Empower local communities to conserve, sustainably use Himalayan resources

Empower local communities to conserve, sustainably use Himalayan resources

Subject :Geography

Section: Geomorphology ( Physical Geography)

Context: Recent sinking of Joshimath

Himalayan ecology:

• The Himalayas, formed 50 million years ago due to the Indian landmass crossed the prehistoric tethys sea and bumped into the Asian mainland, are still quite fragile.
• Himalayas are still rising slowly and are susceptible to earthquakes.
• As the himalayas evolved the slope were covered with vegetation of oak and rhododendron that firmly held the soil and water preventing erosion and landslides.
• Human settlement developed leaving the forest cover intact, Joshimath is one such old settlement.

Exploitation of Himalayan forests:

• Forest exploitation:
• The scenario changed during British colonial period. Colonial powers were solely interested in resource exploitation.
• British began leasing the forests from ruler of Tehri in 1905.
• When the reserve forests were being demarcated, some officials reported that these could not sustain commercial forestry and recommended that they be converted into community managed forests.
• The government disagreed but lated introduced a provision in the Indian Forest Act 1927, to declare reserved forests as villege forests and hand over their management to communities.
• The first van panchayats (village forest councils) were constituted in the 1930s, in Garhwal and Kumaon Himalayas.
• The colonial forest management regime has continued unabated even after Independence, progressively weakening the highly efficient van panchayats.
• Water exploitation:
• The Himalayan region’s watercourses have also been silted up by quarrying of limestone, required for the construction of roads and buildings.
• As a result, the beds of these watercourses, such as those in Mussoorie, have become broader and destroyed farmland.
• The government ordered that mining be stopped only when it was concluded that the cost of destroying the farmland exceeded the benefits from mining.
• However, the courts put a stay on this order and the mining continued with damaging consequences.
• Projects such as Tehri dam play a role in exacerbating effects of disasters, as seen during the 2021 Chamoli flash floods.
• Concern should be paid on Himalayan regions carrying capacity, and the focus should be shift towards ecological restoration of Himalayas through inclusive development and conservation.
• The van panchayats should be expanded by implementing the Community forest Rights provision of the Forest Rights Act.
• Effective implementation of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments.

Ecological carrying capacity:

• Carrying capacity is the maximum population size that an ecosystem can sustainably support without degrading the ecosystem. Deaths and long term damage to an ecosystem occurs when a population exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecosystem.
• Disease, competition, predator-prey interaction, resource use and the number of populations in an ecosystem all affect carrying capacity.

HYDROPOWER PROJECTS CONSTRUCTED BY THE DEPARTMENT AFTER CREATION OF THE STATE

Barrage at Uttarkashi	304MW Power House at Dharasu