Recently @ 300 pilgrims on the Adi Kailash yatra in Pithoragarh were stranded for three days after a massive landslide blocked access to the critical border road in Uttarakhand.
The authorities had a hard time rescuing people as almost 100 metres of the road has been completely damaged. To facilitate the Char Dham yatra (with an eye on the Hindu vote), the government is building huge roads in ecologically fragile mountainous regions without taking into consideration that the carrying capacity of the hills has already been breached.
Mindless construction activity, road building and saturation tourism has ensured that tremors, landslips and flash floods are a regular feature in north India which pose not only a danger to human lives but to the very existence of the States itself.
Last year a major portion of Joshimath town in Uttarakhand sunk owing to land subsidence brought on by over development and blasting to facilitate road widening; the popular tourist destination has been totally devastated and now sees hardly any footfalls driving many tourist dependent families into penury.
Sarkar, get those blinkers of 'development' off and please leave the hills alone for our future generations to enjoy. Ecocide hurts everyone.
