Context

• The year 2025 marked a turning point as climate extremes intensified across India.
• With nearly 331 days of cascading impacts and more than 4,000 deaths, disasters became a near-continuous reality.
• The Himalayas, among the world’s most fragile mountain systems, suffered disproportionate losses, with towns such as Dharali, Harsil, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Kullu, Mandi and Kishtwar repeatedly struck by cloudbursts, avalanches and flash floods.
• These events underscore that ecological instability is no longer episodic but structural, demanding a reassessment of how infrastructure is planned in sensitive regions.

Infrastructure Expansion in a Disaster Zone

• A central example is the Char Dham road-widening project.
• In November 2025, approval was granted to divert 43 hectares of forest land in the Dharali-Harsil region for the Char Dham project, including extensive muck dumping.
• Nearly 7,000 Devdar trees were marked for felling in an area already devastated by an avalanche-turned-flash flood.
• The project follows the DL-PS standard, enforcing a 12-metre-wide paved road despite repeated scientific warnings.
• Geologically, the region lies north of the Main Central Thrust, a zone where large-scale construction is discouraged due to unstable geology.
• The landscape is further destabilised by hanging glaciers, many fed by the rapidly retreating Gangotri Glacier.
• Moraine-laden ice bodies increase the probability of slope failure, as demonstrated by the glacier avalanche that triggered the Dharali disaster.
• Proceeding with large infrastructure under such conditions reflects a failure of basic risk assessment.

 Ecological Value of Devdar Forests

• The threatened forests perform irreplaceable ecological functions in the Himalayan landscape.
• Their deep root systems stabilise slopes, reduce erosion and significantly lower the incidence of landslides and debris flows.
• Removing them directly increases downstream hazard exposure.
• These forests also safeguard the upper reaches of the Ganga, as they fall within the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone.
• Their antimicrobial properties, derived from complex organic compounds, regulate riverine microbial communities and support aquatic biodiversity.
• By maintaining cooler microclimates, Devdar forests regulate snowmelt-fed streams, sustain dissolved oxygen levels and preserve the river’s ecological character.
• Large-scale deforestation would initiate irreversible changes, including higher water temperatures, reduced oxygen content and the collapse of natural self-purification processes.
• Proposals to translocate centuries-old Devdars ignore their site-specific ecological roles; uprooting them is functionally equivalent to destruction. 

A Project Built on Structural and Procedural Flaws

• The road-widening initiative illustrates how not to build in the Himalayas.
• Environmental safeguards were bypassed through fragmented clearances, incorrect road-width standards and destabilising vertical hill-cutting.
• Excavated debris was dumped indiscriminately into streams, compounding damage.
• The outcomes are visible along nearly 700 kilometres of roadway, where more than 800 active landslide zones now exist.
• Key routes remain frequently closed, undermining the project’s promise of all-weather connectivity.
• Retrofitting slopes with bolts and wire mesh, proposed years after destabilisation began, fails to address the root problem: slopes cut beyond their natural angle of repose.

Policy Contradictions and Governance Failures

• Current practices directly contradict the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, a policy framework designed to protect mountain ecology, mitigate hazards and guide sustainable livelihoods.
• This contradiction reveals systemic governance failures, where short-term connectivity goals override long-term safety.
• Unsafe land use, wide highways on unstable slopes, tunnels without adequate surveys and large hydropower projects, has repeatedly been flagged by regulatory bodies.
• While such activities act as immediate triggers, accelerated warming functions as a risk multiplier.
• High-altitude regions have warmed significantly faster than the global average, intensifying rainfall variability, glacial melt and extreme events.
• These pressures are amplified by unregulated tourism, unchecked traffic and the absence of carrying-capacity planning.
• Together, they erode ecological resilience and expose communities to escalating hazards.

Conclusion

• The continuing crisis reinforces a fundamental truth: without the Himalayas, there is no India. The range underpins water security, climate regulation and cultural continuity.
• Persisting with vulnerable models of development undermines national security rather than strengthening it.
• Disaster-resilient planning rooted in science, sustainability and accountability is not optional, it is essential.
• Failing to act ensures that loss, displacement and instability will intensify, demanding urgent accountability from those shaping the future of this irreplaceable landscape.