone, as per its 2019 Uttarakhand district during 1985-2015.
landslide susceptibility mapping. Consequently, the capacity of Bhimtal and
Mallika Bhanot, another activist with Nainital lakes has decreased by 5,494 cubic
metres and 14,150 cubic metres during the
last century because of rapid siltation.
The impact of unfettered infrastructure
development on food and water security is
At NE cost 16-30 SEPTEMBER, 2003 particularly visible in areas thronged by
tourists. Shimla at 2,276 m above the mean
THE CENTRALITY of the northeast (NE) to the ambitious
national electrification plan cannot be overstated, since the
sea level is home to a population of 201,500,
region will be required to generate about 60 per cent of the total as per the Census 2011. The erstwhile
power produced through some 45 mega British summer capital has now
hydroelectricity projects. In the process, S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

mushroomed with dense construction and

DownToEarth vast swathes of the area’s dense forests
SEPTEMBER 30, 2003
Rs 20.00

Modified crops
will be submerged. The latest venture to Unmodified policy
sees tremendous tourist load in the peak
be given the green light is the contentious seasons. So much so, that the town runs out
R6,285-crore Lower Subansiri hydroelectric of water, guzzles energy and experiences
project in Arunachal Pradesh (AP). The tribal
Bangladesh: Taka 58.00 / Pakistan: Rs 58.00 / Nepal: Rs 38.00 / Sri Lanka: Rs 117.00 / Maldives: Rf 28.00

several hours of traffic jams.

Bhutan: Ngultrum 24 / Rest of the World (South): US $2.70 / Rest of the World (North): US $3.40

communities of the entire NE region are

In Leh, the largest city of Ladakh
SUBSCRIBER COPY NOT FOR RESALE

justifiably agitated....
Taxing tribals
Northeast faces nightmare

located at an altitude of 3,524 m, Stanzin

A biopiracy story

Yountan, a hotelier from Yumthang valley,

24 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

20-29Urban Himalayas.indd 24 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 Impact of unfettered
infrastructure
development on
food, water security
is particularly visible
in areas thronged
by tourists

tells Down To Earth, "By now, at the peak of tourism is sustainable, the government has
winters, the entire valley should be not taken any initiative to define carrying
sparkling with snow. But in this part of the capacity of the region or develop policy
town, we have run out of groundwater. guidelines for this, says J C Kuniyal,
There are about 20 hotels just within the scientist at Centre for Environmental Asse-
span of a km radius and every one of them ssment and Climate Change.
has dug up bore wells. I am not sure how to

T
manage the situation in the summers." he problem with tourism is that the
Tourism, particularly pilgrimage tourism, Himalayan towns, rural and peri-
has brought economic prosperity to the urban areas often see the influx of
Himalayas (see 'Tourist flow', p26). In tourists that far outnumber the local
Uttarakhand tourism contributed 50 per population. For example, city-level sanitation
cent of the gdp between 2006-07 and 2016- study conducted by the National Institute of
17. The presence of holy shrines and temples Urban Affairs shows that the areas around
dating back centuries has triggered a series the Nainital and Bhimtal lakes of
of schemes and programmes to uplift Uttarakhand record an entry of 200,000
infrastructure to support tourism in tourists per year, whereas actual combined
Uttarakhand and other Himalayan states. population of these areas is just above
The roads being built under the Chardham 14,000. Similarly, the Devaprayag Nagar
project is one such initiative. Other such Palika in the Tehri Garhwal region sees
schemes include Pilgrimage Rejuvenation entry of 2,000 persons per day during its
And Spiritual Augmentation Drive (prasad) peak tourist months, May to October, while
and Swadesh Darshan. But to ensure that actual population is 3,000. This floating

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 25

20-29Urban Himalayas.indd 25 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 UNPLANNED
GROWTH

population exerts immense pressure on town receives 150 litres per capita of water
water sources and sanitation management supply and that 65-70 per cent of this is
systems. An analysis of a few destinations converted into wastewater, as per guidelines
with high influx of tourists in Uttarakhand, of Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin, millions
Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim by Down To of litres of grey water are forced into the
Earth (dte) shows that most towns do not ground, which is feared to further weaken
have sewerage systems. For instance, only the top soil.
31.7 per cent of households in Uttarakhand "In most towns analysed by dte, the soil
are connected to sewerage system; the rest is clayey, loamy or metamorphosed schists,
depend on on-site sanitation systems. Most phyllites and gneiss. All these are either
households in the towns analysed also have loose soil or weak rocks. As the huge amounts
faulty toilets, from which black water seeps of water and wastewater seeps through the
into the ground and also affects springs— ground, it would make the clayey and loamy
the prevalent water source in the region. soil softer and prone to landslides," says
Similarly, most households and small Sushmita Sengupta of the Centre for Science
hotels are adopting soakpits to manage grey and Environment, Delhi. She says that in
water—wastewater from bathrooms and the fragile Himalayas it is important to
kitchen. In some towns, grey water is allowed understand the soil and rock below to decide
to flow in unlined open drains, which in turn on the type of structures required for
seeps into the ground. Given that each hill managing grey water. D T E

TOURIST FLOW
The Himalayan states and Union Territories have seen a close to threefold increase in tourists between 2001 and 2019.
The tourist population dropped in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
100
n Arunachal Pradesh n Assam n Himachal Pradesh n Jammu & Kashmir
n Manipur n Meghalaya n Mizoram n Nagaland n Sikkim n Tripura
n Uttarakhand l Cumulative number of tourisits (Figures in million) 79 81
78
80

66
63 64
60 61
60 56 55
49
43
41
39
40 36
32
29
26
22 23

20 15

0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Note: West Bengal, which has one Himalayan district (Darjeeling), is not considered in the analysis.
Source: "Handbook of Statistics on Indian States" released by the Reserve Bank of India
26 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

20-29Urban Himalayas.indd 26 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 Across rural India, hundreds of rural women have stepped forward to take
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27Nabard ad.indd 27 25/01/23 11:56 AM

 UNPLANNED
GROWTH

URBAN RUSH
While the overall population in the Indian Total population (million)
Total population projections for 2021
Himalayas has risen by 1.5 times between
Urban Population (million)
1971 and 2021, the urban population has Urban population projections for 2021
increased by 4 times Population density
(people per square kilometre)

Built-up Area (square kilometre)

1 Arunachal Pradesh 2 Assam

2.0 40 35.04
1.53

4 1.0 20
0.39 8.03
0.34
5.37
0.02 0.35
0 0
3 1951 2021 1951 2021

1961^: 4 2005: 126.21 1951: 102 2005: 739.76

11 2021: 18* 2021: 424.6 2021: 447* 2021: 1,308.81
^
Prior data
not available
Note: West Bengal, which
has one Himalayan district
(Darjeeling), is not considered
1 in the analysis.
9 Source: Data between 1951
and 2011 is sourced from the
"Handbook of Statistics on
2 Indian States" released by the
8 Reserve Bank of India.
6 *All 2021 population numbers
are projections released by
5 the National Commission on
Population, Ministry Of Health
10 & Family Welfare. The built-up
7 area is from Bhuvan portal of
the Indian Space Research
Organisation

24%
of the population of
TOO MUCH
TO HANDLE Total Population (million)

the Himalayan states Urban Population (million)

There has been a three-fold
lived in urban areas
increase in the population Population Density
in 2021, up from
density of Himalayan states (people per square
11 per cent in 1971 kilometre)
in the past seven decades

28 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

20-29Urban Himalayas.indd 28 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 3 Himachal Pradesh 4 Jammu and Kashmir# 5 Manipur
8 7.39 16 13.71 4
3.17

4 2.39 8 4.03 2
3.25 0.58 1.01
0.76
0.15 0.46
0 0 0 0.05
1951 2021 1951 2021 1951 2021

1951: 43 2005: 517.25 1951: 32 2005: 447.21 1951: 26 2005: 211.57

2021: 133* 2021: 554.46 2021: 62* 2021: 685.78 2021: 142* 2021: 442.83
#
Includes Ladakh

6 Meghalaya 7 Mizoram 8 Nagaland

4 2 3
3.29 2.19
1.21
0.004
2 1 0.01 0.66 1.5 0.94
0.61 0.20 0.21
0.68
0.06
0 0 0
1951 2021 1951 2021 1951 2021

1951: 27 2005: 301.3 1951: 9 2005: 74.41 1951: 13 2005: 145.91

2021: 147* 2021: 513.6* 2021: 58* 2021: 194.79 2021: 132* 2021: 315.16

9 Sikkim 10 Tripura 11 Uttarakhand

1 6 12 11.4
0.78 4.07

0.5 3 0.04 6 2.95 3.99

0.14 0.64 1.51

0.003 0.3 0.40

0 0 0
1951 2021 1951 2021 1951 2021

1951: 19 2005: 10.21 1951: 61 2005: 273.58 1951: 55 2005: 285.98

2021: 109* 2021: 15.32 2021: 388* 2021: 503.39 2021: 213* 2021: 677.02

HIMALAYAN STATES
1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 2021
18.99 24.65 32.36 41.06 52.01 63.70 75.27 82.50

