Mountains are falling: Himalayan villages see disaster risk rise as infrastructure boom reshapes slopes

Kullu/Dehradun: This monsoon, from Kullu to Kalimpong and from Kishtwar to Karnaprayag, landslides, flash floods and ground subsidence sharpened the focus on how India's expanding network of highways, tunnels, ropeways and hydropower dams is affecting the fragile Himalayan terrain. While officials insisted these were natural calamities, a growing number of residents, scientists and campaigners pointed to unscientific construction as a key driver. In many towns and villages in India's hills, protests have intensified over cracked homes, vanished springs, and roads that collapsed as quickly as they were built.The most visible scars appeared on the 197km Chandigarh–Manali highway, where large sections slumped after vertical cutting by the National Highways Authority of India left near-vertical slopes of sand and gravel vulnerable to cloudbursts. Carriageways were buried, tunnels flooded, and the Beas was choked with debris."There used to be hardly any landslides," said Kullu environmentalist Guman Singh. "Then came NHAI with its vertical cuts and created a mess of a road." Former Geological Survey of India director Om Narain Bhargava called the technique "a horrible mistake." Villagers demanded relocation and compensation after their homes developed cracks. Activist Madan Sharma called it "the most dangerous road ever built," while state rural development minister Anirudh Singh launched a ‘Justice for Himachal' campaign, saying the highway had created "more problems than it solved." A state climate report had already warned that such cutting would "exacerbate land instability."Sharp disagreements over the cause of recent calamities have surfaced in Uttarakhand. Chief secretary Anand Bardhan told TOI there was "no technical or scientific study" linking large infrastructure to natural disasters, citing the flash flood in Dharali, which killed several, as an example of a disaster in a zone without major projects. He added that ropeways to Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib had not yet begun and cautioned against speculation.Campaigners, however, said the impacts were widespread. "All ecological and local factors have been sidelined," said Brijesh Sati of the Char Dham Teerth Purohit Mahapanchayat. "It would not be wrong to say these disasters are man-made. We are not against development, but it must respect ecology." He said 50,000 pilgrims completed the Char Dham yatra in 1905 without roads and that even in 2000, road broadening was done without felling trees.Expert opinion from Supreme Court's high-powered committee on the Char Dham project underscored the risks. Environmentalist Ravi Chopra, who chaired the committee, explained that Uttarakhand's Himalayan ranges emerged from three major faults. "Even though the rock may be strong, the slopes are weak. During field visits we saw them weakened further by deforestation and unscientific road-cutting — slopes of 60 degrees were carved where even 30 degrees is unsafe." He added that climate change had increased the frequency of disasters.Evidence of man-made pressures came from across the scientific community. SK Bartarya, former senior hydrogeologist at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, said both human activity and climate change were to blame. "Drying of water bodies are surfacing across the Himalayas. To understand the impact of projects we need cause–factor analysis to separate man-made pressures from climatic ones."Lived memory offers its own testimony. Uttarkashi-based campaigner Suresh Bhai said, "Floods from Kedarnath in 2013 to Joshimath in 2023 show the health of the Himalayas is being spoiled. Development at the cost of ecology requires reassessment."Large-scale projects have advanced across the region: the Rs 12,000 crore, 889km Char Dham highway; Rs 16,200 crore Rishikesh–Karnaprayag railway with 105km of tunnels; the 210km Delhi–Dehradun expressway; and ropeways to Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib worth Rs 6,800 crore, expected to carry nearly 50 lakh passengers annually by the early 2030s. IPCC author Anjal Prakash called such projects "disaster multipliers" that destabilise slopes. Shruti Narayan of C40 said infrastructure in fragile zones must be based on scientific evidence "or risk becoming victims of the very calamities they claim to overcome."Anxiety has become part of daily life in Sikkim, where a glacial lake outburst flood in Oct 2023 destroyed the Rs 1,200 crore Teesta III dam within minutes, swept away more than a dozen bridges on NH-10, and killed over 90 people. A July 2025 report said many families now kept their bags packed at night, unsure of early warning systems. The Sevoke–Rangpo railway tunnel continued beneath slopes some locals said were still settling. In Pakyong and Namchi, natural springs used for drinking and irrigation had begun drying. A travel magazine recorded complaints that newly widened roads lacked drainage. "We are not engineers," a villager said, "but we live here. We know when the mountain is being hurt."In Himachal's Lahaul & Spiti, hundreds marched in May against the proposed Seli and Miyar schemes, alleging that avalanche risks had been ignored and impact assessments withheld. With landslides increasing, rainfall intensifying and traditional water sources vanishing, the future of infrastructure in the Himalayas now hinges on whether engineers and planners can align ambition with the limits of the land.———-New Infra In Old Mountains —————-Char Dham highway: Rs 12,000 crore, 889km network for all-weather access to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri Rishikesh–Karnaprayag railway: Rs 16,200 crore, 125km rail line with 105km tunnelling. Aimed at faster access in GarhwalDelhi–Dehradun expressway: 210km six-lane greenfield corridorKedarnath & Hemkund ropeways: Rs 6,800 crore total cost. Planned to carry 50 lakh pilgrims annually by early 2030s Sevoke–Rangpo railway (Sikkim): 45km rail link connecting Sikkim to national network