On a once a decade yatra: Environmentalist, historian Shekhar Pathak shares experiences of Askot-Arakot Abhiyan across Uttarakhand

After a yatra lasting 45 days (1,150 km) beginning May-end, crossing 36 rivers and visiting more than 300 villages across seven districts of Uttarakhand, we saw changes in some areas and major losses in many spheres of mountain life. Back, the team members are compiling notes, selecting photos and synchronising discussions. The People’s Association for Himalaya Area Research (Pahar) organises the Askot-Arakot Abhiyan Yatra once every 10 years to assess the developmental situation in the state. The participants include researchers, students, teachers, social activists and Himalayan enthusiasts.

Pahar is now into its 50th year. It all began in 1973, when, after returning from a trek to Pindari glacier, I wrote an article in an Almora weekly, Shakti. I quoted from ‘One Dimensional Man’, a book by American scholar Herbert Marcuse. Social activist Sunderlal Bahuguna liked it and was instrumental in connecting me and my friend Shamsher Bisht with Kunwar Prasun and Pratap Shikhar. Bahuguna then floated the idea of an Askot-Arakot Yatra.

The four of us were students of the first batches of the newly opened Kumaon and Garhwal universities. This yatra in 1974 opened our eyes and minds about Uttarakhand (then a part of Uttar Pradesh) and the realities of the innermost areas. In 1984, after becoming a teacher in Kumaon University, I, with my friends, thought about repeating the yatra, but with an extended programme. So, we started from Pangu, a village near the Nepal border (in Dharchula tehsil).

The length of the yatra was extended from 750 km to 1,150 km. It was more professional and research-oriented. We were trying to capture the details of change in a decade. Fortunately, our enthusiasm survived and we repeated the yatras in 1994, 2004, 2014 and for the sixth time this year. From a team of seven-eight in 1974, the strength increased to more than 300 this year.

At the launch of the Abhiyan at Pangu in 2014, environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt termed it ‘jangam vishwavidyalaya’ (walking university). Former Chief Minister HN Bahuguna hoped that “this yatra will open new ways to understand our mountains”. Geologist KS Valdiya termed it “a perennial study tour” and historian Ramachandra Guha saw in this yatra “the birth of a new research methodology”.

Pahar has published a volume on the Abhiyan up to the 2004 yatra. On its golden jubilee, it is keen to prepare a report for the good cause of Uttarakhand.

This year, we began the yatra from Pangu. It culminated at Arakot in Uttarkashi, covering Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Dehradun and Tehri. I share the very initial observations here. The big surprise this time, compared to the 2014 yatra, was the construction of roads. The road builders, however, have not followed the rules and indulged in large-scale blasting. Soil, muck and boulders are just thrown downwards, without considering the presence of agricultural fields, canals, pastures, springs, orchards, human settlements and finally, a rivulet or a river below.

This criminal behaviour towards nature and inhabitants apparently has the sanction of the governments and political parties. The environmental impact assessment and labour laws have been amended, and misused.

The cut and fill method, meant for mountains, has been avoided and drainage systems have not been built for the new village roads. The villagers appear relieved, but having been shortchanged for decades, they say they are compelled to accept this gift in its inferior form, and with no public transport.

While ignoring the setting up of schools and hospitals, as roads reach the remotest villages, these help in taking the villagers to towns and cities. These lively villages are being deserted. A flawed model of development has taken root. The loss of soil, fields, pastures and forests has accelerated. Before the locals realise, they are surrounded by land sharks, traders of medicinal herbs and wildlife, and travel agents. In the cities, the land mafia is already very powerful.

The ramifications of the end of age-old pilgrimage and its takeover by Big Tourism are all too visible — large-scale garbage, plastic bottles and excreta of thousands of horses on the Yamunotri and Kedarnath walking trails. The pilgrim centres were clean when there were fewer visitors, who mostly completed the journey on foot. Now, the sacred places and river valleys, flooded with lakhs of visitors, are stinking. The bulldozing at the Badri-Kedar shrines will have far-reaching consequences. It has been forgotten that these shrines were built on old moraines.

Canalising the Vishnu Ganga at Badrinath and Mandakini at Kedarnath is another suicidal deed. The arrival of a Thar jeep through the sky route to Kedarnath shows the scant wisdom of rulers and no respect for the shrines and the tradition of pilgrimage. Looking at pilgrims as voters is another aspect.

