Heights of hope

Uttarakhand is on a mission to tackle the growing challenges of climate change and unplanned development

- PUJA AWASTHI

In the 10th year since the Kedarnath floods, in the year of massive rains and the ensuing disaster, this is not a story of either. This is a story of what will be, from a state which is both totem and tomb.

Uttarakhand covers about 53,500sq.km, making it the 19th largest state in the country, yet it is usually in the news only when disaster strikes. We criticise the government, blaming it for being hungry for development at any cost. We pay no attention to our own role in it. Of how we drive in to the state during weekends, choke its roads, play music through the night, strew it with litter and plastic, and head right back home-having contributed, but only meagrely, to its tourism earnings.

Vir Singh, emeritus professor of environmental sciences at the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, said Uttarakhand was the "frontier soldier of the nation". The Himalayas keep at bay the cold winds from central Asia and also act as a barrier to rain bearing winds from north India. More than 90 per cent of the state has mountains, most of which are covered by forests, which act as carbon sinks for the entire country. Thus, what happens in Uttarakhand should concern all of us.