📍Destroying Uttarakhand

Many years ago when I went to school in Nainital, it was a place of thrilling natural beauty. Uttarakhand then a part of Uttar Pradesh, (UP) was lush and green wherever you looked. Every place seemed like a picnic spot.

In 2000, the new state of Uttarakhand was created, hiving off the hilly areas of UP and some parts of the terai. Then “development” began in right ernest , turning this haven into a concrete jungle. A study conducted by the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) using satellite imagery, climate data, and GIS analysis shows that snow cover decreased by over 1640 sq km from 1992 to 2022. In the same period concrete construction increased 13 times from 40.66 sq km in 1992 to 526.35 sq km in 2022.

Uttarakhand is being slowly buried under concrete. Gone is the haven with lush green forests full of wonderful plants, birds and animals. In its place is emerging an ugly built up blot on the Himalayas. Not only is the state turning ugly, it is also turning dangerous. Roads are being cut into hillsides without any planning, opening them up to landslides which have increased several fold. Forests are being slaughtered, driving wild life away and altering the ecosystem for the worse. Forests regulated water flow, when they are cut flooding increases. 

The perverse tragedy is that the development that is needed, is not reaching the villages where good schools, health care, basic services and livelihood opportunities are desperately required. All the development is devoted to urban areas converting them into monstrous concrete jungles. You just have to visit the famed hill stations of yesterday - Nainital, Dehradun and Mussoorie to see what hideous urban sprawls they have become. 

This kind of “development” that our so called ‘vikas’ oriented government boasts about, is actually raising vulnerability, for people in the mountains, as well as for people living downstream. The Himalayas are a living, fragile ecosystem with tenuous limits. It is extremely foolish and highly dangerous to think you can continue treating mountains like construction sites. Nature will have the final say and the consequences will be extremely unpleasant, as we have already begun to see with increasing incidences of manmade calamities.

Climate proofing agriculture in mountain regions!

Faced with global warming and climate change, the yields of rice and wheat are set to decline. It is the traditional grains like millets, which can provide climate resilient harvests and food and nutrition security. According to climate estimates, agriculture in the productive areas of South Asia will be amongst the most adversely affected. The worst brunt of climate change on food production will be borne by farmers in the dry land and mountanious regions where agriculture is rain fed and conditions are marginal. Coping with the impact of climate change on agriculture will require careful management of resources like land, water and biodiversity and improving cultivation practices.

 

Recognizing India’s vulnerability to climate change, the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) has created eight focus areas or ‘missions’. Three of these, the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem and the Water Mission underline India’s vulnerabilities and are about initiating measures to secure agriculture and livelihoods in the face of climate change. The Himalayan region is acknowledged to be of special concern where adaptation measures are required urgently and the focus on agriculture admits that we have concerns about food production and food and nutrition security. 

 

Uttarakhand’s State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) has emphasized the need for adaptive measures in agriculture, livestock and animal husbandry as well as forest and biodiversity. The SAPCC lists the following aspects as priorities in adapting agriculture to climate change: Promotion of sustainable agriculture; soil and water conservation; improvement of soil health; promotion of nutritious traditional grains, pulses and oilseeds; conservation of agrobiodiversity and documentation and conservation of traditional knowledge, among others.

 

Agriculture, which is the mainstay of the people of Uttarakhand remains marginal and highly vulnerable to challenges like climate change. Women who are the principal carriers of agricultural activities are seldom included in programs as main actors, thus excluding their experience and knowledge and rendering them financially weak. They must be made the cornerstone of interventions.

 

Agricultural research specifically targeting Uttarakhand crops has been a neglected area. The most damaging aspect has been the lack of attention to millets and small grains which have been the hardy, climate resilient, nutritious grains that mountain communities were accustomed to eating. It is not a coincidence that the decline of millets in household diets has been accompanied by an alarming rise in malnutrition in women, children and even men in the state. 

 

Faced with climate turbulence, the yields of rice and wheat (particularly the latter) are set to decline. It is the traditional grains like finger and barnyard millets, which can provide climate resilient harvests and food and nutrition security. Millets are highly climate resilient crops. 

