Photo has been used for representation purpose only. file | Photo credit: VV Krishnan
MEveryone raised the red flag against a massive infrastructure project called the Char Dham road project being implemented in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. It is indeed turning out to be an unscientific road-building project that will have disastrous consequences for the mountain ecology. The armed forces and authorities, in their enthusiasm for a “smooth” and “fast” “all-weather” connectivity for pilgrims from the plains, ignored the government’s own recommended “best practice norms” to minimize the impact on the mountain . Ecosystem and landscape.
Over the next decade, the government proposes to build 66 tunnels in the Uttarakhand Himalaya and 18 are already operational. The creation of these subsurface structures can cause enormous damage to the environment, including the concentration of pollutants from traffic exhaust, the microenvironment without sunlight, and the limited dispersal in long-distance tunnels. Rail traffic could depend on electric locomotion, but the constant vibrations generated while the train was moving would make the slope of the mountain perpetually unstable and, thus, vulnerable to sliding at the slightest trigger.
Construction of highways and railway tracks has now become a major cause of landslides and its incidence has doubled in the last few years. Increased anthropogenic activities such as road construction have made the mountain slopes extremely unstable. This is the reason that recurring landslides in the Himalayas have increased in number.
Irreversible effects on ground water such as depletion of water table in areas of tunneling have been observed. Erratic rainfall and ecological degradation associated with land-use change for infrastructure development are already affecting mountain aquifer systems. The use of groundwater in the Himalayan states is different from that in the plains, as large and contiguous aquifers do not exist in the hills.
The holy town of Joshimath in Chamoli district, situated at an altitude of 6,150 feet, is rapidly sinking due to human-induced causes. It has been postulated that the Tapovan-Vishnugarh Hydroelectric Project tunnel passing just below Joshimath, which is sited on an old glacial deposit, may have been a contributing factor to the incident. During the construction of the tunnel, a boring machine drilled a hole in a water-bearing layer on the left bank of the Alaknanda River near Shellong village, causing 60–70 million liters of water to flow per day, according to a report published in Mentioned in the report. current science in 2010. This would have led to a gradual decrease in pore-pressure within the sediment, which led to aquifer compaction and ground settlement. The role of pore-pressure in determining slope stability in this region needs to be further studied.
When implementing a free-way project in the Himalayas, a major question arises as to whether the mountain morphology with steep slopes and steep slopes is easily amenable to human engineering – a caveat raised by several expert committees in the past. The steep gradient of the Uttarakhand Himalaya makes it dynamically heterogeneous in terms of climate change and biodiversity. This has been made abundantly clear by a series of recent disasters, the effects of which were exacerbated by unsustainable human interventions in natural systems.
The Himalayan region demands sustainable tourism, not mass tourism. The daily average footfall last year on the Char Dham Marg was said to be around 58,000. The ground report also states that plastic waste dumped in pits and open burning in clean-up operations are highly hazardous. Kedarnath flood of 2013 was a wake-up call. The intensity of the disaster was directly proportional to the disproportionate increase in tourism which led to a construction boom in vulnerable areas such as river valleys, flood plains and slopes prone to landslides.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) report on the Chamoli disaster in April 2022 clearly states that “in the long term, it will be necessary to focus on finding alternative sources of energy, as the area appears to be environmentally sensitive”. “.
The development strategy for the Himalayas should not come at the cost of the environment. It should be based mainly on the natural resources of the region such as forests, water, biodiversity and eco-tourism. Instead of building large dams, the focus should be on smaller projects that help provide local energy supplies. Most of the farmers have now abandoned their traditional practices and only less than 20% of the agricultural land in the Himalayan districts of Uttarakhand is now under cultivation and the rest has become fallow. An appropriate strategy for human welfare should make use of traditional knowledge, agricultural practices, construction practices and local cultural aspects.
Given past experiences of setting up expert committees and ignoring their recommendations, it is not clear what benefit the government would get from setting up another committee. The Joshimath episode is a reminder that the Himalayan environment is at its peak and may not be able to withstand another push generated by intrusive anthropogenic activities in the form of massive construction projects of townships, highways, tunnels, railway tracks and dams – a The ecosystem is already struggling with the consequences of global warming. And, the devotees should be at the forefront to save the “Abode of the Gods”.