G L KHAJURIA
If there were no Himalayas, there would have been no Ganga, Yamuna, Bramputra or indus. If there were no Himalayas, there had been no rains and if there were no rains, India would have been a dead desert like Sahara, Said the father of the nation- Mahatma Gandhi. In the same vein, said our first prime minister PT J L Nehru, Himalayas are not only near us but also very dear, for they have always been a part of our history and tradition, our thinking poetry, our worship and devotion.
The Himalayas are virtually home to twenty thousand small and large glaciers and as well as a high repository of snow. And the snow line of perennial and seasonal snow cover comes down to two thousand meters. The appearance and disappearance of snows cover concern not only the men of the mountains but at large the entire country which is dependent on the flow of Himalayan rivers.
Apart from, snowcapped Himalayas, these have been the abode of our great rishis, munis, saints and sages who in their deep samadies meditate for years together to obtain favors of gods and goddesses.
With the over- exploding population which weknow have crossed 1.25 billion next to China and coupled with industrial culture has in unison over exploited our forest cover which stands now at the threshold of uncontrolled destruction. And this environmental destruction has taken the shape in hundreds of different ways. The resources of nature have been manipulated beyond sustainable limits. In the Himalayas, this process is no new but is now frightening and we are compelled to shout as no hope and help is expected to come to rescue us.
The Himalayan crises are no longer an isolated event. It is the outcome of consumption-oriented industrial culture of the day and the rapid proliferation of human population. It is in a way ‘Treshma’ around wants ever-increasing in spirals but never the loss ever satisfied. Let us remind late Sh Daphtarys words: “Enough is just a little more than you have and therefore, you never have enough”.
As a consequence, therefore, even the trees, the only renewable source, have become irretrievable owing to ever-amounting over exploitation. Pollution and ecological degradation are the ultimate outcome in more than many ways. This is obviously one track development and civilization which we very proudly claim as the progress or to say development. Our late premier smt Indra Gandhi had very rightly remarked in Stockholm at world conference on environment way back in 1972 that “we do definitely want development but not at the cost of destruction. We have rather become a hunted civilization and are lacking foresightedness as to what lies ahead of us and our generations to come. Would not they abuse us for the blunder and utter neglect for our misdeeds? What kind of inheritance we are passing onto them? The immediate problem is to rectify the ecological imbalance of Himalaya before it is too late and the challenging situation is quite irreversible. The most vital solution is, therefore, to adopt a new development strategy in which the man and the nature must progressively coexist in harmony. We need to remember that prosperity in its manifestations is much more than material satisfaction. We in Kashmir call ‘parkath’. It arises from a total feeling of well being, when we find ourselves In tune with environment and reasonably satisfied with what we have. Prosperity is the consequence of small population with abundant production of food and other necessities and would work ethically and considerably with retrained consumption.
We must have to endure to develop a complete and minimal vital and stable natural eco system and the benefits of the centralized productions shall at all casts are warranted be totally avoided. Alternate are substituting sources of fuel and energy are to be produced eftsoonly . Hydropower is probably the best suited option for all the hilly reasons. Solar system can very conveniently be developed and solar energy can be trapped thereby eliminating pollution as well. As a consequence, Therefore, the new approach has to be stratified to treat Himalayan mountain system with a combination of a number of dynamic watershed ecosystems which of course have been expounded by many experts at national and international level at this pernicious juncture. Himalayas which, are our country’s crown provides us a line of defense from the foreign invaders like China. The crisis arising out from the melting of glaciers and perennial snows is beyond all ambiguities an alarming challenge. The Chinese policies and strategies are quite unpredictable despite the fact that our prime minister, Narendra Modi made all out efforts for better ties.
There is an unforgettable reminder to us when China invaded India in 1962 and illegally occupied a larger part of indian territory owing to a big folly called as Himalayan blunder which was subsequently elaborated and documented by brig. J P Dalvi. This book by a senior army officer reflects as to how our Valliant jawans and officers flowed their blood while counteracting Chinese aggression in safeguarding county’s honor which, defacto left an indelible mark in the history of the world. As on date, our Valliantjawans are on active surveillance for the defense of the country and are defending teeming billions.
(The author is Dy. Conservator of Forests).
