North India Statesman
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Dehradun, 19 August (HS). An illustrated talk by social thinker and writer Vidyabhushan Rawat was held in the Doon Library and Research Centre auditorium on Monday evening. This talk was focused on understanding the crisis in Uttarakhand regarding 'Himalayan development or Himalayan disaster?' Vidyabhushan Rawat underlined the sensitivity of the Himalayas and uncontrolled development and gave factual information about the serious problems and challenges facing society and the environment.
In the conversation, Vidyabhushan Rawat expressed concern citing the example of Kedarnath and Raini disasters and other incidents like Joshimath landslide in the last 10-11 years and said that Uttarakhand is facing a serious crisis related not only to its geography but also to its identity. The influx of religious tourists, inadequate infrastructure and big development agenda have forced people to think whether this is the definition of real development.
He said that large scale construction work, uncontrolled tourism, opening of resorts and hotels in forest areas deprived of local communities have endangered the lives of people along with the environment. Unrestrained population growth in the Terai and plains of Uttarakhand and decreasing population in the Himalayan regions will create imbalance. In the new delimitation, the hills may become a minority and may even lose their assembly seats. Already the income gap between the hill people and their plain-dwelling counterparts is very large. In such a situation, it is important to ensure the specific cultural geographical nature of the Himalayan regions.
Vidyabhushan Rawat also said that Uttarakhand will have to change its land, laws and domicile policies. Mountains and rivers are our identity. Every possible effort should be made to protect them. The threat to the social and cultural life of Uttarakhand is directly linked to the conservation of its natural heritage, so we need to think out of the box. There is a need to start a serious debate on this issue by involving local communities and people to protect the Himalayas and its rich river valley system.
Vidyabhushan Rawat is an active writer. He has a special interest in natural heritage and the communities associated with it. He has worked on land and food security issues and has spoken at a large number of national and international forums. Rawat has written about 25 books. He has written extensively on the environmental crisis of Uttarakhand as well as the condition of rivers in the Himalayas. He has made several documentaries on Ganga, Yamuna and Kali River. Currently Vidyabhushan Rawat is working on Ganga and its impact on the socio-cultural life of Uttarakhand. During this, Dayanand Arora, Praveen Kumar Bhatt, Jitendra Bharti, Biju Negi, Prof. Rajesh Pal, Surendra S Sajwan, Chandrashekhar Tiwari, Nicholas, Sundar Singh Bisht etc. were present.
