Even if climate change was not affecting the country, India would be an “environmental basket-case”, said historian and environmentalist, Ramachandra Guha, at an event in Udhagamandam on Sunday.
Mr. Guha, who was speaking on the final day of a three-day conference ‘NilgiriScapes’ aimed at stoking dialogue for an environmentally-sustainable future for the Nilgiris, said successive governments since economic liberalisation had dismantled environmental regulations and safeguards that environmental movements in the 1970s and 80s had brought about.
“Even if climate change did not exist, we are an environmental basket-case. We have the most-polluted cities in the world. Every one of our rivers is biologically dead. We have extraordinary rates of chemical contamination of soil, loss of biodiversity and so on,” said Mr. Guha.
Comparing the effects of colonialism on the Nilgiris and in the Garhwal Himalayas, Mr. Guha said the effects in the two regions were similar in that the British brought with them an increase in urban expansion to the hills, as well as the presence of the army, widespread ecological modification of the landscape, and increase in migrant labour (for instance to the tea estates of the Nilgiris).
The prospects for an ecologically-sustainable future for the Nilgiris were more plausible than for the Himalayan towns of Uttarakhand. As the Nilgiris was not near to an international border, it faced less of a threat from military infrastructure. “The ill-luck of the Garhwal Himalayas is its close proximity to the border with Tibet, and in consequence, China,” said Mr. Guha.
The Nilgiris’ comparative lack of pilgrimage sites is another source of optimism. “While you have many sacred rocks, lakes, plants, temples, you do not have Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri,” he said, pointing to the tremendous developmental pressures the Himalayas were facing due to the huge influx in religious tourists to these sites.
“These imperatives for national security, and the craze for religious tourism intensified by Hindutva post-2014 that has beset Garhwal is destroying the region,” added Mr. Guha. Due to these factors, he said, he cannot envisage a sustainable future for the Garhwal Himalayas.
The ‘NilgiriScapes’ conference on Saturday was attended by the State Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.
