The high cost of Himalayan ruin

Road projects without prior green clearance will be devastating for the region’s ecology

The Union environment ministry plans to exempt highway projects critical to the country’s defence or that are of strategic importance near the nation’s borders, from the requirement of prior environment clearance, this newspaper reported on Thursday. Instead, the draft notification, on April 11, prescribed environmental safeguards for self-compliance by developers. This pro-infrastructure stand is not unanticipated: In 2021, the Centre used the same defence-strategic requirement argument in the Supreme Court (SC) in the Char Dham Pariyojna (CDP) case. This argument was accepted by the SC. Environmentalists and geologists opposed the government’s stand because India’s northern borders fall in the highly ecosensitive Himalayan region.

The Himalayan landscape is not just strategically crucial to India, but also has a huge role to play in ecological, economic, and cultural development. Its role has become even more critical in the era of the climate crisis. The region has faced challenges due to excessive focus on commercial forestry, cascading hydropower projects, mining, and unbridled tourism. These have led to deforestation, biodiversity loss, toxic waste accumulation, air pollution, and degradation of water sources. The impacts are evident: The once-pristine hills stations of the Himalayan region — Shimla, Darjeeling, and Shillong — now look like unplanned metropolises; every monsoon leads to floods and landslides; and getting a clear view of the Himalayan range is often a challenge because of the haze. The Himalayas also play a role in regulating the monsoons, and is home to some of the major rivers — essential for water security. The region is also a seismic zone.

The massive road-building projects in the pipeline will only devastate an already ravaged landscape. It is futile to hope that developers will follow the selfcompliance guidelines in the absence of strong governance and oversight mechanisms. While the nation’s security is paramount, it also critical to keep in mind what the SC-mandated panel on CDP said in its report: “Today, worldwide, it is becoming clearer by the minute that any development devoid of honest and uncompromising ecological concerns will prove short-sighted; and inevitably in the long run bring devastation and disaster on our heads.” The government should remember that the costs of the large-scale and long-term devastation, which extensive road-building will unleash, may be too high to bear.