Relevance: GS Paper III (Environment & Disaster Management) | GS Paper I (Geography – Landslides)

Source: The Hindu (Mallika Bhanot & C.P. Rajendran)

Context: The Crisis of 2025

The Himalayas are screaming for help. In 2025 alone, the region faced 331 days of extreme weather, killing over 4,000 people. Yet, ignoring these warnings, the government has approved a massive road-widening project in the fragile Harsil-Dharali region (Uttarakhand).

This project for the Char Dham Pariyojana involves cutting nearly 7,000 ancient Deodar trees, a move experts call a “dangerous march towards ecocide.”

Why Deodars are the “Guardians”

Cutting a Deodar (Cedrus deodara) is not like cutting a roadside bush. These ancient giants are the “immune system” of the mountains:

• Soil Anchors: Their massive roots bind the loose mountain soil, acting as the only natural defense against avalanches and landslides.
• Water Purifiers: They release natural compounds (terpenoids) that kill harmful bacteria, keeping the Ganga’s water pure and “alive.”
• The Translocation Myth: The idea that we can simply “move” these old trees elsewhere is scientifically flawed. You cannot replicate an ancient ecosystem overnight.

A Flawed Engineering Model

The current development model is essentially fighting against geology:

1. Wrong Location: The project sits north of the Main Central Thrust (MCT)—a highly unstable fault line where tectonic plates grind together. Building massive infrastructure here is inviting disaster.
2. The “Width” Obsession: Engineers are enforcing the DL-PS Standard (12-meter wide roads) on narrow cliffs. To make space, they cut hills vertically (90 degrees), defying the natural “Angle of Repose,” which guarantees landslides.
3. Bypassing the Law: To avoid strict environmental scrutiny (EIA), the project was broken into small segments (less than 100 km each). This “Segmentation” hides the cumulative damage from the public eye.

The Risk Multiplier

• Warming: The Himalayas are warming 50% faster than the rest of the world.
• The Fuse: Climate change provides the fuel (extreme rain), but unscientific road-cutting lights the fuse. The result is a cycle of floods-landslides-roadblocks that hurts the very tourism it aims to promote.

UPSC Value Box

Governance Insight:

• Policy Contradiction: This aggressive deforestation violates India’s own National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE).
• Committee View: The Ravi Chopra Committee (SC) explicitly recommended narrower Intermediate Lane (5.5m) roads to save trees and slopes. Ignoring this expert advice is a governance failure.

Way Forward:

• Carrying Capacity: We must assess how much tourism the mountains can actually hold before building more hotels and roads.
• Bio-Engineering: Use plants and roots to stabilize slopes instead of just concrete walls.

Summary

The decision to fell 7,000 Deodar trees in a seismic zone (MCT) for wider roads is a case of “short-term gain, long-term pain.” By bypassing environmental rules through segmentation and ignoring geological realities, we are turning the Himalayas into a permanent hazard zone. True national interest lies in safe, resilient connectivity, not just wider tarmac.

One Line Wrap: We cannot bulldoze the Himalayas without burying ourselves; development must respect the mountain’s limits.

Q. “In the Himalayas, unscientific infrastructure acts as a ‘risk multiplier’ to climate change.” Discuss the ecological and ethical issues involved in projects like the Char Dham Pariyojana. (10 Marks, 150 Words)