1.48 2.38 3.70 5.69 8.30 11.38 15.57 19.62

32 42 55 69 88 107 127 141*

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 29

20-29Urban Himalayas.indd 29 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 HYDRO
POWER

JOIN
THE DOTS
Disasters linked to
hydropower projects in the
Himalayan region have
become more frequent in
recent years

W
ITH ITS abundant waterbodies
and ideal topography to utilise the
resource for electricity generation, Construction of a tunnel
the Himalayan region is regarded as the near Haat village, Chamoli
district, downhill from
powerhouse of India. Government estimates Joshimath, for the Vishnugad
show that the Himalayas, with an installed Pipalkoti hydroelectric
project on the Alaknanda
capacity of 46,850 MW, have a potential to river in Uttarakhand
generate 115,550 MW. To tap this potential,
hydropower projects are mushrooming in
the Himalayan arc—till November 2022,
the 10 states and two union territories in
the region, barring West Bengal, had 81
large hydropower projects (above 25 MW) Anjal Prakash, research director at the
and 26 projects under construction, and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, who
another 320 large projects in the pipeline, was also the coordinating lead author
according to the Central Electricity of the 2002 Special Report by the
Authority under the Union Ministry of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Power. This despite the fact that the climate Change, says that most of the existing
and seismic activities in the Himalayas or under-construction projects in the
make its river valleys prone to landslides, Himalayas were envisaged 10-15 years ago
and that the risk posed by such events has and there is a dire need to revaluate these
been aggravated in recent years. In based on current scientific data. Both
PHOTO: SUNNY GAUTAM / CSE

Uttarakhand’s Joshimath town, where eastern and western Himalayan region in

more than 800 buildings have developed India are part of a seismically active zone;
cracks due to subsidence, the government on scientists have been warning of a build-up of
January 5 imposed a ban on construction a major earthquake in Uttarakhand. The
activities, including on the works at Tapovan Himalayas are also one of the world's thickly
Vishnugad hydropower project. populated mountain regions. Besides,

30 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

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 changes in the climate are highly Vishnugad-Tapovan hep, leaving over 200
pronounced today. “The government should dead, and with estimated losses of R1500
look at new science and then decide. Even if crore. Vishnugad-Tapovan had already
it decides in favour of the project, let the suffered recurring damages, due to terrain
local panchayat give it in writing that they fragility, according to various media reports.
are in favour of the project,” Prakash says. On December 19, 2022, a significant slope
Disasters linked to hydropower projects failure occurred at the Urni landslide zone
in the Himalayan region have become more in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh,
frequent in recent years. In 2012, flooding where construction works have been going
in Assi Ganga river damaged the Assi on at the 1,091 MW Karcham Wangtoo
Ganga hydroelectric projects (hep) 1 and 2. hydroelectric plant, according to a 2022
The 2013 Kedarnath floods severely compilation of disasters near hydroelectric
damaged Phata-Byung, Singoli-Bhatwari, projects by the South Asia Network on
and Vishnuprayag heps. In 2021, a rock and Dams, Rivers and People (sandrp), an
ice avalanche entirely destroyed the Rishi
Ganga project and severely damaged the Continued on page 35 >>

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 31

30-37Lust for Hydro.indd 31 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 Y TO
E A D
N S T I T H
U RT W
ies Hydropower Projects
n Te rritor
Uni o eas

STA
n s tates, active ar Operational Under
laya ally
Hima st seismic
Construction
in 1 2 o
p ro jects India's m Landslides (1997-2017)
r
powe ted in
Hydro rgely loca
Earthquake Sensitivity

are la Seismic Seismic

Zone 3 Zone 4

Changthang wildlife sanctuary

Jhelum Indus
Chenab
Gangotri glacier and national park

Chemayungdung
Ravi glacier

Brahmaputra

Sutlej Ladakh
The UT has two
operational hydropower
projects. Another 22
projects are in the pipeline.
It recorded Ganges
23 landslide events Yamuna
in 2007-17 Uttarakhand
Jammu The state has
and Kashmir 18 operational and
The Union Territory five under-construction Himachal
(UT) has 10 operational hydropower projects. Another Pradesh
and six under-construction 53 projects are in the The state has 29
hydropower projects. Some 17 pipeline. It recorded 206 operational and 8 under
others are in the pipeline. It landslide events in construction hydropower
recorded 238 landslide 2007-17 projects. 40 more projects are
events in 2007-17 in the pipeline. It recorded
177 landslide events
in 2007-17

320 81
MASSIVE THRUST Projects in Projects in
There are currently 81 large pipeline operation
hydropower projects in the
unstable Himalayan region, 427
with another 26 under
construction. An alarming
320 additional projects 26
are in the pipeline, which, Projects under
if constructed, will lead to construction
irreparable damages
32 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

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 Arunachal
Pradesh Meghalaya
The state has three The state has five
operational and one under- operational hydropower
Assam
construction hydropower projects. Another 23 projects
The state has
projects An alarming 111 are in the pipeline. It
three operational and
projects are in the pipeline. recorded 38 landslide
one under-construction
It recorded 72 landslide events in 2007-17
hydropower projects. Six
events in 2007-17 Manipur
more projects are in the
pipeline. It recorded 89 Tripura The state has one
Sikkim It is the only state
landslide events in operational hydropower
The state has without any large
2007-17 project. Another 12
eight operational and hydropower projects. It projects are in the
five under-construction recorded five landslide
Nagaland pipeline. It recorded
hydropower projects. Another
The state has one events in 2007-17 99 landslide events
19 projects are in the
operational hydropower in 2007-17
pipeline. It recorded 50
project. Another 10 Mizoram
landslide events in
projects are in the The state has one
2007-17
k pipeline. It recorded operational hydropower
88 landslide events project. Another seven
in 2007-17 projects are in the pipeline.
ungdung
It recorded 36 landslide
events in 2007-17
rahmaputra

Subansiri

Note: Large hydroproject

status as on Novermber 2022,
Teesta landslide data for the period
2007-17. West Bengal, which
has one Himalayan district
(Darjeeling), is not considered
in the analysis.
Source: Central Electricity
Authority; NASA Landslide
Reporter, Natural Earth, Open
Street Maps, Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission and
National Center for Seismology

155 161
CRASHED 193 182
The 12 Himalayan states 115
and Union Territories 89
saw a massive 1,121 62 64
landslides between 42 38
2007 and 2017 20

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 33

30-37Lust for Hydro.indd 33 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 EXPERT OPINION
HYDRO

Stop excessive,
POWER

aggressive development
Incidents such as Joshimath subsidence will continue to occur if policy
approaches do not change

W
HAT IS happening in Joshimath. About 25 years ago,
Joshimath may happen cracks appeared and the land
anywhere across the started sinking. To build
Himalayas. The mountain range resilience, the residents built a
formed 50 million years ago—a stone wall along the river, which
relatively recent event on the stabilised soil in the area.
geological timescale—is settled These cases show that nature
on landslide debris and is rising is a great healer too and if we
at 10 mm a year. Despite erosion understand science and nature,
caused by rivers and human we can strike a balance. The
activities, it will continue to rise. sinking in Joshimath will also
That is the reason for its shifting continue to a point and, if we do
soils and heavy land subsidence. ANIL PRAKASH not disturb the mountain further,
Infrastructure projects, such JOSHI it will sustain the pressure.
as roads and hydroelectric power Founder of Himalayan We should have a better
stations, have accelerated the Environmental Studies and understanding of nature, its load-
erosion over decades, resulting in Conservation Organization bearing capacity. The residents
the sinking of the landmass. The cannot be denied development
situation with Joshimath is because of the incidents. But
similar to that faced by all big Himalayan instead of building 20-50 km of roads a month,
landmasses that act as watershed and catchment why cannot we build 2 km? Earlier, roads were
areas, with rivers flowing through the gorges built manually; now heavy machines are used,
below. In Joshimath, the Alaknanda river flows which disturb the ecosystem. The process of
under the village causing rampant erosion. It development has to be redefined at the policy
should be noted that 35 per cent of Joshimath is level. It can be broken into smaller streams and
sinking while more than 50 per cent remains local stakeholders be involved. Vulnerable
intact, where life is normal. The fracture has structures that get washed away in flash floods,
appeared across a line that may likely result in must not be constructed. Local geography needs
sinking the remaining 65 per cent of Joshimath to be considered for every aspect of development.
as well. Joshimath gained attention because of The solution is to understand the science of
the heavy settlement on it. There may be many nature, not just use science for development.
places in the mountain range, unnoticed, where The true meaning of Uttarakhand and its
human-made erosion continues. development will be achieved only when the
About a decade ago, a massive landslide was Himalayan ecology, economy, resources are used
reported from Uttarkashi mountain (also called keeping in mind the fragility of the zone. The
Varunamath mountain), which threatened the niti Aayog can chalk out a path keeping in mind
entire region. It is now stable and infrastructure the many factors required to maintain the
continues to develop. Another case is of Anamath Himalayan ecosystem. D T E
and Painymath, which is similar to present-day (As told to Himanshu N)

