Govt overlooked unregulated religious tourism in Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand’s two shrines where most pilgrims are stranded -- Badrinath and Kedarnath -- have witnessed almost a four-fold increase in visitors in a decade, hinting at the ecologically unsustainable growth there. Chetan Chauhan reports. Gujarat CM offers help to rebuild Kedarnath

Updated on: Jun 23, 2013, 01:17:45 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Uttarakhand’s two shrines where most pilgrims are stranded — Badrinath and Kedarnath — have witnessed almost a four-fold increase in visitors in a decade, a Right To Information (RTI) reply showed, hinting at the ecologically unsustainable growth there.

Figures provided by temple trusts showed a huge influx of pilgrims on visits to Kedarnath and Badrinath between 2003 and 2012.

In Kedarnath, the number grew from 1,69,217 tourists to 5,75,040 and in Badrinath it went up from 1,34,010 to 5,95,020. Interestingly, during the same period, the influx of foreign tourists to these shrines witnessed a 10-fold fall.

Uttarakhand government officials said the leap in religious tourism in recent years could be attributed to several companies, which offer affordable packages to visit four dhams.

One can visit Kedarnath and Badrinath with boarding and lodging for anything between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 and all four for less than Rs. 20,000.

This has obvious implications. The Uttarakhand government’s own data shows a five-time increase in vehicle registration in the state with 70% of them devoted to passenger ferrying services even though the condition of last mile connectivity roads remains in tatters.

The central government was not oblivious to the impending danger either. A Planning Commission report on tourism for the 12th five year plan had a section on religious tourism, which addressed many of these issues.

It said that the “challenges which need to be addressed” included better last mile connectivity, proper hotels and solid waste management at religious sites, most of which are close to water bodies.

MS Reddy, vice-chairman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said religious tourism in Uttarakhand needs to be regulated the way Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir is done with a cohesive disaster mitigation plan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk LIVE and more across India.