The Biodiversity Balance

Perhaps the best example of the connection people in Uttarakhand have with their landscape is the patron goddess of the state, Nanda Devi, after whom the highest peak in the region is named. Every 12 years, people from several villages in Garhwal and Kumaon, the two principal mountain regions of the state, embark on an arduous pilgrimage beginning at Nauti village in the Chamoli district and walk through the pristine regions of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, covering 350 odd kilometres, ending at the high-altitude lake of Homkund. The entire pilgrimage is a ritual of seeing-off the deity as a daughter to the home of the husband of her choice, Adiyogi Shiva. The pilgrimage is an emotional journey akin to the sending of the daughter to the home of her in-laws. In this manner, every household in the region begins to treat the goddess Nanda Devi as a dhiyan, a daughter. When people have such strong familial bonds with the divine within nature, would the space not qualify to the description of dev bhoomi?

Besides the holy Ganga, Uttarakhand is the point of origin for other sacred rivers, too. These emerge from peaks such as Nanda Devi, Panchachuli, Nanda Kot, Chaukhamba, Trishul and Om Parbat. Natural springs and lakes engender vast forest areas in these mountains that are biodiversity hotspots. While the Himalayas are young fold mountains, given to tectonic upfolding, rivers and glacial melts have continued to flow down their slopes. The combined action of these two processes has chiselled away at the landscape, creating not only stunning beauty but also ecological fragility.

Forests, generally referred to as dev van or forests of the gods, are themselves natural abodes of giant living trees—a treasure-trove of rare, endemic and endangered species, dispensaries of medicinal plants, recreation centres for urban life, herbariums for botanists, gene banks of economic species, laboratories for ecologists and a paradise for nature lovers. Most significantly, they sustain local communities.

These sacred forests help the landscape to adapt to its own cool and fresh microclimate. Maximum sunlight is absorbed by the dark coloured leaves of the vegetation facilitating effective transportation of moisture back into the air, which results in cooling of the atmosphere even in dry seasons. Vegetation covers the soil and prevents heat loss and radiation that helps to regulate the temperature of the soil; dust is filtered from the air, acting as windbreak and suntrap. Also, ground water table is maintained due to the absorption of rainwater, which completes the local water cycle. Sacred forests are a great way of understanding the perception of indigenous communities toward sustainability and environmental conservation.

Let us take a closer look at the biodiversity nurtured by these sacred forests of the Uttarakhand Himalaya. The state is home to a variety of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. Key species include the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigristigris), the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), the Himalayan black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and the Himalayan monal (Lophophorus impejanus). Uttarakhand’s wildlife is protected in several national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, such as Jim Corbett and Rajaji Tiger Reserves and Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve.

Uttarakhand’s flora includes a diverse range of plant species, including medicinal plants, orchids and endemic species. The state’s forests are classified into different types such as tropical, sub-tropical, temperate and alpine. Notable species include the Deodar (Cedrus deodara), Oak (Quercus spp.) and Rhododendron (Rhododendron spp.).

This biodiversity has resulted in the Himalayas being the water towers of Asia. The Himalayan region has the largest concentration of glaciers outside of the polar caps. The glacier coverage of 33,000 sq km helps the Himalayas provide around 86 million cubic metres of fresh water annually, critical to the survival of the largest population concentration anywhere on earth.

Uttarakhand’s biodiversity also gives north India’s ecosystems stability, regulating climate and supporting nutrient cycling. It supports livelihoods through agriculture, forestry and tourism. The scientific and cultural value of this mountain region is immense, as they give us valuable insights into evolutionary processes and ecological interactions.

One aspect to be wary of, when seeking to conserve this biodiversity, is our focus on mega-fauna. Tigers and elephants may help attract tourism, but key to saving them lies in focusing on conservation of ecosystems, habitats and community landscapes.

The value of Uttarakhand’s biodiversity can only be enhanced by involving communities in conservation and management. Sustainable and equitably distributed tourism offers us opportunities to involve communities and making them stakeholders in conservation. While doing this, we must remember that over-tourism also adversely impacts biodiversity, destroying the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs. Tourism spots are, in fact, escapes to spaces of relaxation amongst pristine nature. Therefore, we need the right kind of nature focused tourism. We must expand protected areas while restoring sites of natural and built heritage. Enforcing and strengthening laws related to wildlife protection, habitat conservation and anti-poaching measures are needed. All our future plans for infrastructure and economic development must factor in the preservation of biodiversity.

