Asia Pacific Research

Civil Society magazine has recently published a series of interviews with eminent persons who are very well-informed regarding the Himalayan region. One of them, Sonam Wangchuk, the famous environmentalist from Ladakh, told the magazine how even really needed steps like renewable energy can create problems if these are not implemented in tune with an understanding of local conditions.

Wangchuk said,

“I am a fan of solar power. But the way it’s being done is what I have problems with. No local people are consulted. Land is just getting earmarked because it looks like flat wasteland. But what meets the eye is not the reality. These seeming wastelands are the source of food for tens of thousands of groups. Sheep. Yaks. They don’t know that this is how life survives in Ladakh. It’s not like lush green pastures. The pastures in Ladakh are very different.”

He added,

“They think that these are all easily available for solar power plants. If the locals had been asked, they would have shown other places where animals don’t graze. If I had been asked, I would have shown them how to take solar power from the top of mountains and leave the pastures to the goats and sheep below. It would have been a win-win situation where the local herders would get twice their fodder and the nation solar power.”

Such experiences have convinced Wangchuk of the urgent need for decentralization so that development takes place in accordance with real needs of people and specific local conditions best understood by them. In his own words,

“For the Himalayas as a whole I think there should be special provisions that give local elected bodies powers to take stewardship of their areas, mostly environmentally and culturally, because these cultures have kept the Himalayas alive and safeguarded…Now these policies have to be framed, but in the case of Ladakh there is already one and that’s the Sixth Schedule of Article 244 of the Indian Constitution which gives indigenous tribal communities more control over of how the region is managed through the public representatives who have law-making powers as regards to their areas, environment, land, forests, customs…”.

Regarding some disturbing recent trends Wangchuk said,

“Corporation squeeze and extract their profits in a decade or two and then leave the place. It is a use-and-throw style.”

Civil Society magazine also spoke to Ravi Chopra, Founder of People’s Science Institute who has headed environment committees of the Supreme Court in the past. Emphasizing the importance of being very cautious in these times, he told the magazine,

“My primary concern is that we are standing at the very edge of a tipping point, beyond which are catastrophic impacts and possibly irreversible climate change.” 

Referring to increasing disasters he said that when the western disturbance collides with the summer monsoon clouds, it produces disasters but we are not prepared adequately for this. The probability of GLOFs (glacial lake outburst floods) is increasing too. In the 1500-2000 meters altitude belt, where most hill stations are located, many water springs are drying up fast. Plans to cut 65,000 trees in Doon Valley have been approved, he said.

P.D.Rai, a former Member of Parliament and founder-member of Integrated Mountain initiative told Civil Society magazine that the Planning Commission had agreed to set up a separate group for the mountains but then the Commission itself was dissolved.

Pointing to the devastating impact of a single GLOF in Sikkim dated October 3, 2023 on this state Rai stated,

“One GLOF has crippled our hydel power generation. It has destroyed our road infrastructure. Hotels are empty because the tourists have stopped coming. As a result, livelihoods are on the line. With power generation affected, the government is not earning and having difficulties even in paying salaries.”

What all these interviews (for the entire text see Civil Society Magazine issues of November and December 2024) bring out is the compelling need for a more protective policy for the Himalayan region based on sustainable livelihoods, protection of environment and empowered, more self-reliant rural communities, functioning in very creative ways in conditions of decentralization, at the same time also protecting national defense interests in border area and strategically important areas, with very friendly relations existing between national policy makers and defense forces on the one hand and the local empowered communities on the other hand.

The Indian Himalayas stretch majestically for nearly 2500 km across 13 states and union territories. Nearly 50 million people live here, but the number of people whose life is closely influenced by the Himalayas is many times more, with a heavy concentration in the densely populated Gangetic plains.

For all their outward grandeur, the Himalayas are geologically young and fragile formations, prone to disturbances and landslides. Most of this region falls in the highest seismicity zone. Hence policies for this region should take extra care to be protective towards the environment, particularly forests and rivers, towards the people living here and the much larger number influenced by what happens in the Himalayan region.

At the national level, people tend to discuss the Himalayan region in terms of tourism and pilgrimage destinations, but greater attention should be given to the lives and livelihoods of common people living in the Himalayan region as well as the need to protect environment in such ways that the impact of Himalaya locally and more widely remains protective. Cooperation with other Himalayan countries should also be based on sharing such concerns with them and minimizing conflict to the extent possible given the geopolitical realities.  

The Himalayas with their varying heights and slopes, peaks and valleys are suitable for preserving rich biodiversity. The traditional farming practices have made good use of this to provide a diversity of nutritious food, which is particularly rich in millets and herbs. Some farm scientists who were trained in green revolution monocultures could not appreciate these strengths and so very disruptive new crops and technologies were introduced at some places. Fortunately this mistake is being realized at several places. There are several initiatives to base farming more on organic and natural methods which are led by Sikkim but can be seen also in other places. This is welcome, but often a holistic approach of natural farming is missing in official efforts.

Forests are crucial for protecting Himalayan ecology, but with due care and understanding, they can also play the most important role in supporting sustainable livelihoods of local people. This would be based on providing people livelihoods in protecting forests and biodiversity, regenerating mixed natural forests with due place for more soil and water conserving trees like the oak, and giving people much better rights over sustainable use of minor forest produce. A rural economy based on such protective livelihoods, fruits and dry fruits, organic farm produce in raw and processed forms, supported further by eco-friendly tourism and pilgrimage can provide a firm livelihood base without endangering environment.

Unfortunately not just tourism but even pilgrimages are getting highly commercialized, with record numbers of helicopter sorties bringing pilgrims to their favored shrines. Instead of allowing all this to be guided mainly by commercial factors, we must bring in important factors like protecting environment and promoting livelihoods of common hill people. 

There has been a lot of controversy around several big development projects, particularly dam and highway projects. A time has come when the government should make room for a completely unbiased evaluation of the overall impact of these projects so that future policy is guided entirely by the most unbiased conclusion that can be drawn from the experiences so far. There are several concerns—loss of forests and trees, destabilization of slopes and land-slides, displacement of people among them—but a particularly serious concern is that of avoiding any massive disasters.

The role which hydel projects had played in aggravating the highly disastrous floods in Uttarakhand in 2013 has been widely discussed and even a committee appointed at the initiative of the Supreme Court had drawn attention to this. We cannot forget that about 6,000 human lives were lost in these floods, perhaps more. A big priority should be to avoid this kind of big disasters. More than one officially appointed committee has drawn attention to very serious risks associated with the Tehri Dam Project in Uttarakhand, for instance, and we should not ignore or neglect such well-documented warnings, supported by scientific evidence and voiced by eminent experts. The planned Chinese biggest hydel project in Medog region in Tibet Autonomous area is surely a disaster in the making and should be given up.

Sunderlal Bahuguna had devoted his life to protecting Himalayan ecology as well as sustainable livelihoods. He used to say—Ecology is permanent economy. He went on long foot marches to hundreds of villages to find practical ways of applying this principle. He as well as his companions contributed much in this direction.

They emphasized that ecological tasks cannot be taken up in social isolation. Hence they placed equal emphasis on justice for women and pleaded for wider social roles for them. Women have justified this trust by playing very important role in the chipko movement, anti-liquor movements and peace initiatives.

These activists also emphasized equal opportunities and empowerment of dalits as well as inter-faith harmony. Their work is a valuable guide for evolving a socio-economic and ecological agenda for the Himalayan region, integrating many-sided justice with environmental concerns.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Man over Machine, Protecting Earth for Children and A Day in 2071. He is a regular contributor to Asia-Pacific Research.

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