Beauty defiled
The beauty of Rohtang has enamoured sages and statesmen alike, including Rishi Ved Vyas and Pandit Nehru. But this splendour has spelled doom for the pass, attracting hordes of tourists and destroying the fragile ecology of the area in the process, writes Kuldeep Chauhan

The waste generated by more than 100 dhaba owners has spelled doom for the alpine flora around the pass

Despite its horrific literal meaning — pile of corpses — the Rohtang pass has always attracted visitors due to its sheer majestic beauty. According to folklore, even the legendary sage Ved Vyas, who authored the great epic Mahabharata, was not immune to its charms and is believed to have meditated in a snow-clad, secluded spot known as Beas Kund, near Rohtang.

The Rohtang pass was an ancient trade route between people on either side of Pir Panjal. Trade caravans from Punjab used to cross this pass down the centuries on the Silk Route to Central Asia, leading from Lahaul and Ladakh to Yarkand.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the British arrived in the region attracted by its beauty and climate. Their two legacies — apple orchards and trout fishing — brought prosperity to the region. These continue to remain the best source of income for the majority of its inhabitants.

Then came a new age of mass tourism when Manali emerged as a major tourist destination in Himachal Pradesh. The country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was attracted to the beauty of Manali and the Rohtang pass. There is even a spring named after him, 6 km from Manali, where he used to drink water when he visited the area in the 1960s. His visit virtually opened the floodgates for tourists.

Many village women from the Manali area come here every day to offer traditional Kulu dresses on rent to tourists Photos by the writer

During the 1980s, tourism received a further boost after militancy peaked in the Kashmir valley.

During and after the Kargil war, the 473-km-long Manali-Leh highway emerged as an alternative military route during the summer months to carry the extra load of the Army supplies to the Siachen glacier and the Leh and Ladakh regions.

Slowly, Rohtang lost its beauty as tourists came in large numbers and traffic jams became common when military vehicles, trucks, and goods carriers tried to navigate the tight road and rough terrain, compounded by snow and ice at certain points. The major problem was the large number of tourist vehicles.

At 13,050 ft, Rohtang today stands like a battered warfield, torn apart by hordes of tourists, horses, snow scooters and thousands of vehicles.

Today, the white sentinels of the Pir Panjal range facing Rohtang seem like remnants of an era gone by. The lovely alpine flowers and life-saving herbs have vanished after being trampled by symbols of modernity.

The double-laning of the Manali-Leh highway by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has created further havoc in Rohtang. The debris dumped by BRO on the 30-km stretch between Marhi and Koksar, due to unscientific cutting have spelled doom for the remaining varieties of the alpine flora around the pass.

The pass today looks more like a circus show. More than 8,000 vehicles, including taxis, 500 ponies, at least 100 dhabas owners and persons providing traditional dresses on rent and shilajeet sellers, who move here at the peak summer tourist season, have pushed the carrying capacity of the Rohtang to brink.

The pass normally remains opens between May and October. On an average, 40 lakh persons, including tourists, locals, labourers, BRO and Army personnel, researchers as well as trucks and oil tankers, make their way to Leh and Ladakh.

Further, the single road also has to carry the produce of Lahaul’s farmers to Kulu markets. The companies involved in constructing the Rohtang tunnel, too, ship their heavy equipment to Lahaul using this route only, adding to the traffic load. In the peak hours during the day, it takes five to six hours for a visitor to the reach the 30-km stretch of Gramphu and Marhi.

There was a time when Rohtang used to be under perpetual snow cover, claim some Lahaul tribals, but today the snowline has receded and the cover seems to be diminishing.

When the pass opens in May, usually a pristine white sheet of snow welcomes the tourists. But as the season advances, they are greeted with the stench of horse-dung and urine. As soon as they hit the pass, fumes of vehicular exhausts overwhelm their olfactory nerves. Some patches of snow in the upper points turn black after being sprayed with dust and aerosols.

More than 500 pony and snow scooters owners have turned the pass into a complete mess.

There are no pucca horse-tracks and standing places for the animals. The area has turned into slushy junkyard. "Hygiene is poor and the stench of horse urine and dung overpowering," say Amit Shah and his wife Priti, who have come from Mumbai. "The authorities should improve the cleanliness, lay proper tracks and earmark spots for horses," they add.

"The road is littered with deep and slushy potholes and boulders that make this journey backbreaking, even hazardous," they add.

The owners of makeshift dhabas further add to the litter.

Many village women from the Manali area, who come here daily to offer traditional Kulu dresses on rent to tourists, use taxis. Though they earn only between Rs 300 and Rs 500 a day, they have pay Rs 150 to taxi drivers to ferry them back to Manali as there is no bus for them.

In the 10-sq-km area of the pass, there is no grass, and alpine flowers or other species that were once common here, have vanished, claim shepherds, who bring their livestock to the pastures in the Lahaul valley across the pass.

During the recent landslides near Rahni Nullah, 5 km from the pass, vehicles and tourists remained stranded for days together. Though the BRO had cleared the spot for one-way movement of traffic, but it does pose further hazards to commuters.

The further widening of the road between Marhi and Gramphu from the Lahaul side has turned the mountain into a sliding zone at many places. The BRO should make proper drains and culverts on the road.

Road cutting and debris have decimated more than a dozen species of flora like iris, distorta, ranunculus, thermopsis, potentila caltha, sedges, anemore, pedicularis, bargenia and alium, says Dr S. S. Samant, scientist in charge at GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kulu. He says at least 80 per cent damage done to Rohtang’s flora and ecology can be contained, if the BRO does not dump the debris on the sides.

According to Dr Samant, these species were once abounding in the area. They bind the rocky skeletal soil, which is otherwise prone to landslide. Efforts should be made to reintroduce these species to maintain the ecology and beauty of the Rohtang pass, he suggests.

But the BRO puts the blame on the slow pace of its work on the 8,000 vehicles that come here during the summer season. It says the road near Rohtang is the toughest stretch to build, as they get less than three hours to work per day during the summer season till it is closed in October-end. According to the BRO, it costs Rs 3 crore a km to double-lane the road here, making it one of the costliest roads in the world.

The authorities seem to be waking up at last to the growing problems at the Rohtang pass. According to BM Nanta, Deputy Commisioner, Kulu, they have made a masterplan to develop Manali and Rohtang. Parking lots and tracks are being constructed.

The district tourism council has also roped in some mahila mandals to collect trash and garbage from Rohtang and take it back to Manali for treatment. These mandals have been given a contract of Rs 4 lakh to collect waste from dhaba owners and horse-keepers. "The authorities will also impose fines on dhaba owners if they litter the spot. We also advise tourists to use bins," adds Nanta.

He says Rohtang today looks much cleaner as the waste is taken back to Manali and treated at the waste treatment plant there. "We also close the pass every Tuesday to allow the BRO to speed up work in the Rohtang area," he adds.

Rajeshwar Goel, SDM-cum-District Tourism Officer, Manali, says that they have set up 20 toilets at Rohtang being managed by Sulabh International.

BRO’s Commander SK Doon says the organisation is making efforts to ensure the smooth flow of civilian vehicles and to keep a fast pace of work of double-laning the road. He hopes the work will be complete by 2012.

(Right) Some mahila mandals have been roped in to collect trash from Rohtang and take it back to Manali; and (left) as the season advances, the visitors are greeted with the stench of horse-dung and urine