SC seeks Centre’s response on plea assessing carrying or bearing capacity of the ecological fragile Himalayan region [Read Order]

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Centre and some state governments on a plea for ensuring assessment of the carrying capacity or bearing capacity of the ecological fragile Indian Himalayan region before allowing mega hydropower projects and unregulated tourism.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala issued notice to the Union government and state governments of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and others on a petition filed by Dr Ashok Kumar Raghav.

The plea, argued by advocate Akash Vashishtha, argued the governments -- in the Indian Himalayan Region, spread across 13 states/UTs --  have failed in preparing and implementing the master plans/tourism plans /lay-out/area development/zonal plans, and also failed to the “carrying capacity or bearing capacity of ecologically fragile areas”, which is home to nearly 50 million people.

The plea claimed this region, which is spread across 13 states/ union territories (UTs), is facing issues of unsustainable and hydrologically disastrous constructions – home stays, hotels, and commercial accommodations -- hydropower projects and unregulated tourism, which has allegedly collapsed the drainage and waste management system.

The issue raised the backdrop of the recent land cracking and sinking issues in Joshimath assumed significance.

The region included Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

The plea said carrying or bearing capacity of the ecologically fragile areas, hill stations, and highly visited areas in hills is necessary as the same would inter alia determine how much can a given place bear the load of human population or human intervention and the extent of infrastructure projects could be permitted, given its geological/tectonic/seismic position, water resources available, food, habitat, air quality and other resources.

It further added that due to non-existent carrying /bearing capacity studies, grave geological hazards in the form of landslides, land subsidence, land cracking and sinking issues such as that in Joshimath and previously as flash floods/glacial bursts in Kedarnath (2013) and Chamoli (2021), are being witnessed and serious ecological and environmental depredation is taking place in the hills.

“The Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2018, of the Department of Tourism, State of Uttarakhand, had itself recognised identification of the permissible carrying capacities as a major challenge of the Uttarakhand Tourism. The objectives of the said policy are, inter alia, to resolve the carrying capacity issues of the prominent tourism destinations in the state,” it said.

The plea pointed out that 5637102 tourists visited Himachal Pradesh in 2021, which was 75.43 per cent over that was recorded in 2020. The places which witnessed the most number of visitors included but not limited to Shimla, Manali, Lahaul & Spiti, Sirmour, Bilaspur and Chamba.

“In 2020, 3213379 persons toured Himachal Pradesh, which was 81.33 per cent above that was recorded in 2019. In 2019, 17212107 visitors arrived in the state, according to the Tourist statistics of the Department of Tourism, Himachal Pradesh”, it added.

During the hearing, the court initially asked the petitioner to approach the National Green Tribunal. However, the petitioner's counsel insisted that there is a bar under Section 14 of the NGT Act as there has to be a specific case of environmental violation.

As the counsel insisted that this is an important issue, the court issued notice to the Centre, Ministry of Jal Shakti, and others.

[Read Order]