The Chipko movement (hugging the tree movement), a non-violent social and ecological movement by rural people, particularly women in India was launched in 1973 in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand (then part of Uttar Pradesh). The movement began in response to the increasing destruction of forests for commerce and industry.
When the government-induced exploitation of natural resources started to increasingly threaten the livelihoods of indigenous people in the Himalayan region in India, they sought to stop the destruction using Mahatma Gandhi’s method of Satyagraha or non-violent resistance. Soon, it began to spread throughout the country, becoming an organised campaign known as Chipko Movement. The movement’s major success came in 1980 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s intervention resulted in a 15-year ban on commercial felling of trees in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. Cut to 2023, the Uttarakhand tunnel collapse occurred on the Diwali day of November 12, when a portion of an under-construction 4.5 km-long tunnel shrunken in the district of Uttarkashi.
It took over two weeks for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the police to rescue 41 workers, who were trapped inside the tunnel. The larger question that one needs to realise is why such incidents across the country are happening quite often in the recent past. Are we destroying Mother Nature to such an extent that it is unleashing its fury? Have our Union and State governments not been serious enough in the enactment of appropriate laws and their proper execution in safeguarding the ecological order?
In fact, the Uttarakhand tunnel collapse issue reminds us of some of the top deadly natural disasters that happened in recent times in different regions in the country, including a fragile Himalayan region. They are the Super Cyclone in Odisha in 1999 (over 15,000 people killed); the Gujarat earthquake in 2001 (20,000 deaths); the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 (2.30 lakh deaths); Bihar flood disaster in 2007 (1287 deaths); Uttarakhand flash floods in 2013 (5,700 deaths) and Kashmir floods in 2014 (550 deaths). Chennai floods in 2015, Kerala floods (2018), Himachal Pradesh floods (2023) and Assam Floods (almost every year) are some of the natural disasters that caused a large-scale loss to the public and private properties, in addition to the loss of many lives of humans and livestock in recent times.
Natural disasters triggered about 25 lakh (2.5 million) internal displacements in India in 2022, according to a report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. South Asia witnessed 1.25 core (12.5 million) internal displacements due to disasters in 2022.
The Char Dham Project: An Example of an Unsustainable Development Model
The ongoing Char Dham Project (CDP) in Uttarakhand, which involves the construction of all-weather roads by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) linking the four religious pilgrimages of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath has raised some major issues in respect of India’s approach to protect the ecology and to combat climate change and its impacts.
Fearful Global Challenges behind the Beautiful Himalayas
Behind the beautiful mountain range of the Himalayas lies the fearful challenges! Himalayas are the youngest range of mountains and still in the formative stages. Geological scientists and geotechnical experts clarified that the CDP is a dangerous project and fatality-induced. The region is extremely sensitive to earthquakes and frictional shear rocks also exist.
Preserving the Himalayan Region which consists of some of the Earth’s highest peaks like Mount Everest is a very important global imperative as the Himalayas cross four more countries, in addition to India, viz. Nepal, China, Pakistan, and Bhutan. Therefore, geologists and environmentalists have been posing at least two fundamental questions since the beginning: First, when the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) has been facing a wave of devastation due to the impacts of climate change leading to glacial melt and altered weather patterns and rampant urbanisation, how a very limited carrying capacity of the region could withstand the burden of heavy infrastructure projects such as the Char Dham Project? How much tourism, how many roads, how much cutting of mountains and dumping of the debris into the rivers is good? Second, have the governments considered the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) with all seriousness such projects deserve without exhibiting habitual monumental callousness and slumber of the bureaucracy? The basic idea of the Char Dham Project has been heavily criticised by geologists and experts on the ground that instead of having a single EIA for a around 900 km long project, it was broken into 53 sections so that EIA is prepared for a lesser region. In the process, the impact exhibited for a large ecosystem of 900 km was compromised intentionally and irrationally.
