THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Himalayas call for engagement and involvement of local communities
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
This is the seventh episode of Himalaya ki Ganga ( English version) only available on Substack. I am ensuring that the substack subscriber get the exclusive English version prepared for them.
Uptil now we have traversed the journey of river Bhagirathi and its valley from its source till Tehri Garhwal. The last episode was dedicated to river Alaknanda and its five sacred Prayags ( confluences).
In this episode we take you to a fascinating journey of river Dhauli Ganga actually the biggest tributary of Alaknanda. The river rises from the high mountain ranges of Niti Pass on the Indo China border, descend to Niti village, the first village of India and then pass through the extremely rough and tough terrain of the Niti Valley which is also the abode of the indigenous communities such as Bhotiyas and Marchhas. The most important part of this valley is the Nanda Devi Biosphere located here home to huge bio diversity particularly medicinal plants and many more.
The area became a heaven for the timber contractors which was resisted by the local communities as they demande their right to access the forest produce including timber. The government denied local people the right but the same time allowed the big contractors from outside. This has been the British policy and after independence the government continued. Chipko movement grew out of this resentment.
On February 7, 2021, the river witnessed a massive disaster on its confluence site with Rishganga, which rises from Nanda Devi Peak. It was termed as bursting of the Glacial Lake Outflow Flood which resulted in wiping out a Thermal power plant at Tapovan and killing of over 200 persons working there.
We spoke to Atul Sati, activist based in Joshimath who raised the issue in the media and with the people. Chipko movement was a much bigger one and Mr Dhan Singh Rana, spoke to me in detail about the duplicity of the ‘experts’. He says, experts say that Himalayas will be finished in next fifty years as glaciers are melting. If that is true then why are you building your big projects here. How are these projects going to survive, if Himalayas are not there. He further says, ‘ we are cattle grazers, himalayan pastoralists and the government should have done is to think about us as what are our issues. After 1962 our trade with Tibet stopped as the border got closed. The government of India welcomed Tibetan refugees, gave them land and settled them in various places in cities and towns but what happened to us. Nobody, bothered about us.
The fact is that what Dhan Singh Rana who is no more now, spoke a big reality hidden from the people about the Chipko movement. For the outsiders, it was romanticise as women clinging to forests and so on. The issue of native communities rights and access to forest and forest producing resources was completely kept a secret as if people just went to the forest and cling the trees. Yes, people in the Himalayas love and worship the tree, forests and rivers, they are our identity, our gods but at the same time they are depended on them too for their livelihood. It is important that government think about this and involve local communities in its deliberations.
So far it does not seem the authorities have learnt any lessons. Himalayas and its rivers are meant to be ‘exploited’ commercially even when all of them know they are our heritage and our life line. How is that we are destroying this life line.
Dhauli Ganga culminate its 94 kilometer journey at Vishnuprayag, the first Prayag on Alaknanda. The new river is called Alaknanda and its moves towards Nandprayag for another confluence.