Today, Uttarakhand faces a twin crisis. On the one hand tourism is booming, especially to the pilgrimage sites. The sheer number attempting to visit these sites is rendering the yatra or pilgrimage unsustainable. Poor policy is further exacerbating the situation by opening up the pilgrimage centres indiscriminately through all possible forms of transport: expressways, rail and helicopter services. On the other hand is the problem of migration from villages, where large numbers of bustling settlements up in the hills are fast turning into ghost villages. Combined with this is the exodus of these populations to the foothill towns, converting them into urban nightmares.

Burgeoning tourism gives us an opportunity to reverse these trends but the touchstone of any tourism initiative cannot just be a growing footfall. In fact, overcrowded destinations are a tremendous put-off for discerning visitors, the kind we would like to see coming to the mountains. The litmus test for any tourism policy or scheme must be what it does for local communities, who have acted as custodians of biodiversity for generations. The fast paced tourism that enables us to cover the Char Dham or the four principal pilgrimage sites in a week by road, or in a matter of hours by helicopter, is contributing precious little to local economies. Corporates, resorts and travel companies may be selling these destinations and raking in the moolah, but what it does for communities in Uttarakhand is barely more than leaving a carbon footprint.

Instead of making tourism rapid, we need to slow it down, for the pace of nature is essentially that of patience and prayer. For millennia, people have been coming to Uttarakhand seeking solace in its natural habitats and pilgrimage centres. When people walked to the pilgrimage sites of Kedarnath and Badrinath, they prepared themselves for a meeting with the divine. They walked from Haridwar, planted Peepal trees in memory of their ancestors and stayed in halting stations called chattis. In this manner they contributed to the local biodiversity and the economy. Today, pilgrimage has become confined to highways and vehicles, while the chattis lie in a state of ruin. Pilgrimage must contribute to community life as it did earlier, not threaten it. Therefore, in order to save our biodiversity, rather than going the other way, there is an urgent need to bring back pilgrimage values of simplicity into all our tourism.

While ensuring that tourism must not adversely impact community living, we must work towards involving people in conserving their most valuable resource, their biodiversity. Governments must remember that people that have lived here for generations are the true custodians of this landscape. Any exploitation of their resources for the so-called greater common good will lead to social unrest.

Despite challenges to biodiversity conservation, several initiatives are seeking to involve communities in protecting our most precious resource. Conservation projects such as Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve have met with significant success. Conservation of species ranging from snow leopard to the Golden Mahaseer, are being implemented. Amongst other heartening initiatives is the committing of private lands for biodiversity conservation. One such example is the Jabarkhet Nature Reserve in Mussoorie where a parcel of forest land has been committed to conservation in partnership with the local community.

Van Panchayats and especially women led Van Panchayats have been formed to manage forest resources sustainably. There are several successful examples but one that stands out is the Sarmouli Van Panchayat in Munsiyari, Pithoragarh, that has undertaken to conserve the Mesar Kund, a high altitude alpine lake along with the surrounding forest habitat, involving community in ecotourism, seed-conservation and craft initiatives.

Ecotourism efforts in Uttarakhand are led by various grassroot organisations such as Nature Science Initiative, Titli Trust and Humanities Himalaya. Mountain Shepherds are impacting village economies by reaching out directly to local communities and imparting skills in nature appreciation and stakeholder communication.

Devalsari has emerged as a success story of community involvement that has not only conserved the forest, but also combated unsustainable development and forest fires. Powalgarh, situated in the Corbett landscape, is another example of community-led conservation focused travel. The government is also pitching in through birding festivals in various protected sites. The continuing efforts to make the Kedarnath and Hemkunt Sahib pilgrim routes plastic free are equally laudable. Climate action projects aimed at enhancing forest cover and improving watershed management in the state are also helping to address climate impacts.

However, much more needs to be done by all of us to protect our natural world in our self interest.

Let us not treat our community beliefs as archaic. The only hope for this world is to return to a situation of community living, of finding happiness in subsistence while conserving biodiversity. All of us would do well to remember the wise words of world famous environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna, who said, “Ecology is Permanent Economy”.

Lokesh Ohri is an anthropologist and author, including of Ganga Katha: Samakshata Vol. I and Samagrata Vol. II.