Travelure
By Hugh & colleen Gantzer
The night of Thursday-Friday was the hottest we have known in Mussoorie. We awoke thinking we were still in our Naval cottage on Foreshore Road in Willingdon Island, Katari Bagh in the Southern Naval Command, Cochin. But we were in our 192-year old cottage in the oak woods of Mussoorie. The heat reminded us that the ogre of Climate Change was upon us. But so was the solution evolved by our wonderful Indic Ingenuity.
We have a copy of the views expressed by The National Green Tribunal at their hearing on 26.07.2023. Their observation must condition the response of our state government to the challenges of Climate Change.
- The National Green Tribunal ( NGT) has referred to a report which claims THAT
OUT OF 106 HOTELS ONLY 18 HOTELS POSSESS THE DESIRED CONSENT TO OPERATE. This is a disturbing revelation particularly in view of
the allegedly illegal activities associated with the establishment in which the late Ankita Bhandari worked.
- IT HAS BEEN SUBMITTED THAT AS PER ASSESSMENT OF JAL SANSTHAN TOTAL WATER REQUIREMENT IN MUSSOORIE IS 15.78 MLD, OUT OF WHICH REGULAR WATER SUPPLY OF JAL SANSTHAN IS 7.69 MLD. FURTHER THE YAMUNA RIVER PUMPING WATER SCHEME FOR MUSSOORIE HAS BEEN MADE OPERNATIONAL FROM JUNE 2023 PROVIDING 5 MLD IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE REGULAR SUPPLY.
MOREOVER, THE JAL SANSTHAN HAS INFORMED THAT FROM SEPTEMBER 2023 ONWARD ADDITIONAL 6 MLD WATER WILL BE SUPPLIED TO MUSSOORIE, THEREBY PROVIDING ADEQUATE WATER SUPPLY TO MET THE DEMAND. This, presumably, excludes any new water connections sanctioned by the Jal Nigam/Jal Sansthan/Mussoorie-Dehra Dun Development Authority (MDDA).
- THE STATE PCB HAS NOT TAKEN ACTION AGAINST UNITS/HOTELS WHICH ARE IN OPERATION WITHOUT ANY CONSENT AND FURTHER STATE PCB HAS NOT TAKEN ANY STEPS AGAINST THE PAST VIOLATION. In the absence of any acceptable explanation this would indicate a degree of culpability that strikes at the root of one of the two major economic activities of our state.
- ENSURE FUNCTIONAL STP. Many years ago the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee for Dehra Dun and Mussoorie proposed that the entire sewage disposal system of Mussoorie be modernised. The existing system was laid down by the British and was based on large septic tanks. This has outlived its utility. The installation of a network of sewage treatment plants was accepted by the state government.
Chlorophyll-bearing green plants and oxygen-breathing animals have evolved in a balanced recycling system. Plants breathe in carbon dioxide, use chlorophyll and the power of sunlight to break the carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen. They use the carbon to build their tissues and release the oxygen for animals to breathe. Animals, then, breathe out carbon dioxide and excrete waste. Microbial life forms break up this waste to produce nutrients which the plants absorb through their roots. When mankind produces more waste than the existing plant life can recycle, green house gasses collect and Climate Change threatens the earth by reflecting back the heat produced by mankind’s activities.
Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) increase the rate at which human waste is recycled and thereby slow down Climate Change. Consequently any delay in setting up STPs should be viewed as a culpable reluctance to curb the Monster of Climate Change.
Although the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee for Mussoorie and Dehra Dun emphasised the importance of installing STPs in Mussoorie, years ago, the progress on setting up these facilities has been tardy. The following STPs are still not able to process Mussoorie’s growing human waste:- LIBRARY, COMPANY GARDEN, CAMEL’S BACK, ARCADIA, AND DHOBIGHAT.
The NGP has drawn public attention to the dangers of drawing water from the Dhobighat and Mussoorie Jeel Area. But much of Mussoorie’s water however is also pumped up from the springs in deep valleys. The British era septic tanks are also located in valleys. Can our sarkar carry out a survey, on a war footing, to assure the people of Mussoorie that sewage from old septic tanks is not leaking into our springs? This is a real and present danger because those pre-47 septic tanks are probably handling the human waste generated by the enormous rise in Mussoorie’s population.
And we have said nothing about the allied dangers associated with earth movements and landslides caused by so-called developers and the Forest Mafia.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first-person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.) (The opinions and thoughts expressed here reflect only the authors’ views!).
