Debris dumping causing damage to civic infrastructure

Conceived as a green project to ease transportation, the widening and strengthening of the 97-km Paonta Sahib-Shillai-Gumma highway coming up in Sirmaur-Shimla districts has become a peril for the residents owing to slew of environmentally degrading aftereffects.

Unscientific muck dumping has emerged as the key cause of concern to the residents as it has damaged arable land of the residents besides choking water bodies and causing colossal loss to the civic infrastructure. Though the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is hearing a petition filed by a local resident Naathu Ram Chauhan who has expressed concern at the ecological degradation caused by use of gelatin for blasting as well as unscientific disposal of muck, little has been done to rectify the damage by the officials of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) as well as the district administration.

The 97-km highway is being widened in five parcels with work having been completed for three parcels and the remaining slated to be completed by June end. Though the NGT has directed the MORTH to ensure that restoration of water schemes in parcels where work has been completed should be executed, only partial restoration work has been undertaken.

While damage caused due to reckless muck dumping has been estimated at Rs 90.60 lakh in the forest area, the Jal Shakti Department (JSD) has suffered loss to the tune of Rs 2.22 crore as hand pumps, water schemes and its paraphernalia. “The entire Paonta Sahib-Shillai highway was dotted with natural water channels which were used by the passers-by for drinking. A striking difference one notices after widening of the highway is their sudden disappearance as one sees unscientific muck being disposed of in seasonal nullahs and on arable land,” laments Ramesh, a resident of a village in Shillai.

Measures like relocation of hand pumps listed in the environment impact assessment report of the project have remained confined to the files.

The highway lies in the Seismic Zone IV which is considered a high-risk damage zone for earthquakes. As much as 85 per cent of the terrain is steep with soil being alluvial and sandstone which are inherently considered weak for construction owing to their low load bearing capacity. Key questions have arisen about the fragile ecology.

One can estimate the colossal damage caused to the arable land and civic infrastructure with a recent NGT-constituted committee report highlighting how muck has been dumped in places like vicinity of Chikhar bridge near Gangtoli damaging arable land. Entire seasonal nallah at Nario near the Zero Point on Milla road has been choked with muck. Residents fear it could trigger a flash flood during the rains. The muck flowed down further into Nera nullah in the last monsoon aggravating the woes of the locals pointed out the committee report.

In a dumping yard near Bandali village the muck inundated a large chunk of private land causing immense damage and enhancing the village’s vulnerability to erosion. Similar plight was visible at villages like Ashiyari, where several houses have been endangered due to muck.

About 17 per cent of the population in the project area is engaged in agriculture. Many of them experienced sharp dip in earning as their fields have been inundated with muck.

The project’s environment impact assessment report highlights the need for minimising debris generation. This was merely confined to the files as one saw huge dumps of muck being conveniently thrown down from the fragile hills in utter disregard of the environmental damage.