Uttarakhand gasping due to influx of tourists, mountains are also troubled with tourists
If Shah Jahan had seen the Yamuna river behind it before building the Taj Mahal, then the Taj might not have been built there. Seeing the rising mercury in big cities, people are running towards the mountains, but what they are facing there is increasing their mercury. In the last few years, the way the mountains of Uttarakhand have been uprooted in the name of development, after that people are getting upset even after coming here and the people here are also getting upset. Traffic jams, damage to the environment, all this is happening due to wrong planning of development. Promotion of tourism is necessary for the people of Uttarakhand, but promoting tourism in this way is ruining the mountains itself. Then there will be neither the income of the local people nor will there be a place for tourists to visit.
For the last few years, people going to the famous tourist destination of Uttarakhand are facing a lot of trouble. This time too long jams are being found in areas like Dhanaulti. Due to the scarcity of water, the tourists have come to a standstill. There is severe shortage of parking.
How serious is the problem, you understand from these points
▪️In the last week of April, Haridwar-Rishikesh attracted 3 lakh tourists, 40% more than the average at this time of the year.
▪️Similarly, 5 lakh tourists came including Nainital, Tehri, Almora, Ranikhet and Mussoorie.
▪️Till April 29, 1.60 lakh had registered for Char Dham on government portals and apps, which is 20% more than last year.
▪️In a conversation with Hindustan Times, Haridwar Tour and Travels President Umesh Paliwal said that 90% of the operators do not have any vehicles left.
▪️NH-58 and NH-72 are causing long traffic jams due to the rush of tourists.
▪️There are many kilometer long jams in Mussoorie, because there is no parking as many tourists are coming. People are parking their vehicles on the side of the road, due to which the problem of jam is getting bigger.
According to the data released by Uttarakhand Tourism on their site, the favorite tourist spots of Indians in the hilly regions of Uttarakhand are Dehradun, Mussoorie, Tehri and Badrinath. If we look at the figures of the year 2018 and 2019, it is known that in both these years, more than one million tourists were continuously influx of these tourist places, if we talk about the plain religious place Haridwar, then the number of tourists going there is crores. was in Especially because of Kumbh, more people came there.
All environmentalists and scientists are unanimous in this matter that tourism cannot be stopped but at least it should be controlled.
lack of parking
▪️There is space to park 1000 vehicles in a day in Mussoorie, but more than two thousand vehicles are coming. New multi level parking has been built in Mussoorie but this is not enough.
▪️There is space to park 5000 vehicles daily in Nainital but more than 10000 vehicles are coming. There are 6 parking spots in Nainital and now looking at the number of vehicles, land is being searched for new parking.
▪️There is now a plan to build 8 multilevel parking in Haridwar, whereas there is only one multilevel parking.
▪️The problem is that all this planning is late. As long as the new parking is built, the number of tourists will increase and the result will be that the pressure will remain on the mountains.
▪️Many tourists, after spending their valuable time and money, reach near the destination in search of some relaxation, they are turned back from there because of the traffic.
▪️Parking was full in Nainital on May 2 even without any holiday.
In this era of internet and mobile, people associated with Uttarakhand tourism should make proper use of these digital means to keep up-to-date information on roads, parking to the tourists visiting Uttarakhand. An example-
Heads up, @NiagaraFalls!
— Niagara Region (@NiagaraRegion) May 2, 2022
The Thorold Townline Road (RR 70) road closure has been extended till May 3. 🚧 https://t.co/frOgYZ3rH5
Road construction mistakes
Under the BJP’s road network campaign, all-weather road work started in the year 2016 keeping all the rules and regulations in place to fulfill the ambitious project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This road was described as important for pilgrimage and tourism as well as strategic importance.
To prevent the mountains from falling, the boundary was made on the mountains with stones, after tying the net, the ‘Rock Treatment’ scheme was started to prevent the mountains from falling. The width of the road was kept more than ten meters.
In view of the damage caused to the environment by this road, the Supreme Court constituted a high power committee, whose chairman Ravi Chopra, in his report, had said that keeping the width of the road 12 meters was not right and recommended to keep it only up to 5.5 meters. But all were pale in front of the ambitious power. The project progressed and now the condition is that the road started getting closed due to some hindrance many times with or without rain.
On this May 1, this tweet by activist Atul Sati showing the truth of All Weather Road went viral. In which it became clear how much benefit the all-weather road benefited those visiting Uttarakhand.
ऋषिकेश बद्रीनाथ हाईवे पर पीपलकोटी से आगे मायापुर के नज़दीक पिछले 5 घण्टे से सड़क पर सैकड़ों लोग फंसे हैं । सड़क चौड़ीकरण के समय भारी मात्रा में बोल्डर व मलवा आने से सड़क बन्द हो गयी । pic.twitter.com/yT0puaqNyy
— atulsati joshimath (@atulsati1) May 1, 2022
Last year, the road from Tanakpur to Pithoragarh was closed for a record more than seven days. The distance from Tanakpur to Champawat is only 70 kms, but due to the closure of the road, this journey through the alternate route of Rithasahib had become 140 kms.
All weather took many
▪️During the construction of this road being built in the name of development, the lamps of many houses have also been extinguished.
▪️In the year 2018, there was a major accident in Rudraprayag district, where seven people lost their lives when a rock fell on the laborers working near Banswara on Kedarnath road.
▪️In March 2020, another accident occurred during an all-weather road cutting on the Badrinath Highway and three people died due to being buried in the rock.
▪️In October 2020, two people aboard a canter on the Ghat-Pithoragarh highway were killed when debris fell on them.
Causes and remedies for road failure
The Himalayas have two slopes: northern and southern. In the south are India, Nepal, Bhutan. Keeping Uttarakhand in front, we can understand the Southern Himalayas. The mountain ranges of Uttarakhand have three levels – Shivalik, the Lesser Himalaya above it and the Great Himalaya above it. The most sensitive of these three levels are the Great Himalayas and the Milan belt of the Middle Himalayas.
The reason for this sensitivity is the deep cracks present in this matching strip.
Badrinath, Kedarnath, Rambara, Gaurikund, Guptkashi, Pindari river route, Gauri Ganga and Kali river – all these areas are cracked.
It is a natural occurrence for landslides to happen here, but without taking care of it, construction will be called unwise. It is important to understand that if water seeps in the debris or roads, then the horror is sure.
Staying away from cracks is the first condition of Himalayan construction. The second condition should be considered the correct arrangement of drainage channels. We should choose the construction site by understanding the structure of the soil and stone, do not build in the drainage path. Don’t stop the rivers and let them flow.
The mountains of Japan and Australia also have such cracks, but their technique of selection and construction of roadways is such that there is less chance of water seeping inside the roads, so the roads remain stable even in rain.
While building a road in the mountains of Uttarakhand, its debris is being thrown into the rivers.
Please look at the slopes of muck straight into the Ganga. All generated by chardham works. These are pics clicked on 25th and 26th may pic.twitter.com/YOuhahxKwh
— Mallika Bhanot (@MallikaBG) June 3, 2018
Senior journalist Vinod Pandey, who has been keeping a keen eye on environmental issues for years, was talked to about the right way to build roads in the mountains. He told that earlier in the mountains the road was made with ‘cut and fill’ technique. To make a road, half of the mountain was cut for the road and half was given a wall of rubble of the same. Haldwani-Nainital road is an example of this.
