Environmental issues ignored in environmentally sensitive Uttarakhand in LS elections

Friday, 19 APRIL 2024 | PURNIMA BISHT | DEHRADUN

Despite being an environmentally sensitive State, the Lok Sabha election has not witnessed any major political party raising concern about environmental degradation in Uttarakhand which has worsened in the past three years. Though parties have mentioned a few lines on their manifestos regarding sustainable development and climate change, they rarely follow through after elections and these issues remain just as a symbolic concern by the parties. In the past three years, the State has witnessed several incidents that showed consistent environmental degradation in plains as well as mountainous areas. According to concerned citizens and environmentalists, the State saw severe land subsidence in Joshimath that reportedly occurred due to excessive construction work that led to the loosening of soil due to settlement on unstable ground and blockage of natural drains. This incident has affected the lives of hundreds of people there and according to some environmentalists, there is a potential land subsidence threat in several mountainous areas like Gopeshwar, Srinagar, Mussoorie, Nainital, Munsyari and Purnagiri, among others. They claimed that water resources are also allegedly drying up due to the Rishikesh- Karnprayag railway project but nothing concrete has been done by the administration in this regard. In the name of the development works, the government in Dehradun alone has cut down thousands of trees for road widening which many believe to be the cause of the recent increase in the intensity of flash floods during monsoon. Nobody is talking about the Namami Gange project that was started 10 years ago to rejuvenate the Ganga river. The government has spent crores of rupees on this project but the citizens are yet to see any significant change in the Ganga river, the environmentalists said. Besides this, several people have been losing their lives in the mountainous as well as plain areas to human-wildlife conflict. Since 2017, over 450 people have been killed in human-wildlife conflict but no in-depth analysis is being conducted to ascertain the cause. The current government has clearly failed to address these issues over the years but it is unfortunate that the opposition also failed to raise these issues during elections, concerned citizens said. Though the environmental degradation in Uttarakhand is hardly one of the main issues during elections, it was observed that the environmentalists who often show their concern and protest against the above mentioned issues were also not vocal about them during this LS election. Responding to this claim, a member of Citizens For Green Doon (CFGD) Himanshu Arora said that he agrees with it while adding that environmentalists have been raising such concerns for the past several years but their voices remain unheard. “The consistent apathy towards these issues and our appeals have certainly demotivated many of us. Blatant deforestation is happening across the State. The government carries out intensive afforestation programmes only on paper. The rivers are widely neglected here. These are not new concerns but the apathetic attitude of the government over the years has brought down the morale of many,” he said. However, Dehradun based activist Lokesh Ohri said that he does not entirely agree that environmentalists have not been vocal about environmental degradation issues in the State. “People are talking about migration and land laws during LS elections that are related to the State’s environmental concerns. The activists are always raising their voices on the issues in the State at their level. However, considering the current political scenario, it is true that there is a fear factor among environmentalists to raise their voices openly against the government. It is sad that in a State where people held the Chipko Movement and protested against the Tehri dam construction, many have to think about repercussions before raising their voice on such issues,” he added.