Rajesh Chandel, a hospitality professional and native of Himachal Pradesh, says unplanned growth and rampant exploitation of resources put the hill state in a dangerous position. His views:
According to government estimates, since the arrival of monsoon in mid-June, Himachal Pradesh has incurred a loss of over ₹5,000 crore. And the monsoon mayhem continues, this figure is increasing by the day with fresh reviews and assessments. Though the government is trying its best to compensate the losses to the best of its ability, most of the losses are bound to repeat again if we do not mend our ways of exploiting nature in every possible way.
The entire state is falling short of river beds thanks to the uncontrolled building activity that has encroached the threshold area of the rivers leaving no options for the rivers other than to break free and swallow everything that comes its way. Besides, the deforestation is also being carried ruthlessly leaving no option for the rain water to seep back in the ground; this also results in more frequent landslides.
The state saw this kind of destruction in the early 90s and that too when constructions and deforestation was not on such dangerous levels. This time, nature has been more ruthless and not a single district of the state has been spared of mass destruction. Sand mining mafias are also adding dangerously to the cause of the extinction of the state and the authorities still do not have any concrete measures to check this illegal activity.
About 40 years ago, about 50 percent of the roads were natural (kachchi), leaving ample breathing space for the soil and a majority of the rain water to go back into the soil. Now, more than 90 percent of the roads and communicable paths are either concrete or pitch roads leaving very little breathing space.
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Besides this, the tourism industry, which was full of hope to bounce back after the Covid pandemic, the calamity has washed away the hopes of hoteliers, business owners and locals who were dependent on it.
The unprecedented rainfall (from June 15 to July 15) left thousands of tourists stranded in the rain-ravaged areas in Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur and Mandi. Over 70,000 of them were evacuated, including many foreigners. Landslides and flash floods triggered by the heavy rainfall also washed away sections of many highways and damaged many bridges across the state, damaging connectivity.
The tourist footfall before the floods touched 1.6 crore. It was more than the pre-pandemic stage. But after the disaster hit Himachal tourist spots, the footfall has reduced occupancy to barely 2 to 7 percent as against the 75 to 80 percent during this time of the year.
What I could suggest is that now, when nothing can be done about the unplanned development (read construction) along the river beads, plains and mountains and uncontrolled deforestation, the government should wake up and take strict corrective and restrictive measures to check the blind race of development. Besides, guarding our natural resources and putting a check on uncontrolled construction and mining, efforts should also be made to spread public awareness about our natural resources without which we stand nowhere.
The narrator is the vice president of Ghandharvi Builders, a private hospitality group in Himachal Pradesh
As told to Rajat Rai