Himalayas and the Apex court

In India everything lands in Courts. And if the issue is as important as the Himalayas neutrally it landed in the Supreme Court. The issue was huge infrastructure work taken up in the Himalayas to bear its ballooning tourist arrivals and so-called socio- economic development.

After a lot of deliberations in the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice mooted constituting an expert committee for conducting a "complete and comprehensive" study on the carrying capacity of the Himalayan region in the country, where unplanned development has caused devastation in recent times, terming it a "very important issue".

Earlier this month (September, 2023) the Centre urged the Supreme Court to direct 13 Himalayan states of the country to assess their "carrying capaci- ty" and proposed setting up of an expert panel to evaluate the action plans submitted by each of them.

Even prior to this a Parliamentary panel headed by former Environment Minister Mr Jairam Ramesh had also red flagged the huge infrastructure projects like roads, houses and hotels and in the Himalayas in the name of pilgrimage. The upsurge in tourism and illegal construction are straining natural resources in the Himalayan region, it had said.