How India can save pilgrimages and fragile Himalayas

India’s Himalayan region has a variety of revered Hindu shrines and they attract an incredible number of tourists every year. The region has witnessed various natural disasters through the years, killing thousands. Environmentalists say a balanced method is needed to protect centuries-old traditions and also the Himalayas. The BBC’s Sharanya Hrishikesh reports.

In 2021, whilst inaugurating a variety of projects, Leading Minister Narendra Modi said that more tourists would visit the northern state of Uttarakhand over the next 10 years than in the past 100 years.

A lot of this, he said, could be attributed to a major infrastructure push from the federal and condition governments – both led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has a huge support base among India’s majority Hindu community — to improve connectivity to famous pilgrimage spots in Uttarakhand.

The mountainous condition, where several Himalayan peaks and glaciers are located, is home to some of the holiest sites regarding Hindus, including the brow towns of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri which are section of the Himalayan Char Dham Yatra (Four Pilgrimages).

There are many other adored sites in the Himalayan region, including the Amarnath cave shrine and Vaishno Devi brow in Indian-administered Kashmir.

For centuries, the devoted have braved the biting cold plus treacherous mountainous paths to pray on these shrines, many of which are only open for a few months in the yr.

Yet experts say that the surge in the number of worshippers over the past couple of decades – partly due to greater flexibility and connectivity : and the infrastructural growth to accommodate them are harming the fragile ecological balance of the region, which is vulnerable to earthquakes and landslides.

A ban, they say, can not be a solution when centuries-old traditions are involved, yet there are several steps like regulation that can be done without disrespecting religious sentiments.

“There is too much and as well frequent intervention in these fragile regions. Earlier, villagers in remote control areas would wait around years to get entry to one road. Right now, there is a major expansion in facilities : but they don’t cater as much to locals as they do to the people from other states, inch says Kiran Shinde, a senior lecturer at La Trobe University in Australia that has worked extensively upon religious tourism and urban planning.

Whilst managing massive religious gatherings is always a tough task, India has successful examples such as the Kumbh Mela , that is held across 4 states.

But the problems in vulnerable hilly areas are diverse and manifold.

Several infrastructure endeavours in the region – including the ambitious Char Dham road-widening project – have been challenged simply by environmentalists and local residents on environmental grounds.

Ravi Chopra, a senior environmentalist who headed a committee formed with the Supreme Court to look at concerns about the Char Dham project, resigned in February . This individual wrote in a notice that he was “disappointed” by a top courtroom order that ignored recommendations on the suggested road width manufactured by a section of the cell.

“Sustainable development needs approaches that are each geologically and environmentally sound… As a member of the [committee], nevertheless , I saw at close up quarters the desecration of the once impregnable Himalayas, ” he or she wrote.

There are other concerns too.

A group of researchers, which studied a flash flood disaster that killed more than two hundred people in Uttarakhand in February 2021, mentioned in a report that increasing temperatures were growing the frequency of rock falls in the Himalayas, which could boost the danger to people.

Like the majority of countries, India is also frequently facing intense weather events, which usually some studies have partly attributed to climate change.

Earlier in July, at least 16 pilgrims were killed after flash floods hit their makeshift camps near the Amarnath shrine.

A top weather man of science told reporters that the floods might have been triggered by a cloudburst, which led to “highly intense and highly localised rainfall that our automatic weather train station could not catch”.

“We have no means of calculating the rainfall generally there as it is a very remote area, ” additional Sonam Lotus, director of the Jammu and Kashmir meteorological division.

In 2013, the town of Kedarnath has been hit by disastrous floods – brought on by heavy monsoon rains – by which thousands of people were hidden away. While the memory space remains painful, it hasn’t deterred pilgrims from visiting the shrine – this year, the turnout is usually expected to cross 2019’s record of a million visitors, authorities have said.

To be certain, these tourists bring much-needed revenue to convey governments – this could reduce the incentive to consider tough calls.

Doctor Shinde says that there is often an “institutional vacuum” when it comes to dealing with the fallout associated with religious tourism.

“While religious actors positively participate in promotion plus management of the spiritual tourism economy with local levels, they will hardly shoulder required addressing the damaging environmental impacts, inch he wrote in a 2018 paper .

While increased accessibility has allowed many more people across the country and even abroad to visit these holy shrines, experts state the process needs a “fundamental rethink”.

“The last-mile approach [to the shrine] should be produced a little more difficult pertaining to pilgrims. Currently, not just the destination yet even intermediate areas along the way are below too much pressure, ” says Sreedhar Ramamurthi, an environmentalist.

Regulators also need to talk to more stakeholders to develop better policies for eco fragile pilgrimage spots, Dr Shinde says.

“Most of the pilgrimage economy is casual, from the local priests who conduct religious ceremonies for devotees to the people who consider pilgrims on ponies to the shrine. These would know the terrain and alternative routes better than most people, inch he says.

Most professionals agree that regulating pilgrim numbers according to the terrain’s capacity is important.

In addition , awareness programmes can also make some distinction, Dr Shinde adds.

“The right messaging is important. Authorities need to provide regular, updated information through ads and public company broadcasters that furthermore highlight the risks plus dangers involved in the journey, ” he says.

Whilst there could be political dangers in announcing restrictions on such a sensitive subject, Mr Modi – the most popular politician in the country – would most likely be able to pull it off, observers say.