Context:
The Indian Himalayan Range (IHR), which includes 11 states and two Union Territories, experienced an urban growth rate exceeding 40% from 2011 to 2021. Towns have expanded, and new urban settlements are developing. However, urbanization in Himalayan towns requires a unique approach.
Relevance:
GS3- Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment
Mains Question:
Cities along the Indian Himalayan Range suffer from inadequate funds and resources to manage civic issues. Analyse. What can be done to ensure better management of Himalayan areas? (15 Marks, 250 Words).
Challenges Faced by IHR Towns:
- Nearly all Himalayan towns, including state capitals, face significant challenges in managing civic issues.
- Cities like Srinagar, Guwahati, Shillong, and Shimla, along with smaller towns, struggle with sanitation, waste management, and water supply.
- The planning institutions in these states often fail because they rely on models designed for the plains, which have limited applicability in the Himalayas.
- City governments suffer from a shortage of human resources, with a deficit of nearly 75%. For example, in the Kashmir Valley, excluding the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, there are only 15 executive officers for over 40 urban local bodies.
- The expansion of cities into peripheral areas encroaches on village commons. Srinagar and Guwahati are examples of such expansion, resulting in the loss of open spaces, forests, and watersheds.
- In Srinagar, land use changes between 2000 and 2020 showed a 75.58% increase in built-up real estate, which rose from 34.53 square kilometers to 60.63 square kilometers, covering 23.44% of the total municipal area.
- Meanwhile, water bodies have shrunk by almost 25%, from 19.36 square kilometers to 14.44 square kilometers. Nearly 90% of liquid waste enters water bodies untreated.
Reasons for the Challenges:
- The IHR faces growing pressure from urbanization and development, exacerbated by high-intensity tourism, unsustainable infrastructure, and resource use, along with climatic changes like altered precipitation patterns and rising temperatures.
- These factors result in water shortages, deforestation, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and increased pollution, including plastic waste.
- These pressures pose significant threats to lives and livelihoods, affecting the socio-ecological balance of the Himalayas.
- Tourism in the IHR has grown and diversified, with an anticipated average annual growth rate of 7.9% from 2013 to 2023.
- However, current tourism practices often replace eco-friendly infrastructure with unsuitable, unsightly, and dangerous constructions, poorly planned roads, and inadequate waste management, leading to the depletion of natural resources and harm to biodiversity and ecosystem services.
- Promoting ecotourism, which focuses on environmentally friendly practices, is crucial for achieving long-term sustainability.
Steps Needed for Improvement:
- Planning institutions in IHR cities still rely on traditional land-use principles. Each town needs to be mapped with layers that identify vulnerabilities from geological and hydrological perspectives.
- Climate-induced disasters annually damage infrastructure built without such mapping, emphasizing the need for a planning process that involves local communities and follows a bottom-up approach.
- Consultant-driven urban planning processes should be abandoned for Himalayan towns, with urban design focusing on climate resilience.
- Additionally, none of the cities in the IHR can generate the capital required for their infrastructure needs. The Finance Commission should include a separate chapter on urban financing for the IHR.
- The high costs of urban services and the lack of industrial corridors place these towns in a unique financial situation.
- Current intergovernmental transfers from the center to urban local bodies account for only 0.5% of GDP; this should be increased to at least 1%.
Conclusion:
Himalayan towns must engage in broader discussions about sustainability, focusing on urban futures through robust, eco-centric planning processes that involve public participation.