34 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

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 informal network of organisations and
individuals working on water sector issues, Pollution prototype 16-30 APRIL, 2005
including large dams. Located on the banks
HIMACHAL PRADESH may soon have an industrial zone in
of the Sutlej river, “the Urni landslide has each district, given the scale on which the state government
evolved into a complex landslide in the last is playing Santa Claus to investors. Industries are heading
two decades (2000-2016), and has dammed for this tax haven to grab the bundle
the Sutlej partially since 2013, damaging of goodies: a 100 per cent income tax S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

DownToEarth holiday for the first five years, 30 per

APRIL 30, 2005

Rs 20.00
about 200 m of the National Highway-5,” cent for the next five and 25 per cent for
states a study by researchers with the CAPITAL DRAIN the five years thereafter. Plus a 15 per
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and cent capital subsidy for purchase of plots
How to transform the Yamuna into a river again

and machinery, a slew of exemptions on

Bangladesh: Taka 58.00 / Pakistan: Rs 58.00 / Nepal: Rs 38.00 / Sri Lanka: Rs 117.00 / Maldives: Rf 28.00
the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing,

Bhutan: Ngultrum 24 / Rest of the World (South): US $2.70 / Rest of the World (North): US $3.40
electricity duty and so on. Already, in the
both located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. last two years, the state government drew
Reliance rapped

SUBSCRIBER COPY NOT FOR RESALE

Ozone threatens Ganga basin
Healthy peels

These landslide dams usually result in investments of R8,869 crore.

impounding of lakes, landslide lake outburst
flood, secondary landslides, channel
avulsion and formation of flood terraces in
the downstream region, affecting the the dam site, triggering panic and protests.
downstream community and infrastructure, The 2022 compilation report by sandrp
states the report, published in March 2019 shows that hydropower projects act as force
issue of Geoscience Frontiers. The study multipliers when cloud bursts happen close
warns that the slope exhibits further failure to them. In 2021, at least 11 hydropower
potential since rainfall storms are most projects (four each in Uttarakhand and
influential trigger for complex landslides. Himachal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and
In July, flash floods following cloud burst one in Ladakh) had faced cloud burst-
in Malana village in Himachal Pradesh’s induced deluge and damages in lesser or
Parvati valley and another near Choj greater degrees. Sushil Goswami, retired
village, about 15 km away, damaged the 100 professor and head in the department of
MW Malana II hep and led to four-five applied geology at Dibrugarh University in
deaths, according to officials. Assam, says landslides cause huge
In Arunachal Pradesh, whose waters devastation if they occur on the reservoirs.
have the highest hydropower potential (34 Hydropower project developers should,
per cent) in the country, as per India therefore, create slope stability map, identify
Hydropower Policy 2008 document, a series vulnerable portions and demarcate the
of disasters have marred construction works reservoir area. “No such exercise has been
at the 2,000 MW Lower Subansiri hep being done for dams in Arunachal Pradesh, even
built by public-sector undertaking (psu) though three-fourths of the state is highly
National Hydro Power Corporation (nhpc)— prone to landslides,” says Goswami.
the largest run-of-the-river hydropower Following the Kedarnath flash floods of
project under construction in the country. 2013 that killed at least 5,000 people, the
The project is likely to be commissioned this Supreme Court had imposed a moratorium
year. In 2022 alone, following heavy rains in on development of hydropower projects in
June, water overflowed from the dam and Uttarakhand pending a review by the Union
inundated about 100 villages in the environment ministry on the role such
downstream state Assam. In September, a projects had played in amplifying the
flood struck the dam site following incessant disaster. Led by environmentalist Ravi
rainfall in the upstream areas and caused Chopra, a 17-member expert committee was
parts of the tunnel to collapse, prompting set up by the ministry to examine the role of
protests by the All Assam Students’ Union 24 such hydropower projects in the
that demanded scrapping of the project. In Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basin, which
October, two major landslides occurred at contains the Ganga and several tributaries.

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 35

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 HYDRO
POWER

The committee had concluded an “irreve-

rsible impact” on the ecology of the region by
23 projects. Another committee, led by
Vinod Tare of the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur also concluded that
these projects could have a significant
environmental impact. However, even after
30 hearings in the case since then, a clear
policy of the government on hydropower
projects remains elusive.

A
nalysts say most hydropower plants
being built in the Himalayas,
particularly in its upper reaches, now
follow run-of-the-river design, which appear
to have low environmental impact. Unlike
conventional hydroelectric plants with an
impoundment facility (which typically uses a
large dam to store river water in reservoir),
run-of-the-river projects do not require
large-scale displacement of people, forest
diversion or land to be submerged. But in
such projects, the impacts are only delayed.
“The design of such projects are such
that you dam the water and divert it into a
tunnel drilled underground, give it a steep
slope and wherever the tunnel opens back
on the river bed you build a turbine
powerhouse over there. The river, instead of
flowing on the river bed will flow in this
tunnel,” says environmental activist Manshi
Asher, with Himdhara, an environmental As projects are planned bumper-to-
research and action collective based bumper on a river course, with the tail of
Himachal Pradesh. She was part of a dossier one project being the head of the next
prepared by Himdhara, an environmental project, the same mountain range is drilled
research and action collective, on the hidden without a break. “The cumulative impacts
impacts of the disturbances triggered by of such projects are not just geological but
construction of tunnels and other also social. When underground springs
underground components of hydropower start disappearing, irrigation and
projects. “But when you are doing drinking water availability gets affected,
underground work in the Himalayas then along with the safety of the village affected
obviously geology and geohydrology will be and there is indirect displacement. The
disturbed. The effects on the people living environment regulatory framework has
PHOTO: MONOJ GOGOI

on top of that mountain (where such work is completely missed looking at the impacts
being done) will emerge only after the of the run-of-the-river projects and there is
construction starts and as the safety of the very little understanding of the landscape
village gets affected, it prompts indirect in the scientific studies that are done for
displacement,” Asher adds. feasibility, technical and environmental

36 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

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 R
ecurrent disasters, clearance
hurdles, opposition from local
residents have made hydropower
generation economically unviable and power
generation from hydropower is showing
diminishing returns for developers. In the
past six years, from 2016-17 to 2021-22,
India’s large hydropower projects have
contributed just around 10 per cent of the
total power generation, going as low as 9.68
per cent in 2017-18. In three of these six
years, large hydropower projects contributed
less than 10 per cent, recovering only
marginally in the rest of the years, thanks
to surplus monsoon, says another analysis
on power generation by hydropower projects
by sandrp, released in November 2022.
The analysis says hydropower generation
has declined since 1993-94. Over the last
three decades, generation has been uneven;
in 1993-94, some 3.9 million units was
generated per mega watt installed capacity.
By 2003-04, it was around 2.5 million; in
The 2,000 MW Subansiri
2007-08, it rose to 3.4 million units, but then
Lower Hydroelectric Project in fell to 2.8 million units in 2009-10. In 2021-
Arunachal Pradesh, currently
being constructed, is the 22, hydropower generation was closer to 3.2
largest run-of-the-river million units per megwatt installed capacity.
project undertaken in
India. In September 2022, a “If we talk about Himachal Pradesh, these
diversion tunnel of the project projects have been facing revenue losses
collapsed due to landslide
because they are running into time and cost
overruns. Bad loans in the Parvati nhpc
project which is stuck for years are around
R46,000 crore. And the cost of the power is
clearances,” she says. high and none of the discoms are buying
Typically run-of-the-river project this power. So a lot of the mous that the
should be applicable for only small or micro Himachal Pradesh government had with
hydropower projects (under 25 MW). It discoms to buy the power, began to lapse.
should let the river flow and, at the same Companies that have not been able to take
time, generate electricity, says Himanshu up their projects are demanding the
Thakkar, coordinator at sandrp. The 'run- premium they had paid upfront,” says Asher.
of-the-river' projects mushrooming across On January 10, the Arunachal Pradesh
the Himalayas should be called a dam- government decided to handover five stalled
and-a-tunnel power house. They not only hydropower projects to central psus, with a
have dams, by diverting the river water target to produce 2,820 MW and generate
through underground tunnels, these annual revenue of R500 crore. The state
projects can leave large stretches of the government had earlier signed agreements
river, spanning 10 km to 30 km, dry. Most with private power developers for
large and some projects have dams, with implementing the projects but the contracts
storage capacity as high as hundreds of were terminated following long delays in
million cubic metres. execution of the same. D T E

