Rethinking Development in the Himalayas

Several reports published around the UN climate change conference, COP28, warn that the threats to the Himalayas from climate change are more direct and immediate

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

In November, the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand drew global attention after a partial collapse of the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarkashi district entrapped 41 workers. The gruelling rescue operation to save the men took 17 days as well as international and local technology and expertise. Such partial collapses due to landslides while tunneling in the Himalayan region happen almost regularly and are often ignored. This very tunnel had caved in many times in the past.

The Silkyara-Barkot tunnel is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet initiative: the Char Dham project that aims to connect four major Hindu pilgrimage sites in the Himalayas—Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri–with all-weather, two-lane highways covering 889 km. The Rs 12,000 crore project has been controversial right from the start, with environmentalists expressing deep concerns over its ecolo­gical impact. However, the government won the battle in the Supreme Court in December 2021 after it argued that the project assumed “strategic importance for national security” following China’s enactment of a new law to strengthen its land border protection.

The questions of national security, energy security and water security have frequently featured in India’s arguments for building mega infrastructure in the Himalayas—from Ladakh and Kashmir in the north to Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast. One of the government’s prime arguments for building the country’s biggest dam on the Siang River in Aruna­chal Pradesh is to counter the dam China is building on the other side of the border.