Irresponsible Tourism Causing Pollution
The IHR consists of ten States, of which Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh bear the biggest brunt of irresponsible tourism. Though tourism has brought economic prosperity to the Himalayan region to some extent, the environmental cost has been disastrous. Tourism causes about 80 lakhs (eight million) tons of waste every year, in addition to ten lakh (one million) tons of annual waste produced by the urban population.
By 2025, it is projected that 24 crore (240 million) tourists will visit the hill States every year. It was 10 crore (100 million) in 2018. A study conducted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) found that 55% of waste in IHR is biodegradable and comes largely from homes and restaurants, and 21% is inert such as construction material, and 8% is plastic. If the problem of solid waste disposal is not addressed scientifically, the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas will pay a price the country can ill afford. Given that all our major ice-cold rivers originate in the mountains, it may not be difficult to envisage the calamitous implications. Dumping of biodegradable waste in open places in the Himalayan region is unscientific as in the sub-zero conditions, cold prevents decomposition. That could release harmful gases such as methane and carbon monoxide.
In particular, the release of toxic chemicals into soil (caused by open waste) pollutes river waters when such soil (the leachate) reaches rivers and streams due to rains. Due to air pollution (caused by many factors, including open burning of waste and plastic), pollutants, carbon and other light-absorbing impurities darken glacial snow and trigger melting. In 2016, the Union government issued new rules for handling solid waste; however, like in other regions, the key lies in enforcement.
Comprehensive Action Plan to Check Ecological Destruction
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change (headed by Jairam Ramesh) in its report submitted in March 2023 recommended that the Union environment ministry should prepare a practical and implementable action plan with clear timelines to put a check on ecologically destructive activities in the Himalayan region. The ministry should also formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed in the event of any natural disasters. The House Panel expressed its anguish over the “tremendous increase” of tourist activities in these areas leading to “over-exploitation of natural resources and illegal construction of homestays, guest houses, resorts, hotels, restaurants and other encroachments.”
A more meticulous approach with the only aim of furthering the environmental interests rather than economic interest; Strict actions against illegal constructions; and Need for detailed procedure to be followed by the ministry before giving clearances to construction and infrastructure projects to achieve a proper ecological balance are some important recommendations of the House Panel.
The Standing Committee Chairman, Jairam Ramesh, expressed his dissatisfaction for deliberately not referring the three very important Bills to the Committee. Two of such Bills were intended to radically amend the landmark Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Legal experts and environmentalists warned these Bills passed by the Parliament in last August, without required debate, could magnify commercial exploitation of the country’s ecosystems consisting of trees, plants and other biological resources as well as traditional knowledge, and harm the communities that depend on them.
The legislation also decriminalises violations of the Act. The amendment to the Forest Conservation Act 1980 triggered nationwide protests because in the name of “development” forests would be open for commercial exploitation thereby leading to harming biodiversity and weakening the rights of indigenous peoples. Analysts estimate that nearly 2, 00,000 sq. km. of forest will lose legal protection under the amendment. The reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed out that the projects were not taken up in an integrated manner and blamed NDMA for institutional failures for poor flood management. Capacity building for preparedness, robust early warning systems and mitigation are the need of the hour. India should learn from the best practices of countries such as Hong Kong, China, Japan and South Korea.
India Ranked the Last in the world!
The Environment Performance Index (EPI) measures the environmental health of countries and ranks them accordingly. Started by the World Economic Forum in 2002, EPI aims to encourage countries around the world to make sustainable development a priority. The top countries on the EPI in 2022 were Denmark, the UK, Finland, Malta and Sweden. Ironically, Bharat which is the birthplace of four important religions in the world, and the country where different elements of the Nature such as the trees and rivers are worshipped by the people, is also a country that ranked last out of 180 countries! Sunita Narain, a committed environmentalist, way back in 2013 had advocated a pan-Himalayan development strategy which is based on the region’s natural resources, culture and traditional knowledge. The development strategy also included the voices and concerns of local communities, dependent on forests for their agriculture and basic needs. Are our governments ready to listen to the advocacy of such scientists and environmentalists?