 

Being C4 crops, they have higher photosynthetic efficiency than most staple crops and they can produce a reasonable harvest even in marginal soils under water stress. Millet cultivation will increase food production from marginal fields, reintroduce nutritious foods into local diets and very importantly, provide opportunities for income generation by value addition and developing marketable products. Value added millet products have an appeal for the urban market. The current global popularity of traditional grains like quinoa show the growing consumer interest in natural foods originating in traditional societies and very particularly ‘super foods’ that are high in nutrition.

Millets have traditionally been a women’s crop and they have the knowledge and experience of its cultivation. Hence reviving millets provides us an opportunity to support the food production of women and their families. Developing a millet value chain and training women to produce interesting ‘super foods’ for urban markets will create income sources and provide an additional economic incentive to reviving millet cultivation to climate proof their agriculture.

 

Adaptation in Agriculture

Practices in agriculture will need to become mindful of high climate risk and pay attention to resource conservation and careful use. Soil health will need attention, as will rainwater conservation and conservative use of water. Soil management will need to focus on increasing organic matter to improve soil nutrition and water retention capacity, thus increasing crop productivity. Planting hedgerows of leguminous plants is important to fix nitrogen in the soil, prevent soil erosion and conserve soil moisture. Mulching and other types of soil cover is helpful in arresting soil erosion and extending the availability of soil moisture. Mulching has the added benefit of reducing weed populations by up to 60 percent, saving on weeding costs. Contour bunding will be an especially useful intervention in the hill areas to increase water retention in terraced fields.

 

Aligning bunds against topographical contours facilitates the even and controlled distribution of rainwater run-off to the fields below. Contour bunding was a central component in regenerating degraded soils in Burkina Faso and is credited with as much as a 40 percent increase in agricultural production the first year after its implementation. 

 

Using Agromet Forecasts. 

To cope with turbulent weather patterns farmers will need information about altered weather conditions, especially regarding the monsoon. Such information now available from the meteorological department can be conveyed to farmers via mobile telephony, along with advisories on coping with new pest and disease outbreaks.

 

Studies in India have shown the positive effects that access to comprehensible Agromet data has had on smallholder farmers. Farmers trained to use these services reaped higher yields due to timely information on rainfall and weather as well as technical guidance on cultivation aspects, like selecting crop varieties and appropriate application of inputs. Training programs on the use of Agromet data and how to access this will go a long way in helping farmers cope with the turbulence of climate change.

 

📍Genetic Diversity is Important in Forests!

Anyone who has taken the train to Nainital or anywhere in the Kumaon Uttarakhand, will have alighted at the last train station of the route- Kathgodam. Look at that name carefully-Kath means wood in Hindi and Godam means godown. Kathgodam was named for the place where all the trees that were felled in the Kumaon region were stored for further transportation to wherever they were needed. Kathgodam in a manner of speaking, was the graveyard of the forests of the Kumaon region.

During the time of British rule, forests were seen only as a resource to be exploited, not anything of intrinsic value, as pools of diverse plants, animals, birds, insects, a whole range of biodiversity. They did not see forests as agents that modulate the local climate and least of all, that they were the homes of several indigenous communities. So the Brits engaged in large scale felling of natural forests for their commercial and industrial use, especially in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats, reducing rich forests to raw material. They planted monocultures largely of timber trees like Teak and Sal, as well as Pine for resin and fast growing Eucalyptus and Acacia for firewood. Colonial rule destroyed our biodiversity rich forests, altered native ecosystems and displaced indigenous

communities who relied on them for food, fodder, fuel and timber. 

Unfortunately, our own Forest Department took over the colonial legacy and continued to treat the forest largely as raw material, planting trees primarily for commercial use, so we have grown used to seeing uniform plantations as forests. All this is changing slowly but we need to emphasize over and over again that the forests are valuable for many reasons- modulating the climate, storing water, maintaining biodiversity as also their value to the lives of forest dwelling communities.

For forests to be forests, the varied genetic diversity they contain, must be protected and enabled to flourish. The genetic diversity in forests is key to their integrity, resilience and long-term ecosystem health. It is what provides the basis for tree populations to adapt to changing climates, resist invasive pests and survive environmental stressors like dry spells and excessive humidity.