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 37

30-37Lust for Hydro.indd 37 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 CLIMATE
CHANGE

A CRISIS GEOGRAPHY
The combined effect of a warming Himalayas and a degrading
ecology is making the fragile mountain even more vulnerable

O
N JANUARY 26, environmentalist Geologically young and fragile, the
Sonam Wangchuk started his five- Indian Himalayas are sensitive to even
day “climate fast” to draw the coun- minor changes in the climate. The region is
try’s attention to the climate crisis that is warming at a rate of 0.15-0.6oC per decade,
unfolding in the Himalayas. Wangchuk’s which is higher than the mean global
desperate call highlights how climate warming rate of 0.074°C per decade, suggests
change is turning the already fragile and A Review of Glacial Lake Expansion and
degraded Himalayan region into a crisis ge- Associated Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in
ography. Spread across 13 states and union the Himalayan Region, published in
territories, the Indian Himalayan region is Springer in June 2021. The Indian
made up of 42 per cent forests that are home Himalayas are also warming faster than
to 10,000 species of plants, 300 mammalian that of the nearby Indian land mass, says
species and 977 bird species, as per the the Assessment of Climate Change over the
Wildlife Conservation Society-India. At the Indian Region, released by the Union
same time, the world’s youngest mountain Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2020 (see 'Red
range has over 9,000 glaciers that perenni- zones'). The annual mean surface air
ally feed numerous rivers and streams. But temperature in the Hindu Kush Himalayas,
this unique biodiversity is now under threat. which includes the Indian Himalayas and

RED ZONES
The Hindu Kush Himalayas, which include the Indian Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, are warming
at a significantly higher rate than the rest of the country
1.2
n India n Himalaya

0.9
Annual mean temperature anomaly (oC)

0.6

0.3

-0.3

-0.6
1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016
Source: Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region released by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2020

38 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

38-47Climate Change.indd 38 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 HEATING AT THE TOP the Tibetan Plateau, “has increased at a
rate of about 0.1°C per decade during 1901–
Higher altitudes of the Hindu Kush Himalayas
2014, with a faster rate of warming of about
are warming faster than the lower altitudes 0.2°C per decade during 1951–2014, which
0.6
is attributable to anthropogenic climate
change”, says the government report.
0.5
Further, the recent warming rates are not
uniform over the Hindu Kush Himalayas,
0.4
Trend (oC/decade)

where the annual average warming rates

0.3
change with altitude (see 'Heating at the
top'). For instance, the low-elevation sites
0.2 (<500 m above sea level) show lower warming
rate (<0.2 °C per decade) as compared to
0.1 high elevations (>2,000 m) where a higher
warming rate (0.61°C per decade) has been
0 seen during the past few decades.
0- 0.5- 1.0- 1.5- 2.0- 2.5- 3.0- 3.5- 4.0- 4.5- The warming climate is altering the
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Altitude (Km)
precipitation in the region. The maximum
Source: Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region
released by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2020 Continued on page 42 >>

DROP IN THE RAINS

While the rainfall is decreasing in six Himalayan states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir—it is increasing in one (Uttarakhand)

Arunachal Pradesh Assam Himachal Pradesh

Annual rainfall Trend line Annual Linear (Annual) Annual Linear (Annual)
4,000 2,800 1,600

3,000 2,200 1,200

2,000 1,600 800

1989 2019 1989 2019 1989 2019

Jammu & Kashmir Meghalaya Mizoram

Annual Linear (Annual) Annual Linear (Annual) Annual Linear (Annual)
2,000 6,000 4,500

1,400 4,000 3,000

800 2,000 1,500

1989 2019 1989 2019 1989 2019

Nagaland Sikkim Uttarakhand

Annual Linear (Annual) Annual Linear (Annual) Annual Linear (Annual)
3,200 3,500 2,000

2,200 2,500 1,400

1,200 1,500 800

1989 2019 1989 2019 1989 2019
Source: Observed Rainfall Variability and Changes reports for Himalayan states released by the India Meterological Department; Data not availble for Ladakh; West Bengal,
which has one Himalayan district (Darjeeling), is not considered in the analysis
DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 39

38-47Climate Change.indd 39 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 EXPERT OPINION
CLIMATE
CHANGE
Balanced tourism critical
Promoting tourism in the Himalayas should not come at the cost of the
region's environment and ecology

T
OURISM IS one of the avalanches in the Himalayan
largest service industries region. glof incidents are also on
in India. In 2021, it the rise, impacting downstream
accounted for 39 million jobs and areas with loss of life and
is expected to rise to nearly 53 property, destruction of forests,
million jobs by 2029. The tourism agricultural land and infra-
industry has a major influence on structural damage. Tourism also
the areas of visit, as it provides adds to waste generation in the
an incentive for the development absence of adequate treatment
of physical infrastructure. Small and disposal systems, plying of
wonder, the Union government’s more vehicles and construction.
erstwhile planning commissions While a sustainable and
recognised the need to promote INDRA D BHATT balanced approach is needed to
tourism, particularly in the Head, Centre for check unregulated tourism, so
Himalayas where villages are Biodiversity Conservation far, it has been challenging for
seeing rapid migration of youth. and Management, policy planners to delineate a
As a global biodiversity G B Pant National Institute suitable plan of action that could
hotspot, the Himalayan region’s of Himalayan Environment, judiciously balance development
aesthetics, extent, socio-cultural Almora and environmental conservation.
and demographic landscapes Himalayan towns, especially
attract explorers, adventurers, pilgrims and those with high and uncontrolled tourist
researchers from across the world. The footfalls, are mushrooming with unplanned and
government’s Swadesh Darshan scheme has unregulated structures that are often not in
thus undertaken theme-based development of 15 accordance with the geology and ecology of the
tourist circuits in the country; some of these are area. It has been observed that economic gains of
within the Indian Himalayan region, such as the tourism are primarily centralised and often
NorthEast Circuit, Eco-circuit, Himalayan capitalised by a few individuals, while social and
Circuit and Spiritual Circuit. Under the Swadesh environmental costs are borne exclusively by
Darshan and the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and local communities.
Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive Pre-emptive measures that can be taken are
(prashad) scheme, there are 18 projects to develop regulations, zoning and coordination with
and promote tourism in all northeastern states. countries with mountainous landscapes for
However, the Himalayan region is not only economic and sustainable tourism growth.
ecologically fragile but also vulnerable to other Himalayan states must introduce legislations for
natural disasters, such as avalanches, glacial enforcing building codes, a ban on major
lake outburst floods (glofs, or a sudden release of activities and projects in fragile zones and
a large amount of water retained in a glacial geologically sustainable surface connectivity
lake), mass movements or landslides and projects. Immediate measures include planning
cloudbursts. The Defence Research and and practising for rapid response, evacuation,
Development Organization’s Snow and Aval- monitoring and early warning systems and
anche Study Establishment estimates that technologies, with participation from people. D T E
nearly 30 people are killed annually due to (As told to Rohini Krishnamurthy)

40 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

38-47Climate Change.indd 40 27/01/23 3:27 PM

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 CLIMATE
CHANGE

five-day consecutive precipitation index—a Inventory and Revival of Springs in the

measure of heavy rainfall—has increased Himalayas for Water Security released by
in the Himalayas by 2.3 per cent per decade the niti Aayog in 2018.
from 1961-2012. This has dramatically

