The Himalayas, home to the third-largest volume of frozen ice and earth’s youngest mountain range, is facing severe environmental issues. Human-induced climate change and global warming is speeding up its melting
process, causing instability in some of Asia’s major rivers, which provides water to one third of all population. Adding to this destruction is the Char Dham Highway project. This road is the largest road construction project of the region, stretching for approximately 900 km and connecting the four holy sites, Chardham in Uttarakhand: Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
Many critics note that construction of this project will have severe repercussions. Building any road in the Himalayan mountain range is only possible by scooping soil from its hillside and uprooting trees from the surroundings. Since its construction in 2016, 47,043 trees have been lost from 700 hectares of forest land. Rocks and debris fallen from the construction site, out of negligence or by conscious dumping, has blocked the usual flow of many rivers. Worse is that at the start of 2020, the region experienced 11 landslides. This has forced many to label the project as an example of hasty development and a blunder.
Guidelines for planning in Himalayas
Knowing the vulnerability of the Himalayan ecology, the National Environment Policy of 2006, dictates that construction in mountain region should cause minimal damage to its sensitive ecosystem. The Ministry of Science and Technology in 2010 came up with the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Eco-system. Under its ‘Green Road Construction’, it recommends two aspects to consider before indulging in any construction: One is that any state or National road above 5 km length will have to undergo Environmental Impact Assessment; and second is that the construction of the road should be done by ensuring no instability occurs in the hill-slope.
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Many note that the Char Dham project defies both these statements. In its aim to create a road for boosting tourism, the Union government has overlooked many environmental concerns.
The plan passed through loopholes
The Environmental Impact Assessment mandates that any large-scale construction should first clear its assessment of possible ecological harm. The Char Dham project, a 900 km road, didn’t appear for it. The entire project was presented by segmenting it into small parts, not larger than 100 km, to get through the limit set by the government. In 2018, Green Doon, an environmental NGO, filed a petition against its construction. Seeing this, a 26-member committee was setup to assess the impact of the road on the Himalayan environment.
The committee was chaired by Ravi Chopra, Director of People’s Science Institute, Uttarakhand. Along with him, few independent experts were in the team. The bulk of the members were scientists of government-funded institutions, district magistrates and officials from environment and defence ministries. Before the chairperson, could know the government officials in the committee, Ravi Chopra sent the final report stating that the report reflected the majority opinion on the construction. Chopra wrote a letter confessing his unawareness two days later.
Seeing the backlash the project was receiving, Union minister Nitin Gadkari shared his views on the matter. He said that the construction of the road was critical as it is linked to China’s border. He further mentioned that the road will be built but not at the cost of the environment. Speaking to NDTV, he said, “If we have to uproot a tree, then it (will) be transplanted” and if the possibility of transplanting a tree is not possible, then 10 trees would be planted for the loss of one. But this argument does not hold true if one looks at the damage this project is doing environmentally.
Destruction of flora and fauna
The rich flora and fauna of the Himalayan region cannot be transplanted. Out of all the flowering plants in India, this region alone has 50 per cent or 8000 species of it. Further, it has 1740 medicinal plants and 816 tree species. Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and Mandakini valleys provide excellent defence against erosion and are a major sink of carbon dioxide, as reported by the Wire Science. It also provides habitat to exotic species like Snow Leopard and Musk Deer. In its river flows fish species like common snow trout and brown trout.
The construction of the Char Dham project has already uprooted near 50,000 trees. These include trees like Himalayan Cedar (deodar) birch and oak. These high-altitude plant species grow painstakingly slow and cutting them has robbed many animals and birds from their natural habitat. Apart from habitat, these trees also provided massive protection against soil erosion. Without the support of trees to hold soil, along with no meshes by people constructing the road, the soil gets mixed in the river causing destruction of algae and aquatic flora and fauna.
Frequent floods and landslides
The cutting of trees has also triggered many landslides in this region. Out of the 174 hill-slope constructions, 102 were found to be prone to landslides. On 31st July, massive debris fell from the construction site onto the house killing three members in Rishikesh.
Impact of climate change
The Himalayan range observes more impact of climate change than the rest of India combined. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019 states that with a 1.5ºC increase of temperature, 50 per cent of Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2100. It also predicts extreme monsoons with a 20 per cent rise in the annual rainfall that can cause glacial lake burst, flash floods and avalanches.
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Many prominent rivers of the subcontinent derive its water from this region including Ganga and Brahmaputra.
Changes in the Himalaya will cause unpredictable consequences in these water bodies along with the towns adjoining it.
Similar warnings are also recited in the paper titled Climate Change in the Himalayas. Another factor contributing stress to this area is increased human activity caused by tourism. This region is now witnessing increased construction, rampant transportation (especially of diesel vehicles) and waste generation (that ends up in its river shores). According to the Mission Namami Gange (2017), 54 MLD of untreated sewage is found in Ganga from Rishikesh and Haridwar alone. Rishikesh has witnessed a rise in air pollution, PM 10, within five years.
The cost of development
No one is denying the validity and need of development in fragile landscapes like the Himalayas. Especially when the state receives more than 50 per cent of its GDP from tourism. Even Japan, a land prone to earthquakes, manages to build capable and sound infrastructure. But given the fragile and vulnerable nature of this area, one should inject development by minimizing risks and dangers on the environment. But if expert agencies including the Geological Survey of India and Earth Scientists from IIT Roorkee vote against such construction, it raises one question: What is the right balance between development and destruction?