Genetically uniform tree populations like in man-made plantations are highly vulnerable to pests and diseases. In contrast, genetically diverse populations contain many individuals with natural resistance, thus ensuring that the entire stand is not killed by a single pathogen as happened with genetically uniform potato farms in Ireland. The entire potato crop, the staple food of the Irish, got wiped out due to infestation by a fungus called Phytophthera infestans, This resulted in a famine in which about one million people died of starvation. Genetic diversity helps forests to adapt to climate turbulence because forests very often have to face rapid environmental shifts, like rising temperatures and prolonged droughts. A mixture of genetic profiles increases the likelihood that certain trees/plants will tolerate heatwaves and others will be able to cope with low water availability. This enables an overall survival of the forest even if it suffers some damage. 

From the aspect of commercial use, forestry programs are better off with greater genetic variability so that they can select trees to breed for desirable timber traits—such as faster growth rates, higher wood density, and straight trunks—without diminishing the overall stress resilience of the forest. Healthy genetic diversity with a variety of species is also essential to maintain the integrity of the forest and restore it if damage is inflicted. Reforestation programs have a higher chance of success if they have access to seeds from a diverse range of thriving, well adapted trees because these have high survival rates.

 

The “rights of nature” is a new concept: that nature possesses fundamental rights, just as humans do. It derives from an old concept rooted in traditional societies that saw themselves as part of nature, not distinct from it. Ancient India, including people who lived at the time of the Rig Veda, were nature worshippers. The Rig Veda is said to have been compiled in the Bronze Age, between 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. The Rig Vedic communities revered several deities: personifications of the elements of nature like fire, water, sky and earth, and they treated the environment as a sacred whole. The chief deity was Agni (fire), and others like Indra (lightning/rain), Varuna (water) and Prithvi (earth). India’s ancient seers believed the universe was governed by a moral law: living in harmony with nature and maintaining its ecological balance was essential for fulfilling one’s “dharma”

Like ancient Indians, many other primeval people were nature worshippers too. These included the Shinto community in Japan, Celtic and Germanic tribes, Mayans and Aztec people, Native Americans and ancient Greeks and Romans. Nature held primacy in these civilisations. This changed in later years and far from being worshipped, Nature became a resource to be exploited for financial gain, with little regard for its survival and sanctity. As humans degraded nature and systematically destroyed it, the unpleasant and threatening manifestations of this destruction became evident today.

A hallmark of our era is destruction of ecosystems, disruption of biospheres, polluted rivers, biodiversity loss and species extinction. Instead of conserving Nature, that has nurtured us for millennia, we appear hell-bent on destroying it. We have already breached seven of nine critical planetary boundaries and pushed the planet into uncharted territory: ecosystems are devastated and the weather has become completely unstable. Freshwater in all forms, like surface water, groundwater, even soil moisture, is being depleted at unsustainable rates due to overexploitation. In this backdrop of an utterly ravaged nature, the concept of the Rights of Nature took shape as an attempt to salvage what one could to ensure the continued survival of the human race. History There is a Rights of Nature movement in many nations seeking systemic change in how we treat nature. This movement is trying to develop fresh concepts in the legal system to make it work for the protection of the environment instead of enabling the rights of certain people to exploit the environment. Most Rights of Nature legal precedent is very recent, having emerged in just the last few years as a direct response to the failure of modern environmental law to adequately address the escalating ecological crisis.

The Rights of Nature approach attempts a transformation in the way the status of nature is upheld in society. It says Nature possesses its own rights and can’t be treated merely as human property. Nature’s rights include the right to exist and to thrive, and most important, the right to restoration. Since the Rights of Nature accords it legal standing, it can be directly defended in a court of law. Ultimately, for these rights to be successfully implemented, humans must act as guardians or stewards of the natural world. Rivers have understandably become a key focus in the Rights of Nature movement, since river systems are under extreme pressure everywhere. Many of the world’s rivers suffer from extreme over-exploitation, bringing about fundamental changes in riverine ecosystems, habitats and watersheds. With its established history of worshipping nature, especially its rivers, India could have led the global trend to demand the Rights of Nature by personal example and enlightened legislation. But it failed to do so because of a Supreme Court intervention in a pioneering attempt by the Uttarakhand high court. 

