Great wake-up call

 

THE visuals of a pick-up van sliding into a fast-flowing, ravaging river several feet below as the mountain-road caved in due to landslide can make anybody shudder in horror. But such as has been the story of the dangerously fragile Himalayan ecology in the past few decades. Most parts in the Himalayan region have been afflicted by countless earthquakes, landslides, flash-floods for quite a long time now. Concerned by this, in response to a litigation seeking stronger measures to protect and preserve the Himalayan ecology, the honourable Supreme Court, too, decided to appoint an amicus curiae to help in deciding the matter. In addition to this measure, several ecology experts the world over have expressed dire concern over the decaying Himalayan ecology and have called for immediate measures to counter the very serious problem. This should be a good enough wake-up call not just for India and other countries in the Himalayan region but also to the whole world to take notice and start taking counter-measures.

 

It is obvious that if immediate action is not initiated in this regard, the Himalayas -- known as abode of gods -- will start wilting and even “vanish in thin air” as per the caution by the honourable Supreme Court. However, the human community will need a lot of courage to admit that its own actions over the past hundred or so years have led to this situation in the Himalayan ecology. This may be too hard a charge to be made against the collective approach of the humanity towards the challenge of declining ecology the world over. But factually, it is necessary to admit that the biggest reason how and why the Himalayan ecology has declined so much is human interference in the system of Nature so classically represented by the Himalayan region. This also is the reality at countless locations around the world -- which we must not ignore in any case. It must also be admitted that environmentalists started a strong movement against human interference in the Himalayas about a hundred years ago.

 

First, their voice was not very strong. But subsequently, their movement to protect and preserve the Himalayan ecology grew louder and stronger. Legendary personalities such as the saintly Sundarlal Bahuguna even launched what came to be famous as ‘Chipko’ movement -- in which environmental volunteers would hug a tree to stop the tree-fellers from doing their evil job. Mr. Bahuguna and several others also raised voice against construction of infrastructures such as Tehri Dam whose dam-wall and resultant reservoir created an undue pressure on the otherwise fragile Himalayan geography and geology. Environmentalists cautioned that the humanity may have to face terrible landslides and earthquakes etc due to the ecological imbalance caused due to structures like the Tehri Dam plus some others. Though the so-called pro-development lobby laughed raucously at Mr. Bahuguna and his tribe, the world soon realised the substance in their early warnings.

 

If the human interference in the name of developmental activity was halted in those early stages, much of the current trouble could have been avoided. But that did not happen -- in other words, not allowed to happen most unfortunately. This does not suggest opposition to creation of infrastructure that may be of great use to the Indian military in the forward regions of the Himalayas. But the Government -- and the pro-development lobby -- went much farther and further to create massive infrastructural network in the Himalayas -- like tunnels and damns and roads and buildings (ostentatiously for public good). In the recent years, the pace of this development in the Himalayan region has acquired lunatic and neurotic proportions. All this needs a serious review -- if we are to protect and preserve the Himalayan ecology.