 |
The demand is so huge that hotels along the yatra route earn
their year’s revenue during these four months that includes
the monsoon. |
By: Mukul Sanwal
The recent natural disaster in Uttarakhand should help focus on the problem of
development in the Himalayas. Why has a natural disaster led to human suffering on such a scale? It is due to the lack of proper development, and not because of it.
Floods occur frequently in this region due to the steep slopes and shallow soils, and the damage can be severe. It assumes unmanageable proportions on account of the huge influx of population for the yatra.
The number of pilgrims has surged, creating pressure for infrastructure such as new hotels, parking spaces and services. The demand is so huge that hotels along the yatraroute earn their year's revenue during these four months that includes the monsoon. But extensive damage is a relatively new phenomenon. The traditional hill village was situated on gentle slopes.
Roads, or walking tracks, extended in anetwork to ensure easy accessibility. This changed when some alignments were upgraded for road transport, linking the valleys that generated commercial activity. An example of faulty decision-making is housing the training academy of the paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal in the flood plain. The primary response to the present disaster has focused on the visible aspect of the problem: the extent of damage to the mountain and surrounding environment. It ignores socio-economic problems of the local population.
Exclusive focus on river systems — such as declaration of the Bhagirathi watershed as a sensitive eco-zone — would not have helped as Kedarnath is in the Mandakini basin and that logic requires the entire state to be declared eco-sensitive. The policy failure lies with the Planning Commission. Scientific recommendations tell us what should not be done, and if all of them were put together, we will end up in bankruptcy.
Scientific departments rely on consultants' reports, rather than get these peer-reviewed to produce authoritative statements on the geology, hydrology and resilience of ecosystems. Setting up another Cabinet panel and sanctioning Rs 1,000 crore for rehabilitation solves only a political problem, not the core problem. Sustainable development goals for the Himalayan states have been poorly defined and analysis is limited to inputs of state intervention in economic terms. The social implications and development impact on the ecosystem need to be studied for policy responses. In Uttarakhand, over 90% of villages have a population of less than 500.
They account for two-thirds of the rural population, and over two-thirds of the family income depends on remittances from employment provided by the yatraand migration. The potential for industry is limited and unemployment is a social problem. All political parties agree about tapping the hydroelectric potential of the state. However, this alone will not be enough to spur economic growth.
The answer lies in seeing the Himalayan ecosystem and the yatraas opportunities for sustainable development. The strategic policy issue is not how to minimise environmental risk but how to ensure human wellbeing within ecological limits. First, we have to link hydro projects with massive afforestation in the catchments to stabilise the slopes, check silting, increase the life of projects and enhance ecosystem services.
The main criterion for their location should be geological stability. Second, as three-quarters of the area belongs to government, a network of new townships and transportation hubs can be established away from the fragile slopes. This will open alternative routes that are dispersed across the state; an old yatraroute cuts across Kumaon instead of following the Alaknanda river.
Expanded facilities from all the railheads will develop a network of routes so that damage in one area does not affect evacuation. The need is to have adequate parking spaces, hotels in scenic locations to encourage year-round yatraand related tourism. Encouraging people to stay and travel across the state for at least a fortnight can bring in over half the GDP from tourism.
Third, climate should be seen as an asset. Also, focus on technical education will enable a shift from farming to an urbanised service economy. Merely restoring damaged infrastructure is not a reconstruction plan.
The writer is a former civil servant hailing from Uttarakhand
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