The rivers are over-burdened by the debris and silt created by digging, mining, tunneling and bulldozing. The landslides, flood remnants and destroyed hydro project sites of 2013 can be seen here and there. The wasted fields and houses at Khet; the sinking Tawaghat (Pithoragarh) and Joshimath; the big landslides in Pinder, Nandakini, Bhilangana, Balganga; an artificial lake created by the Kwari landslide in Shambhu Gad (tributary of Pinder) alarmed us. The defaced Alaknanda and its tributaries Bhagirathi, Yamuna and Tons saddened us. Nothing has been learnt from the 2013 disaster.

The Supreme Court failed in supporting the recommendations given by the high-powered committee formed by the apex court itself regarding dams and road widening. The politicians, ruling parties and contractors always wait for such a situation. They are sometimes local inhabitants, but insensitive like their politician brothers.

The roads may have reached the last settlements, but communication still fails there.

For 28 days, from Pangu to the Bhilangana-Bhagirathi valleys, we witnessed forest fires continuously. Some of us felt suffocated in the hills for the first time. We saw how fire had reached the oak and other broadleaf forests. Some forests witnessed fire incidents two to three times between December 23 and June 24.

In the last Abhiyan in 2014, we recorded temperature variation of 28 to 36 degrees Celsius on the route. This time, it was between 35 and 43 degrees. Long dry spells, little snowfall and aspects of climatic change are certainly associated with it.

Wherever there are schools, the good presence of girls is a big positive change, but closure of primary and middle schools due to less number of students forces us to take back our smiles. It is difficult to talk about any improvement in the quality of education, but the opening of Kasturba residential schools and Atal Utkarsh schools is a welcome venture. Here, too, quality education and counselling are a big concern. Many schools have washrooms, with availability of water. Some schools are well maintained, but most are without a fence or boundaries.

Innovative works also came to our notice during the yatra. Construction of an attractive gram panchayat campus at Pangu, the good homestay management at Sarmoli (Munsyari) mostly by women, introduction of kiwi in Liti and Uttarkashi and new apple varieties in Uttarkashi and Munsyari, the production of medicinal herbs at home, and the campaign to restore communication systems in Karmi and Badiakot are examples of local leadership, rural creativity and vision.

The establishment of museums at Dharchula (Rang Sanskriti Museum), Munsyari (Tribal Museum), Lata (Nanda Museum), Uttarkashi (Pratap Museum and Tibar) and an emerging museum at Mahendrath (Jaunsar-Bawar, Dehradun) are encouraging signs of the restoration and preservation of cultural expressions. These indicate people’s initiatives and innovations.

We found communal and caste angles more visible this time, especially in Champawat, Salt, Bageshwar, Dharchula, Haldwani, Nand Prayag, Satpuli and Purola. It is clear how the divisive strategy of communal politics and hate is being played out.

The attitude towards women has changed a bit, but male prejudice is predominant. Outmigration has increased and there was complete failure in retaining non-resident Uttarakhandis who returned during Covid times. Entrepreneurship and enterprise are still awaited. Only contractor-ship is a big business, where quality work remains the casualty. There is so much construction in the inner-most areas, yet we don’t even have any model for building a rural bridge, school buildings, or a panchayat ghar, etc.

In the rural areas, no state agency works properly. Take the case of destruction of the Curzon route (built in 1903) between Deval-Van to Ramani-Jhinji-Pana and Dhak Tapovan. Even the old bridge over Birehi was virtually destroyed. It should have been preserved and the motor bridge should have been built at another site. The old building at Rajgadhi could not be restored.

As a villager told us, “Leaders fly to helicopter-able places and bureaucrats to car-reaching points. The rest is the real Uttarakhand, where no one is keen to go.”

Uttarakhand, when it was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, had its positive sides as far as the availability of funds was concerned. It is visible in villages in the form of red roofs, cemented houses and homestays, but most public works are below standard.

Money may have come in the hands of locals, but the environmental loss is a much bigger issue. This is realised by the women in Pangu, who say the “beauty and inner feeling” while traversing the route are now missing. We should have avoided constructing the road beyond Kuti village. How the crazy development makes us blind, is evidenced here. An elderly villager summed it up: “Our leaders lack imagination and we lack the ability to elect the best and honest ones.”

The villagers arrange our stay, listen to us and tell us about their problems. The young people and students are always keen to listen to us and ask questions. They are our hope.