What the unfolding disaster in Himachal Pradesh says about unsustainable development

When 25-year-old Sahil Thakur saw the video of a temple in Himachal Pradesh being washed away in the aftermath of a deadly cloudburst last month, he was too stunned for words. At least 30 people were offering prayers on 14 August, news outlets reported, when the small temple dedicated to Lord Shiva collapsed, entrapping the devotees under the rubble. 

Thakur lives barely 20 minutes away from the disaster site in Summer Hill, which is nearly seven kilometres from his hometown Shimla, the summer capital of Himachal Pradesh. It wasn’t just the casualty—nine confirmed deaths— that was too close to home. It was the disaster too. 

“I’ve never seen a cloudburst in Shimla before,” Thakur, a travel vlogger who chronicles the beauty of his Himalayan home state on his YouTube channel, tellsThe Established. “Such events don’t happen here. The last time I heard of a cloudburst was in 2013 in Kedarnath.” 

Kedarnath, a holy town in the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand, was ravaged by flash floods in June 2013 following a cloudburst in the upper reaches of the Himalayas. The disaster, considered one of the worst in Indian history, killed over 6,000 and swept away several towns in Uttarakhand and other nearby regions. 

Cloudbursts aren’t uncommon in the Indian Himalayas, where the local topology, wind patterns and temperature gradients between the upper and lower atmosphere are factors that enable these events. Climate change has only compounded its occurrences and unpredictability. 

But the Summer Hill disaster is among a series of rain-related incidents across Himachal Pradesh since July that has not only compelled the local authorities to expedite damage control on a war footing, but also forced locals and experts to scrutinise the scale and reason of the destruction. 

This monsoon, Himachal Pradesh has seen 170 cloudbursts and landslides, killing at least 400 people since July, and destroying over 2,500 houses, according to recent estimates

Two days after the temple collapse, another video went viral of eight houses collapsing in a landslide near Shimla. In the background, onlookers are heard screaming in horror. “I hope there was nobody in those homes,” one shouted, while several were heard screaming, “Get away from here! Get out of here!”

Thakur, who was born in Shimla and works there, has now switched from travel vlogging to documenting the recent destruction and rebuilding of homes in his videos. He said people outside his state need to know the ground realities of the situation. “This is not a natural disaster,” he said. “This is man made. We’re all responsible for it.”

FROM TOURIST-FAVOURITE TO DISASTER HOTSPOT

Himachal Pradesh is the poster child of Himalayan tourism in India, with its stunning views, ancient temples and adventure sports that’s won the moniker of being the country’s “outdoor adventure playground”. Every year, the state draws millions of local and international tourists. Home to nearly 600 ancient temples, Himachal Pradesh’s reputation as the ‘Dev Bhoomi’ (Land of Gods) fuels India’s $40-billion religious economy. 

For the Indian government, Himachal Pradesh is strategically located along the Tibetan Autonomous Region to its east, while also providing a home for The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader and his government-in-exile, since 1959. 

Instagram and YouTube are usually replete with gorgeous aerial views of the state’s snow-capped peaks, playful local traditions and smooth, accessible roads. Now, a cursory search on social media brings up images and videos of damaged roads, landslides and floods. 

What’s happening in Himachal Pradesh isn’t novel or sudden. A similar fate unfolded in 2021, when nearly 250 people were killed in rain-related disasters. Scientists and geologists have consistently blamed “unscientific” and illegal construction, slope-cutting and lack of proper drainage systems across cities in Himachal for these occurrences. There’s also the problem of illegal mining and debris being dumped on the banks of river Beas.

The state is slowly losing its moderately dense forest cover, according to the 2022 Forest Survey of India, and the region’s 2,500 glaciers are retreating at an alarming pace due to increasingly warm temperatures, exacerbating rain-related incidents. Himachal Pradesh authorities say its development is sustainable but the ongoing disaster indicates it’s anything but that. 

Manshi Asher, an environmental justice activist and researcher in Himachal Pradesh, tellsThe Established that the heavy rains aren’t new and the northwestern Himalayas have always been prone to such hazards. “But when hazards become a disaster, then the impact is very widespread,” she says. “The conversion of hazards to disasters happens because of interventions we make on the landscape.” The Landslide Atlas of India, which is based on satellite data by ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre, shows all 12 districts of Himachal Pradesh as susceptible to landslides. 

On his recent visit to the flood-affected areas in the state, India’s Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said the mountains along Himachal Pradesh’s highway construction are so fragile that they disintegrate easily during heavy rains. “There are only a few places on these mountains where there are solid rocks. Most places have stones, gravel and soil,” he told the press on 1 August.

Asher adds, “It’s already known that the topography of these hills is sensitive and complex. There needs to be more precaution in land use and development in this region.”

A TRAGEDY WAITING TO HAPPEN 

Despite the fragility of the geography of the state, the Himachal Pradesh government has had its eye on relentless development to accommodate pilgrims, hydropower and road projects, and tourists. 

Tourism contributes 7.5 per cent to the state’s gross domestic product, and in order to unburden its popular towns from overcrowding, the state administration is opening up more “unexplored” locations. Early this year, state authorities announced they’ve approved a US$158 million loan from the Asian Development Bank to boost tourism. 

In January this year, experts had warned that overcrowding of buildings in tourist resort towns like Shimla, McLeodganj and Solan will end up with them falling like a “house of cards” in the event of a high-intensity earthquake. 

Alongside are the state’s billion-dollar highway projects, meant to make its towns and villages even more accessible. So far, 69 national highway projects have been approved by the state, of which five are four-lane roads. Most of these roads are currently damaged or their construction stalled due to the rains. 

The state is also home to 27 hydropower projects, which is key to India’s clean energy plans but which many environmentalists say are wreaking havoc across the Indian Himalayan region. Early this year, hydropower projects in Uttarakhand were blamed for land subsidence—a phenomenon where the earth moves vertically downwards—across hundreds of towns and villages. In Himachal Pradesh itself, nearly 40 people died in landslides, which was connected to hydropower projects changing local terrestrial ecosystems. 

The state is currently in the process of rebuilding and local authorities are running against time to bring normalcy in the state. In the light of the disaster, the Indian government has proposed a technical committee to evaluate the carrying capacity of 13 Himalayan states, including Himachal Pradesh. 

Asher is among several experts to point out that it’s mostly the towns with rampant construction that has borne the wrath of the disaster. The activist lives in Palampur, a hill station that hasn’t garnered popularity among tourists yet. “There’s very little construction for roads and tourism here,” she says. “The forest just above our village is in good condition. If there was construction uphill and the forest cleaned up, my village would have been in a condition similar to what we are seeing in other parts of the state.”

Published by: The Established
Reporter: Pallavi Pundir

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