On the upper reaches of the Gangotri Valley, in the area of Dharali and Harshil, amidst glaciers, pristine waterfalls, and sheer cliffs, a magnificent and dense deodar forest flourishes, with 5 glacier-fed streams also flowing through the area. The girth of the 4,000 tall cedars indicates an age of at least 100 years. Interspersed are oak, chestnut, sea buckthorn, cypress, birch, and other rare species. The entire forest of 7,000 trees is growing on loose avalanche debris, and, thereby, the roots of this ancient forest also stabilise this vulnerable terrain.
On Aug 5 last year, there was the collapse of an ice sheet into Kheer Ganga Gaad above Dharali, leading to an avalanche in the stream. The debris-laden stream then wiped out the largely illegal settlement of Dharali at its base, on its confluence with the Ganga. Consequently, the Harshil Gaad, Jhaala Gaad, Loharinag Gaad, and Limchi Gaad also flooded one after the other.
It took just a few minutes to deposit 50 acres of debris and sludge, weighing 2,50,000 tonnes and 50 feet high, under which a group of 24 childhood friends on a reunion trip were instantly buried alive, as were several workers from Nepal, tourists, and locals. The impact was so severe that the Ganga was also temporarily blocked, creating a lake that posed a threat to the entire valley downstream.
Such horrific disasters are the new normal in the Himalayas, especially Uttarakhand. The Gangotri valley, notified as an eco-zone, has strict regulations for protecting this watershed, which is the origin of the Ganga. It has one of the largest glacier systems in the Himalayas; hence, even the High Powered Committee (HPC) monitoring the ambitious Chardham road-widening project (CDP) recommended that a detailed EIA be done before commencing any works in this valley. The CDP has left a trail of over 800 landslides in its 800 km of completed work so far. The HPC also recommended against the felling of this forest. The Supreme Court had ruled in 2021 that these recommendations were binding on the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
However, MoRTH not only obtained forest clearance for felling these 7,000 trees in just an 11 km stretch but has even demarcated the area as a muck dump site. Experts have repeatedly cautioned against the extra-wide 10m tarred road in the Bhagirathi eco-zone, arguing that a narrower-width road with a 5-7m tarred surface would allow smooth two-way traffic and reduce irreversible environmental damage by almost 90 percent. And the number of trees felled would also drop drastically.
In February this year, Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, Dr Karan Singh, Govindacharya, and Revati Raman Singh wrote to the minister of transport, Nitin Gadkari, cautioning against putting the Himalayas at risk. They cited the precautionary principle, which mandates that where there is a reasonable likelihood of serious or irreversible environmental harm, the absence of absolute scientific certainty cannot be a ground for proceeding with destructive activities. In other words, risks should not be taken with people’s lives and the environment. They requested a narrower road width, keeping in mind the Dharali disaster, and requested that the felling of 7,000 trees be cancelled.
The only change MoRTH made in response to this grave concern was changing the formation width of the road from 12m to 11m. Practically, such a marginal reduction is unlikely to result even in a minor reduction of environmental damage, as various critical parameters of tree felling, deodar felling, soil loss, forest loss, hill cutting, muck generation, and dumping will not be significantly reduced. Most critically, it will hardly reduce hill cutting, which is the key trigger for landslides, slope failures, and a chain of other irreversible destruction.
In fact, the reduction in formation width would likely be achieved by cutting down one metre from earthen shoulders, drains, or crash barriers. This would only compromise the safety of pedestrians. Moreover, there is no provision for a walking path, which is in violation of NGT, Supreme Court, and HPC directives. In fact, the formation width for a 10m DL-PS road was 11m but was increased by the CDP to 12m. All this shows that the reversal back to 11m is a token gesture without serious intent.
Ironically, it was the minister of transport himself who assured Parliament in 2022 that no tree felling would occur. An order was also passed by MoRTH in 2022 to this effect. However, the solution being proposed is transplantation. This appears to be just another ill-thought-out, convenient bluff.
Studies show that the transplantation of pines is notoriously difficult and unsuccessful, and this increases for older trees. Pines cannot easily regenerate the root system required to sustain their massive canopy. A tedious prior preparation of a year is required to prepare the root system for uprooting, and after transplanting, care for up to a decade is required. Transporting these massive trees in this steep, forested, and cliffy terrain is another challenge. Are we going to climb the narrow mountain trails with a 50-foot tree, weighing three tonnes, on our backs? Finding a suitable replacement terrain is the next impossibility, considering that the CDP is struggling to find even muck dump sites. Geologically, uprooting these deep-rooted trees would destabilise vulnerable and disaster-prone terrain. And while one might consider transplanting one or two trees in unmitigable scenarios as a last resort, the notion of transplanting a forest can only be called preposterous.
The stubborn and unscientific adherence to a 10m road width, which is unsupported by the Himalayan terrain, has rendered the four Chardhaam valleys highly susceptible to disasters. It is in violation of the stringent regulations that govern mega-projects in the Bhagirathi eco-zone. Even the cost of mitigation works that the numerous slope failures and chronic landslides now require exceeds the original Rs 12,000 crore cost of the CDP. Thus, we are losing out on all fronts.
The irrational and regressive attitude displayed in the CDP is in stark contrast to the recent far-sighted decision by the government to cancel any new hydroprojects in the upper reaches of the Ganga in order to preserve culture and the environment, especially in view of the repeated disasters striking the region. The logic behind the scrapping of the HEPs automatically applies to the CDP since blanket road-widening is as, if not more, devastating than even HEPs in this terrain. Logically, the government cannot protect an area with one decision and simultaneously devastate it with another that permits large-scale environmental destruction.
Post the 2025 disaster, the district administration has shockingly commenced redirecting the Kheer Ganga Gaad at Dharali to reclaim land, a move that experts warn will render the stream even more disaster-prone. The Uttarakhand govt, which heads the monitoring committee tasked with ensuring that the eco-zone regulations are implemented, has also shown its utter disregard for the eco-zone by green-lighting the CDP widening in the valley despite it violating regulations, allowing rampant illegal construction on the floodplains, and not enforcing the 100m no-construction zone along the Ganga banks.
We have seen slope failures, muck dumping into pristine rivers, decimation of forests when additional slopes collapse after vertical cutting, and loss of irreplaceable topsoil on which forests thrive.
The CDP was never a defence project, although it morphed into one to escape the narrower width that the Supreme Court had initially mandated. But it is high time we accepted the obvious: the environment is of the greatest strategic importance since it impacts survival itself. Half-measures and bluffs will boomerang tragically, for climate change, a burning Himalaya, and melting glaciers are outpacing our paperwork.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
