Petition: SP(I) Demands that the Recommendations of the Chairman of the High Powered Committee on the Chardham Project be Implemented Immediately

The Himalayas are of tremendous ecological, cultural and religious significance for the people of India. Yet, our treatment of the region has been exploitative and disrespectful, to say the least. Tall buildings, dense townships, speeding traffic, vehicular noise and pollution, and dust are the living reality of any Himalayan valley today.  The Himalayas are increasingly becoming a market-driven tourism destination, with hotels and resorts dotting the landscape and the incessant inflow of tourists rapidly changing the nature of the economy, culture and ecology of the region. 

The mighty Ganga, Alakananda, Mandakini and Asi-Ganga rivers that flow through the Himalayan valleys have been reduced to ankle depth, company-monitored streams, through innumerable hydropower projects. In such a scenario, the 900 kilometre under-construction Chardham road widening project seems set to propel the region towards unprecedented environmental disaster. 

According to the government, the project is intended to improve “connectivity to the Chardham pilgrimage centres in the Himalayas, making the journey to these centres safer, faster and more convenient.”  It is ironic then, that the project was pushed through by the authorities with complete disregard for the environmental protection laws of the country. 

Such a large-scale project should have required a comprehensive and rigorous environmental impact assessment (EIA), including public consultations and hearings, before being given the green light. However, the government surreptitiously side-stepped this requirement by dividing the 900 kilometre stretch of road into 53 segments, each of less than a 100 km, and labelling the work to be done on each segment as a separate project. Since EIA is only compulsory for road projects which span more than a 100 km, this allowed the project to go ahead without an environmental assessment.  

Not going through the assessment process has not only put the environment and people of the region at great risk, but, by extension, even threatens the safety of the travellers for whose convenience these roads are being constructed.

The whole Himalayan region is disaster-prone. Already, to anyone who visits the area, extensive damage to the fragile Himalayas through landslides, slope collapse, uprooted trees, gigantic piles of muck heaped along rivers such as the Ganga, Alakananda, Mandakini, choked waterways, and pollution, is shockingly and blatantly on display. 

The Chardhams are particularly susceptible to landslides and land-sinking, and fall in seismic zones 4 and 5. They are also amongst the sites which experience the most soil-loss in the country. Unplanned, rampant and rapacious development in these areas has further weakened the mountains and several research studies and reports have been published over the years establishing this fact. 

There is no consideration whatsoever of this already threatened and precarious nature of the environment as bulldozers raze down mountain slopes for the project. It has been reported that due to the mountains being cut at the dangerous angle of 90 degrees in many places, several landslides have already occurred at different points along the route. The muck generated from the cutting of the slopes is being dumped directly into the rivers, causing extensive damage to their water quality and aquatic life. However, the project has been allowed to continue in spite of all these concerns. 

Soon after work on the project began, as the destruction of the mountains started to become visible, it prompted some citizens to file a petition in court in protest. Eventually, the Supreme Court formulated a High Powered Committee (HPC), and personally named eminent environmentalist Ravi Chopra as the chairman. The court’s directions to the committee were clear: ensure the protection and conservation of the Himalayas and that the Chardham project conforms with the requirements of safe and sustainable construction in the steep valley terrain.

Ravi Chopra and a few of his committee members have tried to faithfully and judiciously address the issue of further damage to these mountains, and fulfil the heavy responsibility laid on them. They have suggested an intermediate road width design (of 5.5 metres, as was originally recommended by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways itself), as opposed to the excessively wide (10 metres), Double Lane Paved Shoulder design, which is being built solely for the purpose of allowing high-speed traffic.  

However, a group comprising a majority of the members of the committee, who are mainly government officials and employees, have stood in opposition to this view. By subterfuge, without even the knowledge of the chairman, they have sent an alternative final report to the MoEF and claimed that this report was the actual final report of the HPC.  

The chairman and the minority support he has, have stood firmly by their mandate on protecting the Himalayas. Dr Chopra, working under considerable duress, has left the final decision on road width to the Supreme Court itself, and requested that no fresh slope cutting or tree felling commence until then.  

Socialist Party (India) condemns the manner in which a few government officials and others with vested interests are bent upon misusing their membership of the High Powered Committee to further an unfeasible agenda which, above everything else, is completely contrary to the public interest. We strongly support the chairman’s view and demand that his recommendations, whereby the damage to the Himalayan ecology will be minimized, be adopted.

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