No lessons learnt from the past, it's time to review highway, airport & hydro projects in HP

Need to identify emerging tourism hubs and cap the number of tourists visiting a place

- ADITYA KANT

Monsoon mayhem in Himachal Pradesh last week that left the hill state reeling under crisis with the loss of more than 80 lives and property worth over Rs 8,000 crore devastated, is being cited as one of the worst tragedies the hill state has faced in recent times. And it augurs more such occurrences and devastation in the coming years if the stakeholders; mainly the Centre and the Himachal government do not work in tandem and take immediate remedial measures.

While a political slugfest has already begun over the issue with two ministers in the Himachal government contradicting each other over the reasons that led to the massive losses, and the chief ministers of the adjoining states too taking up the cudgels over the issue of flooding with their counterparts, experts and environmentalists are unanimous that the tragedy has once again exposed the massive failure of successive governments in implementing the policies and their lack of vision for a sustainable development.

“There is a need to review all the major projects like four-laning of National Highways from Chandigarh to Manali and Shimla, the proposal to build a new airport in Mandi, and the expansion of existing ones and the functioning of hydropower projects which have made the entire ecology fragile,” says Manshi Asher an environmentalist justice activist and researcher.