Exercise restraint

THE Supreme Court recently proposed to set up a panel of experts to assess the carrying capacity of the Himalayan region. It asked the Central Government to provide names of three institutions capable of planning and implementing such a study. This came in the backdrop of the recent devastation in Himachal Pradesh due to unprecedented heavy rain accompanied by flashfloods and landslides.

The Tribune Debate: Flood fury in HP has underlined the fragility of the Himalayan region. Preventive steps are a must to arrest the slide

This study can provide a basis for future directions to ensure rational and sustainable development in the Himalayan region spread across 13 states and UTs. It will also act as an essential tool for evidence-based policymaking and execution and offer medium/long-term help in strengthening disaster prevention, preparedness and response capacities at the state and local levels.

The study, as proposed by the Supreme Court, will be an opportunity to conduct an analysis based on a critical review of the carrying capacity by a mapping of the tourist places of the entire Himalayan region of India. It could also ascertain, based on real-time data, the factors responsible for the enhanced impact of disasters in various regions. And finally, based on the findings, it can recommend or suggest a way forward in terms of policy and practices to prevent or mitigate the impact of disasters on lives and livelihoods, especially at the community level.

The Himalayan region has several popular tourist destinations. The carrying capacity of such places is closely linked to the population residing permanently and the number of visiting tourists. An assessment should, therefore, take into account factors such as seasonal influx of tourists to the hills and intensive infrastructure development that puts additional burden on the carrying capacity in terms of land use for construction activities, income and quality of services provided.

The carrying capacity is associated with sustainable development as well as the potential impact of climate change. It has a lot to do with the level of human activity that an area can withstand without deterioration of its physical, economic and social environment. Exceeding the carrying capacity has impacted both local residents and tourists.

While gauging the maximum carrying capacity in a particular area is a challenging proposition, it is clear that many areas in the Himalayan region seem to have already exceeded their capacity. Moreover, the impact of climate change is being felt more severely in areas with an overstretched carrying capacity, as witnessed in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

Evidence shows that climate change is accelerating and the extreme weather events are increasing both in frequency and intensity. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change is a human-induced phenomenon and so are most of the disasters that occur in the hills. In the Himalayas, it is also becoming increasingly clear that haphazard, unplanned and unregulated construction in the name of development and to cater to the needs of tourists is working as a force multiplier in terms of the impact of climate change.

Besides melting of glaciers in the Himalayas due to global warming, human activities such as encroachment of riverbeds, building of hotels and houses on the riverside, widening of roads by indiscriminate cutting of slopes beyond what is desirable, tunnelling by blasting of rocks, construction of dams and dumping of resultant muck in rivers and streams are disturbing the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas, leading to frequent flashfloods and landslides.

The push for running hydropower projects beyond their capacity is also not environmentally and socially sustainable, especially in remote, environmentally fragile and climatically vulnerable areas such as Pangi and Lahaul & Spiti. These factors must be taken into consideration in the context of the carrying capacity of various areas.

Given this background, it is clear that we must revisit our present development model and come up with an entirely new approach to development in the Himalayan region — one that is climate-resilient and sustainable, and suitable for the well-being of residents as well as of tourists. The ‘business as usual’ approach will not do.

The findings of the proposed study on the carrying capacity and its recommendations can pave the way for a development model that is environment-friendly and economically as well as socially viable.

In the short term, however, there should be a moratorium on all large mega projects in the Himalayan region; hydropower projects planned in areas such as Lahaul & Spiti should be scrapped immediately. All new developmental activities must be carefully scrutinised, planned well and properly implemented according to the norms laid down.

Before starting any infrastructure development project, an environmental impact assessment needs to be conducted thoroughly. As such developmental activities have made the Himalayan region extremely unstable, efforts must be made to restore its stability and tread a cautious path in the future.

Rules or the standard operating procedures (SOPs) must be followed strictly by contractors engaged in highway construction or building of hotels or houses. They must be held accountable if found flouting rules and regulations. Clearly, the focus of the governments at the state and local levels should be on the environmental aspects of development works, identification of landslide-prone places and increasing the emergency response capacity.

Finally, we must learn from past mistakes and not repeat them as we move towards making the Himalayas disaster-resilient. In doing so, we must heed Mahatma Gandhi’s message, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”