Uttarakhand destinations crack under tourism pressure

Forty-five-year old Alok Upreti became so annoyed and disturbed with the regular traffic jams at Tapovan in Rishikesh that he decided to move to a different location. For this he had to conduct a special operation; searching school for his kids and opting for a house on the outskirts of Rishikesh. It was a hard decision for Upreti as he had stayed over six years in Tapovan and was familiar with the locality, but getting stuck in traffic for hours during the tourist season and weekends left him with little choice.  

With tourist vehicles in large numbers invading the holy township, Rishikesh residents have to battle traffic jams on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway on every weekend and daily during pilgrimage season. There are many other local residents like Upreti who decided to shift to a new location as traffic jams are ruining their normal life. The growing number of hotels in main Rishikesh town also forced them to take the decision. Loud music and round-the-clock movement of tourist vehicles was highly upsetting.

Many pilgrimage and tourist places like Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Lansdowne and Nainital in Uttarakhand face a similar situation. The huge tourist crowd challenges available facilities and creates complete chaos. This has also raised serious concerns about the carrying capacity of tourist and pilgrimage destinations in Uttarakhand. And what efforts can the Uttarakhand government make to properly handle it? The issues of planned growth, regulated movement of tourists, public parking, etc. have now taken the centre stage in the hill state.

Sinking Joshimath

The case of sinking Joshimath town in Chamoli district demands serious introspection. To meet the growing demand of pilgrims, as Joshimath is a prominent stoppage on the Badrinath route, unplanned infrastructure development has been taking place in the town. Last year land subsidence reports were received and many houses received cracks. There was a hue and cry and a 35-member expert team conducted a detailed study of the affected area in Joshimath. The team in its report disclosed that 1,403 of the total 2,152 houses in Joshimath have been affected due to land subsidence. The Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) linked the land sinking directly to ill-planned construction, poor drainage and wastewater disposal systems in Joshimath. Now, the existence of Joshimath town is in danger.

Tourism upswing 

Tourism has grown many folds in Uttarakhand. The hill state attracts one of the biggest numbers of domestic tourists in the country. According to the Ministry of Tourism (Government of India) data Uttarakhand was ranked 10 among states in India's domestic tourism market in 2022.

Over 11 crore tourists visited Uttarakhand in 2000. In a decade the number jumped to 31 crore (in 2010). Due to the Kedarnath disaster in 2013 and the Covid pandemic the number declined to 78 Lakh in 2020. Now it is surging again and in 2023 Badrinath and Kedarnath alone received over 37 Lakh pilgrims to set a new record. Overall, the Himalayan state received 5 crore visitors in 2022. The Uttarakhand tourism department collects data of selected 28 destinations.

Renowned environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt says that development should take place but it should not turn into disaster later. "The time demands sustainable development. There is a need to conduct a scientific study on the impact of tourism in the Himalayas. Some restrictions should be imposed on the free flow of tourists. The tourists should be sensitised on Himalayan area and make them aware that they are moving in a sensitive zone and need to care for the mountains. We must take lessons from the 2013 Kedarnath and 2021 Chamoli glacier burst incidents. The Himalayas continue to alarm us but we are not taking these alerts seriously.”  

Present practice

A pilgrim needs to register online on the Uttarakhand government portal to tour Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Last year the state government also introduced a daily limit of pilgrims visiting the Char Dhams. Only 13,000 devotees were allowed to visit Kedarnath daily and 15,000 were allowed to go to Badrinath. Many appreciate the limit fixed for Gaumukh, 150 tourists per day. As a routine practice, the local administration bans entry of new tourists in Mussoorie and Nainital when heavy movement of tourists takes place during peak summer season.

Why is the problem growing?

In the past the road network was weak and only a few had means for personal or private transportation. Now the Char Dham all-weather road project and other road infrastructure projects have helped in reducing travel time to prominent destinations in the hills. People living in New Delhi and its neighboring states rush to the hills and reach there in quick time.

New hotels have come up but they don’t have sufficient parking space. Even the administration has failed to create public parking considering the growing number of tourist vehicles reaching Uttarakhand. Ravi Bhandari, president of Laxman Jhula Hotel Association, says: “Rishikesh needs a by-pass road to divert tourist vehicles from entering the city and head directly for Badrinath and Kedarnath by using the alternative route. This by-pass road project has been pending for a long time.”

There is no mechanism to monitor the construction of new hotels in hill areas. In Nainital there are complaints about unregistered hotels operating in high numbers in the hill station. Digvijay Bisht, president of Nainital Hotel & Restaurant Association, rues, “Over 850 hotels are operating in Nainital, of which over 500 are unregistered. We raise this issue regularly, but nothing has happened so far.”  

The state government only aims to attract a bigger number of tourists annually and environmental issues, including sustainable tourism, takes a back seat. The livelihood of a major chunk of highlanders depends on tourism. By imposing any restriction, the government doesn’t want to face public ire. The effort is to make small cosmetic changes and leave other issues untouched.      

The Joshimath sinking case should serve as an eye opener. Tourism in the Himalayas demands responsibility both from the tourist and government end.