The Uttarakhand case: In 2014, a Haridwar resident, Mohammad Salim, filed a PIL on illegal construction, mining, and stone-crushing on the banks of the Ganga. In response, the Uttarakhand high court ruled in 2017 that rivers were in danger of losing their existence and extended to them “all corresponding rights, duties, and liabilities of a living person”. This led to declaring the Ganga and Yamuna rivers as “Living Legal Entities”. 

This historic legal breakthrough to establish that Nature had rights was, however, short-lived. In 2017 the Supreme Court stayed the high court order, in a sense saying that India’s two most important rivers, the Ganga and the Yamuna, cannot be viewed as “Living Entities”. The stay came in response to an appeal by the Uttarakhand government that making the state solely accountable for the upkeep of rivers spanning multiple states was impractical and required Central government intervention. This put paid to a far-sighted legal ruling that could have gone a long way to uphold the rights of rivers and to protect them from pollution and degradation. 

While the India case lies stalled, other countries have moved forward to provide legal protection to rivers by granting them legal personhood or inherent rights. Ecuador in 2008 became the first country to formally embed the Rights of Nature, including rivers and ecosystems, into its constitution, allowing citizens to legally defend the environment. New Zealand had enacted legislation in 2014 granting the Whanganui River legal personhood, giving it all the rights, duties, and liabilities of a legal person. In Colombia, the Atrato River was recognised as a legal entity in 2016, possessing rights to protection, conservation, maintenance and restoration. In a historic ruling in 2019, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh recognised all rivers in the country as legal persons and appointed the National River Conservation Commission as their legal guardian. Finally, in Canada, the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the regional municipality passed resolutions in 2021 giving the Magpie River legal personhood, granting it rights to flow and be free from pollution. 

https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/it-might-be-time-to-grant-legal-rights-to-nature-1969115

Senior officials of the Himachal forest department have announced that they plan to develop 136 sites in the forest area for ecotourism. The main objective, they say, is to decongest overcrowded city tourist destinations and bring the tourists closer to nature.

This ecotourism project will offer activities like trekking, camping, rock climbing, and motor biking as well as food vans offering local cuisine. At the same time, this project also aims to create income opportunities for rural youth with jobs like travel guides and cooks and other sundry ad hoc occupations.

I would ask the Himachal Forest Department to see the consequences of inviting unbridled tourism. In this case, religious tourism, in the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand, has led to thirty km long traffic jams going up to the holy site of Kedarnath, so-called 'pilgrims' tanking up on alcohol in the holy town, and lots of incidents of unruly behaviour.

Or take a look at the recently minted Dham at Kainchi in Almora. Choked traffic along all mountain roads, causing endless misery to local residents, drunk policemen misbehaving with local women, discarded food and plastic litter strewn along kilometres of roads going up to Kainchi and down again.

Is this the tourism you had in mind? You want to earn revenue and wreck your state? Your call.

The vandals going up as tourists will be the same.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/to-promote-ecotourism-himachal-forest-dept-to-lease-out-51-of-136-identified-sites-soon/amp/?utm=relatedarticles

Forest Fires On The Rise In A Warming India: Make It Part Of Climate Policy

In the 405th report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the demand for grants included a section on Forest Fire Prevention and Management. This must be welcomed given the growing forest fires in India, especially in the mountain states.

India’s forests are increasingly vulnerable due to rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells and extreme weather events. These are no longer abstract projections; they are now visible on the ground as devastating forest fires. Forests that were once naturally moist and resilient are now like tinderboxes.

Forest fires are now frequent and have a devastating impact on biodiversity, wildlife and the overall environment. Forests in Uttarakhand used to catch fire in the dry summer season every year, but now occur at other times as well. I have watched with despair fires as early as February and March, sometimes earlier. The forest department recorded over 60 fires in the February- March period, that scorched over 40 hectares of forest land. Repeated fires also weaken the regenerative capacity of forests, making them more vulnerable to future climate shocks.