R
increased the number of consecutive wet ising temperature and changes in
days over the Indian side of the Himalayan precipitation patterns are a major
and Karakoram ranges, says the concern for the health of the Himala-
government report. yan snow cover and glaciers, which have
The torrential rain increases the risk of shrunk 10 times faster over the past four
floods and landslides. The Himalayan decades than in the previous 700 years, sug-
region recorded 240 major disasters in the gests a paper published in 2021 in the Scien-
last 122 years (1900-2022), and 132 of these tific Reports.
disasters were floods, suggests data from Add to that the increased levels of
em-dat international disaster database. pollutants, such as black carbon, at higher
Almost 60 per cent of the floods took place in altitudes as a result of human activity.
the last two decades (2003-2022), suggesting These pollutants, released due to the use of
an increase in the frequency. Landslides are fossil fuels, settle on the snow cover and
the second most common disaster in the absorb more sunlight, accelerating the
region. Since 1900, the region has witnessed melting process. “As a result, we are seeing
37 major landslides and 40 per cent of them enhanced melting. Now, seasonal snow has
took place in the last two decades. started to disappear quite early, creating a
“Short-span rainfall is increasing while serious problem for communities as
long-span rainfall is declining. This means mountain springs are drying early,” says
that we have very high rainfall intensity for Anil V Kulkarni, distinguished visiting
a shorter duration, and then it becomes dry,” scientist at the Indian Institute of Science in
says Kireet Kumar, scientist at the Delhi- Bengaluru.
based GB Pant National Institute of The mountain range could lose two-
Himalayan Environment, under the Union thirds of its glaciers if global temperatures
Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate rise 4°C to 5°C above pre-industrial levels
Change. This excess water does not by 2100, according to a 2019 report by the
percolate into the ground, thereby failing to International Centre for Integrated Moun-
recharge springs, which are major sources tain Development (icimod), an intergovern-
of water for about 60 per cent of the residents mental organisation with India and its
of the Indian Himalayas. Approximately 50 Himalayan neighbours, China, Pakistan,
per cent of the 3 million springs in the region Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myan-
have already gone dry, according to the mar, and Nepal as member countries.
The Indian Himalayas have 9,575 gla-
ciers, which are spread across the Indus,
RECENT TROUBLES Ganga and Brahmaputra basins. The gla-
The Hindu Kush Himalayas saw minimum ciers in the Indus basin are retreating by
snow cover extents in 2001, 2016, 2018 12.7 m per year. In contrast, the Ganga and
Snow cover area (%) Brahmaputra basins have recorded a mean
50 retreat of 15.5 m per year and 20.2 m per
40 year respectively. While there is enough evi-
30
20
dence to suggest that the glaciers are re-
10 treating, little information exists on whether
0 they are also losing mass, which is a better
1984 2019
indicator of shrinking glaciers, as it looks at
Source: 'Revealing four decades of snow cover dynamics in the
Hindu Kush Himalaya' study published in Nature on August 4, 2022 the difference between snowfall accumula-

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38-47Climate Change.indd 42 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 CHANGING SEASONS
Strongest decline in snow covered area percentage is recorded between April to August as well as
December and January, with significant negative trends in December, July and August
December January February
MK Trendline MK Trendline MK Trendline
2 2 2
Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

0 0 0

-2 -2 -2
1982 2018 1982 2018 1982 2018

March April May

MK Trendline MK Trendline MK Trendline
2 2 2
Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

0 0 0

-2 -2 -2
1982 2018 1982 2018 1982 2018

June July August

MK Trendline MK Trendline MK Trendline
2 2 2
Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

0 0 0

-2 -2 -2
1982 2018 1982 2018 1982 2018

September October November

MK Trendline MK Trendline MK Trendline
2 2 2
Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

Monthly SCA anomaly

0 0 0

-2 -2 -2
1982 2018 1982 2018 1982 2018
Source: 'Revealing four decades of snow cover dynamics in the Hindu Kush Himalaya' study published in Nature on August 4, 2022; the analysis is for the
entire Hindu Kush Himalayas, which includes the Indian Himalayas and adjoing ranges spread across eight countries

tion and ice loss due to melting, says Kulkar- mass. Three glaciers in Uttarakhand also
ni, who has analysed the changing mass of showed a similar pattern. “We have little
15 glaciers in the region. information about Arunachal Pradesh and
Kulkarni’s 2017 research, published in Sikkim,” Kumar says.
the Journal of Earth System Science, found The rapid melting of the glaciers can
that four glaciers in the western Himalayas have a disastrous impact on the ecosystem.
lost roughly 133 m of water equivalent First, glaciers feed the river systems and
between 1980 and 2014. In Ladakh and their thinning would mean less water in
Kashmir, three glaciers showed a decline in the rivers in the long run. Second, the rapid

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 43

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 EXPERT OPINION

Save Himalayan springs

Drying up of the important water sources will have a profound impact on
people and the ecosystem

S
OME THREE million ground and emerges elsewhere
springs flow across the through springs is called a
Indian Himalayan region. natural recharge area. Several
About half of these have either such areas in Jammu and
dried up or are in various stages Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal
of disappearing, according to a Pradesh, Uttarakhand and
2018 report published by the northeastern states have been
government think tank niti affected by the causes that lead
Aayog. Springs dry up due to to drying up of springs. Apart
four main reasons. One, a from India, this problem is also
reduction in the long-term seen in Nepal and Bhutan.
rainfall in the region. This has The disappearance of the
happened in several parts of HIMANSHU springs can have far-reaching
the Himalayan states. While KULKARNI consequences. The niti Aayog
some places see excessive rain Founder, Advance Center report says that in the Himalayas,
that leads to landslides and for Water Resources there are two tourists per resident.
floods, the average annual Development and In other words, though the region
rainfall in the region has Management and lead is home to some
decreased. This deficit is irregular author of “Report of 50 million people, the springs
across districts. Working Group 1 Inventory cater to the needs of 150 million
The second reason is a change and Revival of Springs in people. Already, access to water in
in land cover and land use. Some the Himalayas for Water the Himalayan system is difficult
places in the Himalayan states Security” published by the as channelling water from the
have seen a reduction in forest NITI Aayog in 2018 rivers is expensive and not feasible
cover and natural farming, due to for the local communities. Springs
both infrastructural development and streams are the traditional
and land-use changes at the local level. sources of water, and ensuring that they do not
The third reason is landslides, due to which disappear is imperative. Fortunately, all the state
the earth moves from one place to another and governments in the Himalayan region have
destroys springs, while the fourth cause is rain- approved springshed management.
related drought. Apart from these four reasons, Further, water from the springs form the
floods can also result in destruction of springs. base flows of rivers such as the Ganga, Yamuna
Moreover, it is important to note that all these and Brahmaputra. If the springs are lost,
processes are taking place in a fragile and naturally the base flow of the river channels will
ecologically sensitive region. drop, especially during summer. Hence, saving
Springs get water from aquifers deep in the the Himalayan springs is of great importance for
ground. Even though the Himalayan mountains the survival of the entire mountain ecosystem.
do not have large aquifers, there are some rocks The good thing is that all the state governments
and systems that have porosity and permeability have approved springshed management. Stream
that can retain water. This is the source of management is also undeniably easier than
groundwater, which erupts in the form of springs. groundwater management. D T E
The area from which the water seeps into the (As told to Bhagirath)

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38-47Climate Change.indd 44 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 melting of glaciers can trigger disasters
like glacial lake outburst floods. This On borrowed time 16-28 FEBRUARY, 2019
phenomenon is caused by the sudden
outflow of water from glacial lakes. During IT'S DIFFICULT to say what’s more alarming, the timing of the
report or its finding. A few months after the Intergovernmental
the 2013 Kedarnath floods, heavy rainfall Panel on Climate Change released a special report saying that
over June 14-17, 2013, caused the glacial the world needs “rapid and far-reaching”
lake Chorabari Lake, sitting at the snout of transitions to limit global warming to
the Chorabari Glacier, to reach its 1.5oC and avoid climate catastrophe, the
first-ever assessment of the Hindu Kush
maximum capacity. On June 17, the lake Himalaya (HKH) region warns that even
experienced a breach due to heavy rainfall, radical climate action won’t help save the
releasing about 1,699 cubic metres per great mountains of Asia. Per capita fossil
second of water within 10-15 minutes, fuel CO2 emission from HKH countries is
one-sixth of the global average.
leading to flash floods. The Indian
Himalayans are home to 4,418 glacial
lakes. Of them, 2,292 are in Jammu and
Kashmir. Himachal Pradesh, Uttara-
khand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in Uttarakhand, where fire-resistant tree
have 188, 135, 352, and 1,451 glacial lakes, varieties are thriving.
respectively. The glacial lakes in Jammu A degraded soil also means that during
and Kashmir are the most vulnerable cloudbursts, excess rainfall carries debris
because they are large in size and have a into the river, increasing the riverbed’s
wider watershed area, as per a 2021 study height. Consequently, riverbanks erode.
published in the Mountain Research and When rivers choke up with sediment, they
Development. Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim abandon old channels for new ones. For
ranked second and third on the list, while example, in 2008, a large flood forced the
Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand face Kosi river to change course. The incident
a relatively lower level of threat. Besides displaced 3 million people and claimed more
rapidly melting glaciers, the changing than 250 lives.
climate is also impacting the permafrost, There is more. Typically, species richness,
or permanently frozen ground, in the vegetation cover and soil temperature
region, though this phenomenon has hardly decrease with increasing elevation. This is
been studied so far. A thawing permafrost now changing. Studies have found an
could make slopes vulnerable to erosion alarming trend of heat-adapted species
and deposit debris and sediment onto moving upward in Kashmir, replacing the
nearby rivers, thereby destroying homes, local, cold-adapted species. Kumar says his
bridges and roads, according to icimod. team recently studied vegetation in the
Increased glacier melting and permafrost timberline zone or the edge of the habitat at
thawing could trigger more landslides. which trees can grow. “Generally, the
vegetation is moving 60 m upwards. If it

