Roundtable on Emergent Initiatives:
Indian Himalayan Region

International Head Quarter, Development Alternatives, New Delhi

5 Oct 2024

The Indian Himalayas (IHR), the world's youngest, most tectonically dynamic, and most marginalised mountain range, is one of 36 global biodiversity hotspots with numerous unique floral and faunal species spread across 13 Indian states/union territories. About 4.8% of the world's mountain population lives there. The region supplies 13% of the world’s population and 61% of India with freshwater from snow and glaciers. Forest cover is 40%, barren/unculturable/wasteland 19.3%, snow and glacier 18.9%, and built-up and plantation regions the least, showing the ecosystems relative intactness. It supports 50% of India’s forests, over 50% of its flowering plants, and 38% of its terrestrial faunal biodiversity at the intersection of the Palearctic, Afro-Tropical, and Indo-Malaya worlds.

The entire Himalayan range is extremely vulnerable to climate induced disasters as pointed out by IPCC(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) VI report. It has estimated that the frequency of disasters in the Himalayan range is increasing rapidly. More precipitation in a short period of time is the general pattern across the region, also with long spell of drought. Adaptation is the key in the Himalayan region and for that disaster risk reduction must be the guiding principle in carrying out developmental trajectory. However, given the financial architecture the focus is on developing infrastructure even bypassing the basic environmental norms.

The IHR is under increasing pressure from urbanisation and development, which is compounded by an influx of high intensity tourism, unsustainable infrastructure and resources (land and water) and further aggravated due to climatic variations like precipitation (intensity and duration of snowfall) and rise in temperature. This has led to scarcity of water, deforestation and land degradation, biodiversity loss and increased pollution from wastes including plastics. These pressures, in many areas, have the potential to disrupt lives and livelihoods drastically, impacting the socio-economic-ecological fabric of the Himalayas.

IHR agriculture system relies on locally accessible natural resources and complex farm, forest, and animal systems. It exemplifies stability, variety, and long-term sustainability. Agriculture practices may vary across the Himalayas, but its fundamentals are the same. The contribution of IHR to India's agricultural output has been tiny, even if the areas where crops were sown and irrigated have increased. Both fruit yield and the area under cultivation have decreased. While urbanisation and population growth are on the rise, agricultural output remains an issue in the region. Additionally, the preservation of agrobiodiversity is also being significantly threatened.

Geologists and environmentalists routinely express concern about the delicate state of the Himalayas and highlight the importance of utmost caution while building dams, roads, power stations, or tunnels. Despite these warnings, uncontrolled infrastructure expansion and the unrelenting rise of revenue from tourism and pilgrimages continue. Experts have regularly highlighted worries about the terrain's carrying capacity and slope-cutting activities that defy geological principles. The Himalayan development strategy ought to incorporate an understanding of the region's vulnerability as well as the need of protecting the ecology. In the last decade, tourism in western Himalayan states like Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand has grown significantly. All-weather mountain roads, helicopter services, tunnelled railway lines, and multi-story luxury hotels boost tourism in Himalayan states. These massive infrastructures further negatively impacted the Himalaya ecosystem. Urbanisation is another IHR development symbol. New urban settlements and urban population have grown exponentially in the last two decades. Urban Local Bodies increased from 245 in 2001 to 320 in 2022. The 2011 IHR urban population was 40% higher than in 2001. The influx of visitors to the mountains and the continued expansion of urban settlements are putting pressure on the environment of these regions, as per the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the World Bank. One of the main features linked with urbanization in the Himalayas is complete absence of building typologies framework. This should be based on the basis of geological foundational principles, in order to minimise disaster risk. The natural environment of the Himalayan region is being disrupted by the accumulation of solid waste, which is being deposited in the region as a result of the increased frequency of mountain visits. The IHR is experiencing a continuous rise in air pollution, untreated sewage, and solid waste due to the absence of appropriate management.

Over the past few decades, tourism at the IHR has continued to expand and diversify. The average annual growth rate from 2013 to 2023 is anticipated to be 7.9%. (ref: Niti Ayog: Sustainable Tourism in the Indian Himalayan Region). Additionally, current tourism in the IHR replaces eco-friendly and aesthetic infrastructure with inappropriate, unsightly, and dangerous construction, poorly designed roads and infrastructure, inadequate solid waste management, air pollution, degradation of watersheds and water sources, and the loss of natural resources, damaging biodiversity and ecosystem services. Ecotourism is guaranteed long-term survival via environmentally friendly tourism. The Himalayas entail limiting disturbance to the local natural environment and nevertheless benefiting the local people. Tourists visiting the isolated Himalayan regions could either purposefully or inadvertently use the local resources.