UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3 –Environment
Introduction:
In 2025, India experienced nearly 331 days of climate impacts, exposing the growing vulnerability of the Himalayan region. More than 4,000 deaths were reported as cloudbursts, landslides, avalanches and flash floods struck repeatedly. Despite these warnings, large infrastructure projects continue in fragile mountain zones, accelerating ecological damage and increasing long-term disaster risks.
Why Are Himalayan Disasters Increasing?
- Rapid climate warming: High-altitude Himalayan regions have warmed 50% faster than the global average since 1950, leading to snowless winters and unstable mountain systems.
- Frequent extreme weather events: Scorching heat, intense rainfall, cloudbursts and avalanches are occurring more often and with greater intensity.
- Accelerated glacial retreat: The Gangotri Glacier, one of the world’s fastest receding glaciers, feeds unstable moraine-rich glaciers that increase flood and avalanche risks.
- Construction in critical geological zones: Areas north of the Main Central Thrust (MCT) are highly fragile, yet major infrastructure continues where it is officially discouraged.
- Unsafe land-use practices: Wide highways, steep hill cutting, tunnel drilling and hydropower construction disturb natural slope stability.
Governance and Infrastructure Failures
- Flawed project design: The Char Dham project relies on the 12-metre DL-PS road standard, unsuitable for fragile terrain.
- Forest diversion approval: On November 12, 43 hectares of forest land were diverted, including 10 hectares for muck dumping.
- Avoidance of environmental assessment: Environmental Impact Assessment was bypassed through project fragmentation.
- Unsafe hill cutting: Vertical slope cutting violated the natural angle of repose of Himalayan geology.
- Unscientific muck dumping: Debris was dumped into rivers and drainage channels.
- Infrastructure failure: Border routes face repeated closures, and locals call the road an “all-paidal road.”
What Are the Ecological and Human Implications?
- Large-scale human losses: More than 4,000 people died in 2025, with Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand facing the heaviest toll.
- Destruction of settlements: Towns such as Dharali, Harsil, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Kullu, Mandi and Kishtwar suffered repeated flash floods and landslides.
- Loss of livelihoods: Homes, agriculture, roads and local economies were wiped out by sudden disasters.
- Felling of Devdar forests: Nearly 7,000 Devdar trees are approved for removal for road widening.
- Weakening of natural slope protection: Devdar root systems bind soil, stabilise slopes and reduce landslides and avalanches.
- Increased disaster vulnerability: Forest clearance removes natural barriers against glacial debris flows and flash floods.
Why Are Devdar Forests Ecologically Critical?
- Natural disaster shields: Devdar forests act as buffers against landslides, avalanches and debris movement.
- Protection of river systems: These forests lie within the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone, a 4,000 sq km buffer protecting the Ganga’s last pristine stretch.
- Water quality regulation: Organic matter from Devdar trees supports healthy microbial activity in mountain streams.
- Antimicrobial properties: Terpenoids, essential oils and phenolic compounds inhibit harmful bacteria and support river ecology.
- Maintenance of microclimate: These forests keep air and water temperatures low and sustain dissolved oxygen levels.
- Irreversible ecological loss: Deforestation leads to warmer water, lower oxygen, reduced bacteriophage activity and permanent ecological change.
Way Forward
- Prioritise disaster-resilient development: Infrastructure must focus on safety and slope stability instead of excessive road widening in fragile zones.
- Follow science-based planning: Road design, slope cutting and construction must respect geological limits and the natural angle of repose.
- Strengthen implementation of NMSHE: The National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (2014) must guide all development in the Himalayas.
- Protect old-growth Devdar forests: Devdar forests must be preserved as natural stabilisers of slopes and protectors of river systems.
- Reject unscientific tree translocation: Centuries-old Devdar trees cannot be relocated because their ecological functions are site-specific.
- Regulate unsafe land use: Construction on unstable slopes, large tunnels and hydropower projects must be strictly controlled.
- Integrate climate risk into development planning: Climate change must be treated as a risk multiplier that intensifies floods, landslides and glacial disasters.
- Manage human pressure in fragile zones: Tourism, vehicular movement and waste management must follow carrying-capacity limits.
- Shift from disaster-prone to disaster-resilient infrastructure: Connectivity and national interest must be secured through stability, not through ecological destruction.
Conclusion
The Himalayas are the ecological foundation of India. Repeated disasters show that ignoring geology, forests and climate science turns development into destruction. Infrastructure built without resilience weakens national security and livelihoods. Sustainable, science-based planning is not a choice but a necessity, because without the Himalayas, there is no India.
Question for practice:
Discuss how unsafe infrastructure development and climate change together are increasing disaster risks in the Himalayan region.
Source: The Hindu