T
he warming climate is triggering continues at this rate, the vegetation will
forest fires in the region, which now reach the peak one day, after which there
occurs round-the-year in states like will be no space for further movement,”
Uttarakhand. Kulkarni links this to warns Kumar, adding that more studies are
reducing soil moisture due to warming. needed to document these impacts.
Forest fires have a cascading effect: they Whether caused by human activities,
limit the forest’s ability to sequester carbon, natural forces or global warming,
reduce soil porosity and destroy dead plant such changes will have a profound impact on
biomass on the floor, which acts as water the Himalayan landscape, which will make
sponges. Evidence suggests that increased the already fragile region even more
forest fires are also altering the vegetation vulnerable. D T E

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 45

38-47Climate Change.indd 45 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 CLIMATE
CHANGE

Losing cover
The Himalayan states Land degradation Deforestation
and Union Territories Land under degradation in 2018-19 (sq km) Total forest area (square kilometre)
are witnessing rapid % change in degraded land between Change from last year (square kilometre)
land degradation and 2011-13 and 2018-19
deforestation. The forest % share of degraded land in total Districts with reduction in forest
cover shrank in almost half of area in 2018-19 cover between 2019 and 2021

the 131 Himalayan districts

Land 1 Arunachal Pradesh 2 Assam
between 2019 and 2021. degradation is
the decline in 200,683 66,430.67 834,530 28,311.51
productivity of (47%) -257.11 (46%) -15
land in terms of
biodiversity
and economy,
resulting from 2.40 10.64
various causes
including
7/12
climate and
human induced 3/27
factors,
leading to loss 3 Himachal Pradesh 4 Jammu and Kashmir
of ecosystem 2,400,300 15,442.95 1,129,503 21,386.84
(12%) 9.43 (17%) 28.55
5
4 43.11 20.86

5/12
13/22
3

12

1
10

2 9
7
6

11
8

Note: West Bengal, which has one Himalayan district

(Darjeeling), is not considered in the analysis.
Source: "Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas
of India", Space Applications Centre, Indian Space
Research Organisation, June 2021 and "India State of
Forest Report 2021", Union Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change

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 5 Ladakh 6 Manipur 7 Meghalaya 8 Mizoram
7,111,968 2,272.09 612,566 16,598.27 557,576 17,046.07 275,827 17,820
(8%) 18.49 (3%) -248.63 (16%) -72.72 (188%) -185.51

13.08
42.31 1/2 27.44 24.86
7/9 5/7 7/8

9 Nagaland 10 Sikkim 11 Tripura 12 Uttarakhand

828,943 12,251.14 84,610 3,341.03 447,378 7,721.52 673,894 24,305.13
(29%) -235.26 (8%) -1.46 (37%) -4.07 (16%) 2.09

50.0 11.92 2/4 42.66 2/4 12.60

9/11 4/13

Getting chopped Forests cover nearly 40 per cent of the Himalayan region's land area

660,427.84 961.11 65/131

Total forest area (Sq km) Change from last year (Sq km) Districts with reduction in forest cover
between 2019 and 2021

What kind of area is getting degraded

Forests, scrubs and periglacial areas, which are regions adjacent to glaciers or ice sheets, account for 60% of the
degraded land in the regions
Agriculture Agriculture Barren Dune / Sandy Forest Land with Periglacial Others*
irrigated unirrigated area scrub
1%
2%
4% 8% 11% 29% 22% 23%

0 20 40 60 80 100
*includes land degraded due to settlements, grassland / grazing land, rocky area and other land types

What is causing land degradation

Vegetation degradation due to deforestation, over-grazing and frost shattering, which leads to breaking down of
rocks, are responsible for more than 70% of the degraded land in the region
Frost shattering Mass movement Vegetation degradation Water Water Wind Settlement and
erosion logging erosion other

23% 6% 50% 5% 2% 11% 3%

0 20 40 60 80 100

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 47

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 SUSTAINABLE
STRATEGIES

HIT
PAUSE Regulate tourist
numbers,use traditional
materials and practices
for constructions,
and strictly enforce
environmental safeguards
for infrastructure projects

T
HE HIMALAYAS are the world's
youngest mountain range. They are
prone to erosion, landslides and seis-
mic activity; and brutal rainstorms lash the
region. Therefore, this region is vulnerable
and fragile. But two human-induced factors
make it even more hazard-prone today—
first, climate change, and second, the man-
ner in which development has been carried
out in this ecologically fragile region.
Consider this. Several hydropower pro-
jects already dot the Himalayan landscape
and many more are in pipeline. These pro-
jects are being built bumper to bumper—
where one project ends, another begins—
and would modify the rivers through diver-
sion to tunnels or reservoirs. But few have
undergone assessments to understand cu-
mulative impact of the projects on the land-
PHOTOGRAPHS: SUNNY GAUTAM / CSE

scape or to gauge the carrying capacity of

the place, which refers to the ecological
strength of a place and the maximum popu-
lation it can support. On November 26,
2022, in a letter to the Union environment
ministry the chief conservator of forests for
Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, withheld
sanctions to five hydroelectric projects on

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48-58NDP.indd 48 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 the Ravi river due to a lack of cumulative
impact and carrying capacity assessments.
The situation is the same when it comes
to widening of roads. Himachal Pradesh is
developing an extensive road network
through projects such as four-laning of the
Kiratpur-Manali highway, constructing or
modifying realignments, tunnels and by-
passes and building bridges spanning 60-
675 m. The state already has Atal tunnel—
running 9.02 km, it is described as the
world's longest highway tunnel above 10,000
feet (3,048 m)—built under Rohtang Pass.
The Himalayan ecosystem and its limi-
tation are also given a miss while construct-
ing buildings. In 2022 Himachal Pradesh
recorded 27 heatwave days between Janu-
ary and April, as per the India Meteorologi-
cal Department. That year, the state also
experienced the hottest April in 122 years.
Consequently, even high-altitude towns like
Manali saw air conditioning units being
sold. This switch to mechanical system for
cooling (and heating) will raise the demand
for electricity in the Himalayas. Though it
can be avoided by following building norms,
few buildings being constructed in the Him-
alayas address factors of thermal comfort
through layout, building design and choice
of materials. Small settlements particularly
do not have much guiding principles and
regulations. In a few cases, the gram and
nagar panchayats, with little technical ca-
pability, provide the nod for construction.
Lack of adherence to building norms can
be dangerous in the Himalayas as all dense-
ly populated towns are mostly located in
tectonically sensitive zones. Shimla, Naini-
tal, Mussoorie and Almora are in fact quite
prone to slope failure. Some 97 per cent of
the geographical area of Himachal Pradesh
is prone to landslides.
To worsen the matter, climate-related
A tunnel under construction impacts are prompting people to embrace
at Atali village in Uttarakhand,
as part of the 125 km Rishikesh-
construction materials and technologies
Karnaprayag railway project. that are not sustainable. The Himalayan re-
Development in the Himalayan
region sees environmental
gion is home to a wide range of traditional
stability being compromised architecture. Buildings, made using locally
available materials and traditional tech-
niques, have features that adapt to the

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 SUSTAINABLE
STRATEGIES

T
harsh climate, topographical conditions here also appears to be scant regard
and natural disasters of the region. Ladakh to guidance on the management of
had structures made of clay, stone, and natural resources and solid waste
wood that could endure the region's heavy generated despite the fact that urban settle-
snowfall. But receding glacial snow, chang- ments have expanded in size, area and com-
es in precipitation, rainfall instead of snow- plexity over the years. According to a 2018
fall and floods have pushed the residents to study published in the Journal of Urban and
cover their dwellings with materials like tin Regional Studies on Contemporary India, 65
or concrete. The Union and state govern- per cent of the urban centres located in the
ments, too, are pushing brick-and-mortar or ridges and mountain slopes constitute the
pucca structures through housing schemes headwaters for water sources that provide
such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. 15-50 per cent freshwater to the down-
These schemes do not capture the high en- stream rural areas. However, indiscrimi-
vironmental impact of materials like brick, nate construction has desiccated these
concrete or tin, especially in the Himalayan freshwater sources and depleted groundwa-
region. Since brick kilns and concrete man- ter, as most of the rainwater now runs off
ufacturing units are prohibited in the and does not go to the aquifers. The study
mountain states, the materials are largely notes that in six towns of Himachal Pradesh
sourced from industries in states on the and Uttarakhand, 25-41 per cent natural
plains, such as Haryana, Punjab, Uttar springs dried, 3-7 per cent wetlands deplet-
Pradesh and Rajasthan, and their trans- ed, and 11-47 per cent water discharge in
portation to mountains is a huge challenge. springs and streams declined between 1985
In 2022, when researchers from Delhi- and 2015 in springs and streams within and
based think tank Centre for Science and around Shimla, Solan and Hamirpur town
Environment (cse) visited Naggar, Kullu in Himachal Pradesh and Almora, Pauri
district, Himachal Pradesh, masons there and Ranikhet towns in Uttarakhand (see
informed that building materials like brick 'Drying up', p52). Capacity of the Bhimtal
and sand are sourced from markets in Pun- and Nainital lakes also decreased by 5,494
jab's Pathankot and other small river towns cu m and 14,150 cu m, respectively in the
towards Gurdaspur and Chandigarh. last 100-110 years due to rapid siltation.
Overall, 87 per cent urban centres and 65
per cent villages in the rural fringe of Him-
alayan towns and cities face acute shortage
of freshwater, says the study..
Himalayan blunders compounded In terms of solid waste, the Central Pol-
16-28 FEBRUARY, 2021 lution Control Board (cpcb)’s annual report
ON FEBRUARY 7, 2021, the people of Reni village—the birthplace for 2020-21 shows that only 16 per cent of
of India’s environmental consciousness as this is where the the collected waste is treated in 11 Himala-
women stopped the felling of trees—say they yan states and Union Territory (see 'Cause
heard a loud bang. Within minutes the muddy for concern', p58), 5 per cent is landfilled and
deluge gushed down damaging the 13.2
MW Rishiganga hydropower project and then the rest remains unaccounted for. With se-
washing away the under-construction 520 vere land crunch and abundant eco-sensitive
MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project downstream. areas, there is a need for proper waste man-
It is not clear (as yet) if the glacier melted; or agement strategies. This was also highlight-
there was unseasonal snow that melted; or
that it was a combination. ed in a 2022 report by Govind Ballabh Pant
National Institute of Himalayan Environ-
ment, Almora. The hydroelectric projects

