Excessive highway widening in Uttarkashi-Gangotri eco-sensitive zone threatening thousands of trees

By Bharat Dogra

Probably the most ecologically sensitive area in India, also known for its great cultural and spiritual heritage, is the Uttarkashi-Gangotri area near the origin of the Ganga River in the Himalayas. This is also close to the Gaumukh glacier. It is of the highest importance to protect trees and other precious vegetation and herbs of this area.

Today as thousands of trees are threatened by excessive highway widening in this eco-sensitive zone and local people are raising the demand for saving these trees, the government authorities too must respond by doing all they can to save these trees.

Solutions are available, if only the highway authorities agree to work in cooperation with local people who have much more detailed knowledge of local conditions and so can suggest alternatives which can protect trees.

The Raksha Sutra (Threads of Protection) movement, which traces its legacy to the Chipko (hug the trees) movement, and others have in fact suggested an alternative possibility in the form of a new road which will cause minimal loss of trees while at the same time improving the connectivity of several remote villages. This new road can take some of the traffic burden and hence the need for excessive widening of the highway, which is threatening thousands of trees, can be avoided.

On the other hand if the government goes ahead with the excessive widening of the highway leading to the felling of a very large number of trees, then the environmental harm will be on a huge scale. The promises of planting these threatened trees elsewhere is least likely to be realized as natural forests cannot be re-created in this way. While generally it is being said that about six thousand and odd trees (mostly deodar trees) have been marked for felling, the past experience has shown clearly that when a big tree is felled several nearby smaller trees, plants, herbs etc. are also uprooted and ruined.

All possibilities to avoid this ecocide should be explored in close cooperation with local villagers particularly women, panchayats (local elected village councils) and social and environmental organizations.

In a region which has witnessed highly destructive floods and landslides leading to the loss of many precious human lives in recent years as well as other large-scale harm, people are understandably worried regarding the impact of the felling of so many trees and the destruction of so much vegetation. In fact people here, as in several parts of the Himalayan region, are very apprehensive regarding the overall impact of several big construction projects including dams, tunnels and excessively wide highways, particularly when the due precautions are not exercised in the construction work. The construction rubble and waste thrown in rivers increases their capacity to cause destruction in a big way but after the floods have passed, all this is forgotten and precautions are ignored again. Common people, small shopkeepers and villagers are also troubled and worried regarding the impact of such indiscriminately taken up work on their farms, springs, irrigation channels, other water sources and small shops or vending spaces.

In addition there is also the impact of tree felling and related environmental harm on glaciers, as well as in downstream areas, as the excess as well as scarcity of water in different seasons in the densely populated plains below is also influenced by what happens in the ecologically crucial catchment areas of the Ganga river and its various tributaries.

The government authorities can still act wisely even at this late stage to work out alternative arrangements in cooperation with the local people in such a way that massive environmental harm can be avoided and the base of sustainable livelihoods is protected instead of being harmed.

---

The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Man over Machine, Protecting Earth for Children, and A Day in 2071

Comments

10,000 students deprived of classes as Ahmedabad school remains shut: MCC writes to Gujarat CM

By A Representative The Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) has written to Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, urging him to immediately reopen the Seventh Day Adventist School in Maninagar, Ahmedabad, where classes have been suspended for nearly two weeks. The MCC claims that the suspension, following a violent incident, violates the constitutional right to education of thousands of children.

Gujarat minority rights group seeks suspension of Botad police officials for brutal assault on minor

By A Representative A human rights group, the Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) Gujarat, has written to the Director General of Police (DGP), Gandhinagar, demanding the immediate suspension and criminal action against police personnel of Botad police station for allegedly brutally assaulting a minor boy from the Muslim community.

On Teachers’ Day, remembering Mother Teresa as the teacher of compassion

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ It is Teachers’ Day once again! Significantly, the day also marks the Feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta (still lovingly called Mother Teresa). In 2012, the United Nations, as a fitting tribute to her, declared this day the International Day of Charity. A day pregnant with meaning—one that we must celebrate as meaningfully as possible.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Targeted eviction of Bengali-speaking Muslims across Assam districts alleged

By A Representative A delegation led by prominent academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey visited three districts in Assam—Goalpara, Dhubri, and Lakhimpur—between 2 and 4 September 2025 to meet families affected by recent demolitions and evictions. The delegation reported widespread displacement of Bengali-speaking Muslim communities, many of whom possess valid citizenship documents including Aadhaar, voter ID, ration cards, PAN cards, and NRC certification.

Gandhiji quoted as saying his anti-untouchability view has little space for inter-dining with "lower" castes

By A Representative A senior activist close to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has defended top Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy’s controversial utterance on Gandhiji that “his doctrine of nonviolence was based on an acceptance of the most brutal social hierarchy the world has ever known, the caste system.” Surprised at the police seeking video footage and transcript of Roy’s Mahatma Ayyankali memorial lecture at the Kerala University on July 17, Nandini K Oza in a recent blog quotes from available sources to “prove” that Gandhiji indeed believed in “removal of untouchability within the caste system.”

'Govts must walk the talk on gender equality, right to health, human rights to deliver SDGs by 2030'

By A Representative With just 64 months left to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global health and rights advocates have called upon governments to honour their commitments on gender equality and the human right to health. Speaking ahead of the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), experts warned that rising anti-rights and anti-gender pushes are threatening hard-won progress on SDG-3 (health and wellbeing) and SDG-5 (gender equality).

Is U.S. fast losing its financial and technological edge under Trump’s second tenure?

By Dr. Manoj Kumar Mishra* The United States, along with its Western European allies, once promoted globalization as a democratic force that would deliver shared prosperity and balanced growth. That promise has unraveled. Globalization, instead of building an even world, has produced one defined by inequality, asymmetry of power, and new vulnerabilities. For decades, Washington successfully turned this system to its advantage. Today, however, under Trump’s second administration, America is attempting to exploit the weaknesses of others without acknowledging how exposed it has become itself.

What mainstream economists won’t tell you about Chinese modernisation

By Shiran Illanperuma China’s modernisation has been one of the most remarkable processes of the 21st century and one that has sparked endless academic debate. Meng Jie (孟捷), a distinguished professor from the School of Marxism at Fudan University in Shanghai, has spent the better part of his career unpacking this process to better understand what has taken place.

Counterview

Search This Blog