Frequent climate disasters expose perils of overtourism in India’s hills

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Stranded pilgrims cross a water channel using a makeshift bridge a day after a cloudburst-triggered flash flood in the Kishtwar district of India-administered Jammu and Kashmir, on Aug 15.

PHOTO: EPA

NEW DELHI - It took less than a minute for flash floods to wash away an entire section of a village in the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand on Aug 5, as people tried in vain to flee.

Among the establishments swept away by the deluge in Dharali were shops and hotels that had sprung up in the last decade to cater to the swarms of tourists and Hindu pilgrims headed for destinations farther up in the hills.

But these structures built on the banks of the Bhagirathi river, one of the key headstreams of the Ganges river, should not have been there in the first place.

Dharali is situated in the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone, a 4,157 sq km expanse established in 2012, to protect the ecology and watershed of the Ganges near its origin.

Construction activity is banned on the banks for at least 100m from the middle of the river, but it has gone on unchecked for years, which contributed to the scale of devastation from the flash floods. At least four people in Dharali died, while another 68 are still missing.

This preventable loss of human lives has again renewed the focus on overtourism in India’s hill regions and the recurring toll it exacts, especially now that adverse weather events linked to climate