Climate scientists have warned for decades if we can’t control global warming, wildfires will become more frequent and more intense. Now wildfires are becoming more and widespread, even in tropical rainforests, where they are not typical and are particularly damaging. Hotter, drier weather caused by climate change and poor land management create conditions for more frequent, larger and higher-intensity wildfires. In the heatwave of Summer 2026, large forest fires have become frequent, and have burnt large tracts in over 12 states — from Uttarakhand in the north, Gujarat in the west, to Andhra Pradesh in the south, with Madhya Pradesh being the worst-affected.

Focusing on the Himalayan belt, the standing committee recommended that the ministry develop a protocol to reduce and cope with forest fires using modern technologies, including satellites and drones for early detection and alerts, identifying the cause and nature of the fires, and the best way of dousing the flames. Even more welcome, the committee recommended adequate budgetary support to state governments to develop a proactive, AI and data-driven prevention and management approach to minimise ecological damage due to forest fires.

Traditional forest management systems are proving inadequate against the scale and speed of climate-driven fires. This is where Artificial Intelligence can become an important tool for timely action. Globally, AI is already being used for forest fire prediction and prevention. In California, the “Alert California” programme uses AI-enabled cameras and machine learning systems to identify smoke plumes in real time. The system can detect fires at a very early stage, often before they become visible to the local authorities. Early detection has significantly improved response time.

Australia is using AI models that combine satellite imagery, temperature, wind speed, humidity and vegetation dryness to predict fire-prone zones in advance. This allows authorities to deploy personnel and equipment strategically before fires break out.

In parts of Europe, drones equipped with thermal imaging sensors patrol vulnerable forests during peak fire seasons. These drones can identify abnormal heat signatures even at night and in inaccessible terrain. Canada has also begun integrating AI-based monitoring with indigenous land management knowledge to improve fire resilience.

India has the scientific and technological capability to develop similar systems. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) already provides satellite-based forest fire alerts, but these remain largely reactive. AI can help shift the approach from reaction to early detection and prevention. At present the Isro model does fire detection and monitoring via satellite, this effectively detects and monitors forest fires in near real-time, improving identification speed and enabling better mapping of fire-prone areas. This system, however, has limitations, being primarily reactive. It lacks the capability to predict fire outbreaks and address underlying causes like dry conditions, human activity, and monoculture plantations.

The response capacity and the efficacy of alerts is exacerbated by the usually inadequate staff and resources of local forest departments. The satellite-based system has another limitation in fire detection because smaller fires under dense canopy or cloudy conditions can get missed. In order to achieve an effective early warning system, Isro needs to combine satellite data with weather forecasts, humidity levels, wind conditions, vegetation dryness indices, and include local community intelligence.

Countries having more effective management of forest fires use a multi-pronged approach, using drone surveillance, automated camera systems, and very importantly, the infrastructure to effectively record local responses . This integration of ground intelligence with satellite monitoring and AI-driven mapping of fire risks enables them to predict forest fires, not detect them after they have started burning.

India needs to up its act and improve its systems which should be easily done, given the solid foundation of Isro’s satellite proficiency. We need to integrate AI-based tools for predictive analytics and real-time ground integration. India’s system is technologically capable of detecting fires, but advanced global systems are increasingly focused on anticipating them before they become disasters. Involving forest-dwelling communities, drone surveillance, AI-based fire-risk prediction models, and stronger ground preparedness are crucial for a preventive approach to forest fire management. A national AI-driven Forest Fire Early Warning Grid should contain AI models predicting fire-prone districts weeks in advance, mobile alerts sent directly to village communities and forest guards and AI-generated evacuation and containment plans based on terrain and wind direction.

However, technology alone cannot protect forests. Indigenous and local communities possess deep ecological knowledge of forest behaviour, moisture cycles and safe fire practices. AI systems must work alongside community knowledge rather than replace it. We need to treat forest fire prevention as part of our climate adaptation strategy.

Investments in AI-based ecological monitoring today may prevent enormous ecological and economic losses tomorrow.

