By Dr. Satish C. Aikant
16 June marks the day when, eleven years ago, a catastrophic flood in the Kedarnath valley in the upper reaches of the Himalayas triggered massive devastation. Entire communities along the banks of the rising Mandakini were perished and vast tracts of land were swept away. Thousands of people (estimated figure 30,000) died and several thousand were stranded in the valley.
Eleven years on, the hills of Uttarakhand remain vulnerable to disasters, both natural and man-made. Lessons from the tragedy have gone largely unheeded. In February 2021, a glacial burst on Rishi Ganga in Chamoli district claimed 204 lives and swept away parts of an ongoing hydropower power plant. Joshimath, gateway town to Badrinath has been impacted by land subsidence first noticed in October 2021, when hundreds of buildings developed cracks which led to the evacuation of several hundreds of residents to safer locations. More recently, in November 2023, Silkyara tunnel (under construction) on Yamunotri national highway in Uttarkashi, collapsed and 41 workers got trapped in it. Fortunately, after a 17-day ordeal they were rescued thanks to the last push by the ‘rat-hole miners.’
Over the years the number of pilgrims to the Char Dham shrines have only increased beyond the carrying capacity of the mountain settlements. What happened in Joshimath may not have been the direct fallout of the multitudes of tourists thronging the holy town but it is certainly one of the weighty reasons why the town was sinking. The major factor attributed is the blasting of earth for construction of a National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) tunnel as part of an ongoing hydroelectric power project. As early as in 1976 a committee headed by M. C. Mishra, the then Commissioner of Garhwal, investigating the problem of land subsidence in and around Joshimath had cautioned the state government against undertaking major construction works in the region in view of its vulnerability to landslides. Subsequently, several other reports flagged similar concerns which, however, went unheeded. In 2022 the environmentalist Ravi Chopra heading a Supreme Court appointed panel to monitor the road widening project reported: ‘I have seen engineers armed with modern technological weapons assaulting the Himalayas. They have slashed through pristine forests, wounding vulnerable Himalayan slopes to widen highways. Ever-increasing numbers of tourists speed along them, their vehicles spewing noxious gases that cover the towering peaks ahead in an unsightly haze. The engineers exult and circulate photographs proving their conquest of Nature, little realising that they too are a part of Nature and cannot survive if their own natural environment is destroyed.’ But his was a cry in the wilderness. Expressing his disappointment over permission for the brazen widening of roads being given in the ecologically fragile Himalayas Chopra resigned from the panel when his objections were ignored. As things go, the current government in the centre considers social activists and socially committed NGOs as enemies of the state inimical to its grand idea of ‘development.’
Pilgrimages are perhaps the earliest form of tourism. Yet in the earlier times individuals who undertook arduous and perilous religious journeys were typically pilgrims. The concept of pilgrimage in the Hindu faith is conceived as all-embracing and intertwining the spirit of religion, tradition and eco-sensitivity. A pilgrim’s journey relates to the internal ‘spiritual’ purpose that draws the devout to an external centre, a holy site. This intrinsic belief generates a sense of piety or devotion that eventually urges the individual to seek out and unite the self with the external centre which is considered as holy by the individual. A tourist on the other hand is driven solely by the exteriority of the landscape even without considering the necessity of negotiating the internal journey. There may however be tourists who may find congruence with the pilgrims within them. But such individuals are very few; the majority are out for fun and adventure and in search of the exotic to make it essentially a sensual experience.
Given the premise that traditional religious centres naturally attract the pilgrims and the tourists alike, there seems to be a growing concern that of late sacred sites have been inundated by tourists instead of pilgrims. Democratization of leisure, social mobility, holiday packages and speedy transport networks are some of the contributory factors leading to mass tourism. While enormous profits are made from the ever-increasing tourist influx into the sensitive and fragile regions of the Himalayas the attitude eventually leads to the desacralization of shrines and pilgrim routes and practices, undermining the true spirit of pilgrimage. With a change in the predominant function of pilgrimages to tourism, the perception of Himalayan biospheres has undergone a paradigm shift –from conservation and sustainability to commercialism and consumerism. The Himalayan environments and communities have been under constant siege by powerful commercial interests often in collusion with the state.
The objectives of the governments’ tourism policies ought to be to look beyond increasing the numbers of tourist arrivals and revenue earnings to the effects of the increased tourism activity on the socio-cultural well-being of society at large. The obsession with the economic parameters of tourism must be reconsidered and reconfigured. At present there is no auditing of the social and cultural effects of tourism.
When there was a notification by the Union Environment Ministry declaring the Parasnath Hill, an eco-sensitive zone, home to Sammed Shikhar, an important Jain pilgrimage site in Giridih district in Jharkhand, to promote it as a tourist spot, members of the Jain community were up in arms (not literally since Jains are known to scrupulously practise non-violence). The Jain seers remonstrated that the move would disrupt the sanctity and decorum of the hill which is dotted with several temples. As the protests became widespread across Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, the central government was forced to withdraw the decision. In sharp contrast, the local businessmen and the panda- purohits (priests) always oppose the move whenever the Uttarakhand government tries to restrict the number of visitors to the shrines.
Given that it is not possible to stem the tide of world-wide tourism that is taking place in this era of globalization, or to dismiss its positive role in wholesome development one needs to adopt an approach suited to local conditions. The hills of Uttarakhand are fragile and vulnerable and tourism is often subject to the vagaries of weather. The news of an imminent thunderstorm or heavy downpour instantly flashed on the TV screen is enough to scare away the hopeful tourists, making a steady tourist traffic to the hills a rather precarious proposition. The experts believe that the climate emergency will only increase the vulnerability to extreme weather events in the Himalayas. One cannot therefore be solely dependent upon tourism as a viable economic activity. The government must provide infrastructure and facilities to generate alternative sources of income for the local population to hold them back from migrating away.
Pilgrimages in recent times are fuzzily interpreted. Having commenced as an act of piety, its practice is now diluted by the masses as mere rituals or perfunctory visitations to the sacred shrines. One needs to draw a line between a pilgrim and the mainstream tourist; the former driven by religious faith while the latter is out on an excursion. We must understand that the sacred sites are not for consumption but for devotion. The places like Mussoorie, Nainital or Shimla are different from Badrinath and Kedarnath. The approach to tourism to these places will have to be different. It is not a very good idea to ‘develop’ the places of pilgrimage in lines of luxury tourism that merely promotes the culture of consumption rather than religious fervour. The Himalayan pilgrimages do not merely entail the physical act of visiting the holy places, but should also imply mental and moral discipline without which pilgrimage would have very little significance.
Himalayan glaciers are retreating due to global warming, triggering a host of related phenomenon that require close study. In view of the overall scenario Uttarakhand needs development that should be sustainable within the context of the region’s ecology, geography and cultural norms. Sustainable development is environmentally sound, economically viable, and equitable. Unfortunately, the government in its enthusiasm for rapid economic growth and unfettered development ignores well- meaning opinions. Reports of expert committees are not placed in public domain and crucial information is suppressed to avoid its possible political fallout. People do have the right to know about the government policies and programmes which impact their lives and future. There should be more deference to participatory democracy.
(The writer is former Professor and Head of the Department of English, H.N.B. Garhwal University)