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 Advertisement

51Amul Cheese _Down to earth_19.6 x 27.3 cms.indd 51 25/01/23 11:57 AM

 SUSTAINABLE
STRATEGIES

under construction across the Himalayas the place—which refers to the ecological
adds to this waste generation. strength of an area and the maximum pop-
Increasing traffic, construction activity ulation it can support.
and poor solid waste management may have

T
started to deteriorate the pristine air in the here are only two options, other than
Himalayas. According to the National Am- fatalism: to construct better build-
bient Air Quality (naaq) Standard, PM10 ings and to improve planning for in-
values should not exceed 100 μg per cubic frastructure, resource management and
metre (24-hour) and 60 μg per cubic metre tourist inflow. Developmental planning in
(annual). However, annual average observa- the Himalayan region cannot be the same
tions of PM10 in the Jammu region for 2010- as in the plains. While ascertaining con-
20 range from 72-258 μg per cubic metre, struction of roads, highways and other pro-
with an average of 137 μg per cubic metre. jects, the formula for impact assessments
Earlier, 2017 naaq data showed that seven needs to be different. Currently, what is
cities in Himachal Pradesh, two in Jammu missing from assessments—carried out by
and Kashmir, three in Uttarakhand, one in accredited environmental assessors on be-
Meghalaya and two in Nagaland, were not half of project proponents and scrutinised
able to keep their ambient air quality within by agencies under state or Union govern-
the standard limits. ments—is a measure of the cumulative im-
The Himalayan region no doubt needs pact or overall effects of development in a
development—people who live there need region. The assessments also do not calcu-
basic amenities like roads, electricity, late the baselines of environmental flows,
healthcare and education. They also need goods and services; for example, the number
employment and livelihood options. But it is of water sources in and around a particular
equally clear that economic future of the region. Calculating baselines would help de-
Himalayas and its people cannot be secured termine whether any activity disrupts the
or safeguarded if the already vulnerable re- natural ecology or leads to cascading im-
gion is made more hazard-prone and more pacts in nearby places.
deadly. So what the Himalayas need is a Assessments and projects also focus on
new way of development that is sustainable net-positive environmental impact, by, say,
and lies well within the carrying capacity of promising planting of 10 trees for each one

DRYING UP
Water sources in six hill towns have deteriorated in 1985-2015
Town Natural springs died Number of Water discharge
(%) wetlands depleted decline (%)
Shimla, Himachal Pradesh 25 5 11
Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh 31 7 15
Solan, Himachal Pradesh 39 3 25
Almora, Uttarakhand 41 6 47
Pauri, Uttarakhand 35 3 37
Ranikhet, Uttarakhand 40 7 41

Source: "Urban Growth in Himalaya: Understanding the Process and Options for Sustainable Development",
Journal of Urban and Regional Studies on Contemporary India

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 Special states
Himalayan states have been recipients of Central assistance to
negate their socio-geographic disadvantages
HIMANSHU N
STATES IN the Himalayan region have certain of environment conservation and protection. But on
disadvantages like hilly terrain, seismic activity, low the other, it approves big infrastructure such as dams
population density, infrastructural backwardness, non- and other profit-driven projects, entirely focussed to
viable state finances, along with strategic international drive the economy,” says Manshi Asher, a researcher-
borders. Recognising this, the Union government has activist associated with Himdhara, and environmental
for decades provided grants and development schemes research and action collective in Himachal Pradesh.
for the region's agriculture, water, environment, forest In 2019, the Union Cabinet approved measures to
and employment sectors. promote hydropower, including by declaring large
Since 1969, Assam, Nagaland, Jammu and hydropower projects as renewable energy sources. A
Kashmir (prior to its bifurcation in 2019), Himachal government release highlights that these projects will
Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, enhance economy and employment in the Himalayan
Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttarakhand were and northeast regions. Asher further adds that
given a "special category" status. This states have little say in development
category was accorded a sizeable decisions, since they depend on Central
portion of assistance for all states
'States have assistance.
offered under various five-year plans little say in The Centre also promotes tourism
by the erstwhile Planning Commission. development in Himalayan states, through schemes
In the 12th Five Year plan for 2012- such as Swadesh Darshan and National
17 (the plan before the Planning decisions as Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and
Commission was replaced with they depend Spiritual Augmentation Drive. A 2019
NITI Aayog report envisages a tourist
the NITI Aayog) the Centre allotted
R1,20,090.04 crore under special
on Central load of 240 million in the Himalayan
assistance to these states. assistance' region by 2025. It notes that despite
The Centre also provides assistance all mountain states drawing individual
for initiatives such as Hill Area Development eco-tourism policies and plans, not all are equipped
Programme (formulated in the 5th Five-Year Plan for to address the challenges. A 2017 assessment by the
1974-79 with allocation of R76 crore), to boost the Ladakh Ecological Development and Environmental
economy of the Himalayan region with respect to its Group says average water use by a resident is 25 litres
resources. The penultimate five-year plan established per day, against a tourist’s need of 75 litres.
a National Action Plan on Climate Change, under To regulate tourism, the Centre has proposed
which the National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan measures like developing new tourist circuits to divert
Ecosystem was allotted R550 crore to enable states the tourists and a “green cess” for visitors.
to address issues such as threats to glaciers, natural Himalayan states have also introduced individual
hazards, biodiversity conservation. Once funds are action plans for climate change, based on regional
made available, the states allot them to the various threats. Sikkim, for instance, estimates drought-like
specified sectors for development. conditions due to reduced rainfall and increase in
The "special category" status ceased to exist on temperature, and suggested measures to conserve
recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission in water, revive springs and diversify agriculture. The
2015. In 2018, the NITI Aayog and Centre state already implemented the Dhara Vikas Programme
constituted a Himalayan State Regional Council for in 2008, through which it revived 700 springs in five
continuing sustainable development of the region years using rainwater harvesting, geohydrology and
through five working groups on water security, GIS mapping techniques by involving civil society,
tourism, agriculture, landscape, skill development government departments and local communities. The
and data development. programme was replicated in Nagaland, Meghalaya,
“On the one hand, the Union government speaks Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 53

48-58NDP.indd 53 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 Projects proposed in Himalayan
states and Union Territories need
assessments that calculate
cumulative impact or overall
effect of development in a region

uprooted. However, as soon as one tree is re- and Jammu and Kashmir. Structures made
moved, the damage to the area is done. Pro- of Kath-kuni feature delicately linked wood-
jects should be planned with safeguards for en beams. During earthquakes, interlock-
climate impacts and vulnerability. While ing enables walls to flex and shift, dispers-
towns like Srinagar, Dehradun and Shimla ing the extreme force produced by seismic
have building norms, small settlements do motions without cracking or breaking apart.
not. In some cases, gram and nagar pan- Many traditional building techniques in-
chayats approve construction, but they do volve participation of the local community in
not have technical capacity for assessments. construction, which helps ensure that build-
There is a need to understand how precipi- ings are well-suited to the needs of the com-
tation, temperatures and geological behav- munity and promote a sense of ownership
iour vary to develop comprehensive building and responsibility for maintenance. This
regulations for all types of settlements. can also help create jobs, boost local econo-
One solution is reviving and promoting my and preserve traditional knowledge.
traditional construction technologies. Another approach is improving thermal
Among the most well-known—and widely comfort in buildings, by constructing in ac-
used, with local variations and names—tra- cordance to how natural elements—soil,
ditional Himalayan architecture styles are wind, fire, water and space—behave in a
Kath-kuni, Dajji Diwari and Koti banal
found in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand Continued on page 58 >>