The Link to the article  - https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/suman-sahai-forest-fires-on-the-rise-in-a-warming-india-make-it-part-of-climate-policy-1963375

‘Ghost Villages’ a Growing Threat in Uttarakhand & India’s Hill Areas | Asian Age

Recently, a tragic situation arose at a village in Uttarakhand’s villages are emptying out, with young people moving out for a variety of reasons, sometimes leaving elderly parents, and often just locking up their homes.

Forsaking the village has become common in Uttarakhand’s hill districts. The youth don’t want to continue with the traditional occupation of agriculture: it’s not remunerative enough. Thus, abandoned fields, collapsing cattle sheds and locked houses define areas that once sustained vibrant agrarian communities.

These “ghost villages” are described as a natural outcome of modernisation. But that’s a false narrative. Modernisation does not mean abandoning the traditional, rather improving and enhancing the traditional. That is where policymakers have failed. Little effort has been made in villages in hill areas, particularly in Uttarakhand, to diversify and develop the village economy, create good educational and health facilities and provide attractive jobs and income opportunities. It’s also the result of not investing in agriculture, which is the economy’s mainstay in these areas. The new element is the contribution of television and now social media, showing fantasy worlds. The triumph of illusion over reality creates a magnetic attraction for the younger generation. It’s not just farming (seen as backward anyway) and not paying enough, it’s the lure of city glamour that is drawing the youth there.

Today’s rural youth don’t migrate merely in search of jobs; they also migrate in search of a status they think rural life does not offer them. Urban life is projected as success. TV and social media relentlessly glorify consumption, leisure and spectacle. For young men, ogling fashionably dressed women holds a particular fascination. Farming, by contrast, is physically demanding, socially invisible, and economically unrewarding. Simply not “sexy” enough!

This cultural shift has had devastating consequences. Working on one’s own land, tending crops, or managing livestock is now seen by many young people as a lowly activity and a mark of failure, of non-achievement. The dignity historically associated with farming has been systematically eroded. The pride in being masters of your own land and the idea of caring for the land has been replaced by the desire for the “successful” urban lifestyle.

Young women’s aspirations reflect similar pressures. Rural women have always carried a disproportionate burden as unpaid labour: caring for livestock, collecting fodder, managing households and working in fields. These contributions remain invisible and unvalued. Many young women see village life as a trap, rather than a life within a community. Marriage increasingly becomes a route out of rural life, not a partnership to strengthen it. At the same time, young men aspire to urban-oriented partners, while rural women seek spouses with salaried jobs and city addresses.

Underlying this is the economic reality of farming. Agriculture no longer provides a reliable or adequate income. Rising input costs, volatile prices, lack of assured markets and weak institutional support have made farming unviable for small and marginal farmers. Governments have spoken endlessly about doubling farmers’ incomes, but that piece of propaganda blew up in no time, making farmers even more cynical about any government support.

Land ownership patterns add another layer of complexity. In many villages, land remains jointly held by extended families. Fragmentation, disputes and economic interest make sale or consolidation difficult. Families migrate but retain ownership, leaving land uncultivated. Terraces collapse, invasive species spread, and fragile hill ecosystems degrade. Social migration becomes ecological decline.

The irony is that the urban economy absorbing this migration is far less stable than it appears. Most rural youth do not enter secure, well-paid employment in the cities. They enter informal jobs with long hours, poor working conditions and no social security. Housing is expensive, public services are stretched and social isolation is common. Yet the illusion persists.

The cost of empty villages is far greater than the loss of a population. When villages die, food security weakens, agro-biodiversity erodes and traditional knowledge disappears. India’s resilience has always rested on its rural systems: diverse crops, local food cultures and decentralised livelihoods. So if villages continue to empty out, India will lose the foundations of self-reliance in food systems, ecological balance and social stability.

Yet reversing this trend requires more than emotional appeals. Farming must be made economically viable, socially respected and institutionally supported. Rural areas need education, healthcare, connectivity and opportunities for local enterprise. Most important, agriculture must be repositioned as skilled, modern and dignified work.

Let’s recall the most far-sighted and inspiring call to action made by Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965: “Self-sufficiency in food to be no less important than an impregnable defence system in the preservation of our freedom and independence.” This was how the “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” slogan was born.

https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/suman-sahai-ghost-villages-a-growing-threat-in-uttarakhand-indias-hill-areas-1942449