Experts: Himalayas on slippery slope, fault lines in master plan
Speaking at a Thursday webinar titled 'Keeping in India's Hill States: Managing Development Amidst Climate Change', specialists called for an end to four-lane highway expansion in Himachal Pradesh, stricter limits on tourist vehicles, a halt to new hydropower projects, and a shift toward ropeways and sustainable infrastructure.
The warnings come as Himachal Pradesh has recorded 108 deaths since the monsoon began on June 20, including 17 in cloudbursts, nine in flash floods and 20 in drowning incidents.
This season has seen 58 flash floods, 30 cloudbursts and 51 major landslides, causing an estimated ₹1,952 crore in losses, while 37 people remain missing.
Former bureaucrat Avay Shukla said the state's carrying capacity was already stretched, yet political leaders aim to more than double tourist arrivals to 5 crore a year. Ex-Shimla deputy mayor Tikender Singh Panwar said Himalayan states were trapped in a flawed central financial model that pushed investment in hydroelectricity and tourism without regard to ecological limits.
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Former additional chief secretary Deepak Sanan stressed the need for strict construction guidelines tailored to slope types and geology. Fellow panelist Pratibha Chauhan warned that vertical commercial towers of up to 20 storeys in seismic zones 4 and 5 invite catastrophe, while successive govts have brought various retention policies to regularise tens of thousands of illegal structures.
Architect Nandu Negi pointed out that over-concreted retaining walls and drains prevented water absorption, exacerbating flood risks. Urban planner Anjali Karol Mohan called for decentralised decision-making to reduce both external and internal pressures on the mountain ecosystem. Experts agreed that without urgent policy changes, the region's fragile landscape will face even more deadly disasters in the years ahead.
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