54 DOWN TO EARTH 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

48-58NDP.indd 54 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 Visit

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 EXPERT OPINION

How to design
Himalayan cities
Build lighter structures, ensure proper drainage and
use local knowledge to future-proof the region

D
P D RAI EVELOPMENT IN the Indian challenges that are common; for
Former Member Himalayan region is characterised instance, climate change and the heavier
of Parliament, by a simple golden rule–one size precipitation during the monsoons being
Lok Sabha, does not fit all. Delhi’s high-rise buildings experienced now leads to landslides and
from Sikkim cannot be built in Mussoorie, amongst other more serious disasters. Moreover,
the mountains. In the Himalayas, melting glaciers are leading to glacial
attention must be paid to the local area; lake outburst floods (glofs are a sudden
while Leh is rocky, hard and dry, release of water retained in a glacial
Arunachal Pradesh is soft, moist, full of lake). The Himalayas have been carved
biodiversity and green. out of the collision of tectonic plates and
Of course, there are some overarching the geological forces continue to raise the
mountains vertically. This leads to
serious seismic activity and culminates
in earthquakes that are difficult to
predict. Small tremors are felt far more
often than heavier earthquakes.
Hence, due to these factors, the
western, central and eastern Himalayas
all have different characteristics.
Ever since scientific temper and
methodology were established, there
have been plenty of geological studies,
committees and Supreme Court rulings
in relation to the different aspects of the
Himalayan regions, but none have borne
fruit. So the question now is, how do we
plan amidst all these bizarre challenges,
natural and human-made? We can start
with a plan that takes into consideration
localised knowledge on how the land is
ILLJUSTRATION: YOGENDRA ANAND / CSE

settled. Tectonic-induced fault lines are

known about locally and do not require a
lot of scientific studies to understand.
For instance, Gangtok, Sikkim, is settled
on a series of ridges that are located
north to south. These ridges have been
present for several million years, and all
the rainwater in the area is drained

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 from several rivulets that run in both westward side, which causes all kinds of problems, especially
and eastward directions from the top into larger if there is a village below the road. Apart from the
rivers downhill and ultimately into the Teesta. design, implementation is also critical.
The natural draining ecosystems have evolved One way to facilitate risk reduction is taking
over a long time and are sustainable and critical. the sustainable development goals (sdgs) and
Many of these drains or rivulets have been “trained” making them central to the planning and execution
or “engineered”, but the efficacy some-times does process. The sdg framework is powerful and can be
not match the sudden gush of rainwater, which legislated; this was nearly done in Sikkim.
leads to flooding and erosion. Due to this, and the Emphasis on points such as finding ecological
fact that people build carelessly when the sun solutions to erosion or building roads in an
shines and bear the brunt when monsoons arrive, environment-friendly manner can ensure the
there is loss of life and property. Now, climate commitment to people, environment and planet.
change adds to the burden in the form of cloudbursts. We also have to think about the carrying
In 2011, an earthquake of 6.8 magnitude on the capacities of places. Mountains do not have much
Richter scale hit Sikkim–its epicentre was in flat land and hence we have to build along the
Dzongu, North Sikkim—and shook Gangtok and hillslopes. There is a way to do this in a manner
other parts of the state for more than 45 seconds. that does not compromise the land stability. The
It damaged monasteries and slope also may require
other buildings, including the stabilisation, using suitably-
state secretariat, that were old RECOGNISING designed breast walls (these
and ill conceived. However, LOCALISED protect natural sloping ground
apart from four buildings that from the cutting action of
had to be dismantled, the rest of KNOWLEDGE OF natural agents). Rain and other
Gangtok and other towns were THE LAND WILL waste water can be sent to the
spared. All the hydroelectric
plants were also safe. In a way
HELP BETTER nearest natural nullah that
drains into the rivulet below.
this was a stress test. Many PLAN THE DESIGN Finally, are we prepared for
buildings have since been
constructed, perhaps with better
OF HIMALAYAN climate tourists? Last year, a
massive number of people visited
design. It remains to be seen CITIES the Himalayan cities just to get
whether an earthquake of a away from the heat of the plains.
higher magnitude would override this. This has led to a spurt of building activity in
Looking at Joshimath, which is in a state of response to demand all across the region.
subsidence, the people have perhaps overbuilt. Therefore, the political economy will be the
However, the risk was known all along. The answer decider–those in the seats of power must recognise
to why nothing was done about it is possibly a that we have to look very carefully at carrying
major political and administrative lapse. capacities and other complexities of mountain
This then brings forth the question of design. cities. Not doing so will only see more disasters.
Designing to future-proof Himalayan cities and All this requires some meticulous planning
other projects is an exercise fraught with cascading and engineering design. Engineers and contractors
risks and ascertaining them is one of the key do acquire some practical knowledge, but we
challenges. Several times, roads that bank on the must find a way to ensure that this is
hillside have stormwater drains higher than them. scientifically tested, documented and converted
Further, the shoulder of the road does not touch into manuals for both safety and proper
the drain, leaving ample space for grass and dense construction processes. The question that still
vegetation to grow, blocking the drain. remains, however, is whether we will ever learn
Consequently, during monsoons, we see a series from our mistakes. D T E
of landslides caused by overflow into the hill (Views expressed are personal)

DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN 1-15 FEBRUARY 2023 DOWN TO EARTH 57

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 SUSTAINABLE
STRATEGIES

CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Nearly 80 per cent of waste in Himalayan states remains unaccounted for (figures in tonnes per day)

States and Union Generated Collected Treated Landfilled Unaccounted

Territories waste waste waste waste waste*
West Bengal 13,709 13,356 667.6 202.23 12,486.17
Jammu and Kashmir 1,463.23 1,437.28 547.5 376 513.78
Uttarakhand 1,458.46 1,378.99 779.85 0 599.14
Assam 1,199 1,091 41.4 0 1,049.6
Himachal Pradesh 346 332 221 111 0
Mizoram 345.47 275.92 269.71 0 6.21
Tripura 333.9 317.69 214.06 12.9 90.73
Nagaland 330.49 285.49 122 7.5 155.99
Manipur 282.3 190.3 108.6 81.7 0
Arunachal Pradesh 236.51 202.11 0 27.5 174.61
Meghalaya 107.01 93.02 9.64 83.4 -0.02
Total 19,811.37 18,959.8 2,981.36 902.23 15,076.21
Note: *Figures for Unaccounted waste for each state were obtained by subtracting treated and landfilled waste from collected waste.
Negative figures for Meghalaya is a result of this calculation.
Source: "Annual Report 2020-21 on Implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016", Central Pollution Control Board

specific area. “pahal: Prakriti Hunar This will also facilitate better waste
Lokvidya-A Compendium of Rural Housing management; which becomes an issue when
Typologies”, published by the UN Develop- it hinders water source sustainability by
ment Programme in 2016, documents differ- polluting or blocking flows. cpcb data shows
ent types of constructions suitable for par- that a majority of waste is unaccounted for
ticular zones in some states like Assam, and very little is treated properly. States
Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, can adopt measures to encourage source
which can be considered as a template. segregation, composting—climatic condi-
Next, as many urban Himalayan towns tions in the Himalayas are well suited for
are headwaters for waterbodies, source sus- this approach—and vermicomposting.
tainability must be prioritised. A 1997 re- Finally, tourism should come with a
port by cse, “Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and sense of responsibility. Infrastructure found
Potential of India's Traditional Water Har- in lower plain areas cannot be forcefully
vesting System”, highlights techniques such built in the mountains. Rather, the region’s
as watershed management, rainwater har- unique habitations, markets and centres
vesting and spring rejuvenation that need that need to be celebrated. Initiatives to pro-
to be documented, studied and protected. mote homestays, a traditional hospitality
States are already taking up spring rejuve- practice in the Himalayan region, in states
nation and rainwater harvesting pro- like Uttarakhand have increased tourism.
grammes with the community; for instance, These may provide an economic boost, but
Sikkim in 2008 launched the Dhara Vikas must also adhere to the ecological carrying
programme, through which revived 700 capacity. During the covid-19 outbreak, reli-
springs in five years with participation from gious shrines imposed a cap of 800-1,000
civil society members and communities (see visitors a day. Such steps can also be consid-
'Special states', p53). ered to preserve stability in the hills. D T E

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48-58NDP.indd 58 27/01/23 3:27 PM

 SCHOOL OF WATER AND WASTE

AAETI
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59Greening the Construction Sector .indd 59 25/01/23 11:58 AM

 R.N.I. NO. 53588/92 POSTAL REGN. NO. DL(S)-17/3109/2021-2023
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