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Uttarakhand at 25: Reforms, political wins and rising fault lines in 2025
The year 2025 saw landmark reforms like UCC and land laws, BJP’s electoral gains, rising wildlife conflict, major infrastructure push and a PM-led silver jubilee celebration of the state.
Marking 25 years since its creation, Uttarakhand in 2025 witnessed a year of considerable political, social and administrative churn, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government under chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami pushed through landmark reforms even while confronting governance challenges, rising human–wildlife conflict and sustained political attacks from the opposition.
The year opened on a historic note with the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) on January 27, making Uttarakhand the first state in independent India to enforce a uniform set of personal laws across religions, excluding Scheduled Tribes. The law outlawed practices such as ‘iddat’ and ‘halala’, and made registration of live-in relationships mandatory. The BJP projected the move as a transformative social reform and a template for other states.
Political momentum for the ruling party continued into January with a near-sweep in the civic body elections. The BJP won mayoral posts in 10 of the state’s 11 municipal corporations, doubling its tally from five in 2018. In Dehradun, BJP candidate Saurabh Thapliyal registered a record victory margin of over 1.05 lakh votes. The party also wrested Haridwar and Kotdwar from the Congress. The lone setback came in Srinagar (Pauri district), where Independent candidate Arti Bhandari defeated BJP nominee Asha Upadhyay by 1,639 votes.
In February, responding to a long-standing public demand, the Uttarakhand assembly passed an amended land law, imposing stringent curbs on land purchases by non-residents. The legislation banned the sale of agricultural and horticultural land in 11 hill districts, excluding Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar, capped residential land purchases at 250 square metres, and restricted multiple purchases by members of the same family. In Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar, powers to approve land purchases were shifted from district magistrates to the state government.
Even as the government rolled out reforms, governance challenges intensified with a surge in human–wildlife conflict, particularly leopard and bear attacks. In response, the administration announced plans to establish animal sterilisation centres in all 13 districts. Measures such as intensified forest patrolling, elimination of identified man-eating leopards in parts of Pauri Garhwal, escort services for school and Anganwadi children, drone surveillance, trap cameras, cages, fox lights and Animal Intrusion Detection and Repellent (ANIDERS) systems were introduced. Compensation for deaths due to wildlife attacks was also enhanced from ₹6 lakh to ₹10 lakh.
Politically, the Congress kept up pressure on the Dhami government, targeting it over unemployment, inflation, crimes against women, disaster management and the Pauri receptionist murder case. The BJP hit back by accusing the opposition of spreading misinformation and indulging in vote-bank politics. While the Congress attempted to regain ground through protests and student-related issues, internal coordination problems persisted. Towards the end of the year, the emergence of viral audio and video clips allegedly linking a senior BJP leader to the Pauri murder case sparked a major controversy, with the issue expected to spill into the political discourse of 2026. As the state heads into another crucial year, both sides appear to be sharpening their narratives.
Throughout the year, the Dhami government highlighted infrastructure development as a core achievement, pointing to progress on all-weather roads, Char Dham connectivity, border-area infrastructure, and campaigns against illegal mining, liquor smuggling and encroachments. The government claimed that over 10,000 acres of land had been freed from illegal encroachments, including those involving religious structures. Tourism — spanning religious, adventure and winter segments — remained a central pillar of the state’s economic strategy.
At the national level, Uttarakhand earned recognition for reforms in the mining sector, securing ₹100 crore under the Union Ministry of Mines’ Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) for 2025–26 in November. This came on top of a similar incentive awarded in October after the state ranked second in the State Mining Readiness Index (SMRI), taking the total incentive to ₹200 crore.
The year culminated in the silver jubilee celebrations of Uttarakhand’s formation on November 9, marked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dehradun. Modi inaugurated projects worth over ₹8,200 crore and declared that the “third decade of the 21st century belongs to Uttarakhand.” Following his remarks on the state’s spiritual potential, the government announced plans to establish Spiritual Economic Zones (SEZs) in the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions to promote yoga, ayurveda and wellness tourism.
