Come summers and Uttarakhand hills become the victims of huge traffic snarls and degrading environmental pollution

Come summers and entire himalayan state of Uttarakhand is full of tourists from all over the country and the globe.

The sweltering heat of the country compels tourists turn their cars and other heavy vehicles towards the hills of Uttarakhand especially, the ancient four historic religious shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.

People, families and pilgrims from different parts of the country especially from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Chennai, Punjab, Tamilnadu and Gujarat etc throng here in tourist buses, tempo travellers, taxis, tempo travellers, cars and even on motorcycles.

Last year more thsn ten lakh pilgrims and tourists visited these four holy places during the summer season.

Apart from visiting Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Hem Kunt Sahib and Yamunotri there is huge rush for hill stations like Mussourie via Dehradun, Tehri Dam site, New Tehri, Dhanaulti and Nainital.

The progress in the construction and road widening works on all weather roads leading to these Char dham Yatras has resulted in heavy traffic snarls for hours together as faced in metropolises of the country.

Hundreds of thousands of four wheelers, buses, trucks and motorcycles full of tourists and pilgrims have literally created huge traffic jams with vehicles moving at a very slow place and limited speed taking hell of a time in reaching the stipulated destinations.

The failure of the Uttarakhand government and its administration to control the flow of traffic and limiting the numbers of vehicles entering Uttarakhand has resulted in heavy traffic snarls and adverse impact on the environment of the state.

The increasing dust, diesal, petrol emissions and sound pollution compounded with the accumulation of plastic , food stuffs and other dirty stuffs in the hill areas have posed a new and fresh challenge to the environment of Uttarakhand hills and smooth flowing rivers.

There had already been talks about felling of 50 thousand full grown green trees in view of the all weather roads and under ground railway projects being carried out in the hills of Uttarakhand, worth more than 50 thousand crores.

The work on both these projects is in full swing with thirty percent or more work already completed.

The work of the railway tunnels from Rishikesh to Devprayag and further ahead till Rudraprayag is under process n progress.

In view of these ongoing projects and the incessant flow of excessive tourists’ traffic Uttarakhand’s Garhwal region these days is witnessing hell of a situation with tremendous traffic snarls and increasing pollution impacting negatively the flora and fauna of Uttarakhand.

This increasing sound pollution due to heavy rush of traffic and construction activities in the otherwise peaceful and tranquil valleys of Garhwal Uttarakhand from Rishikesh till Rudra prayag and further ahead has not only made the life of the populace of the hills a hell but the animals living and wandering inside the forests have also been disturbed going here and there especially towards human habitats for shelter and flesh.

In addition to these disturbances the wildlife has been badly affected due to heavy jungle fires in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions taking heavy toll of animals and thus the carnivorous animals like leopards, cheetahs and tigers moving towards villages and towns in search of human flesh. Hundreds of innocent people of interior villages have fallen prey to the maneaters who face shortage of animals inside jungles due to incessant fires and sound pollution.

This man made environmental degradations in the himalayan state of Uttarakhand through multiplying traffic invasion in lakhs, increasing sound, diesal and dust pollution compounded with excessive accumulation of plastics and other unwanted material including massive deforrestation give rise to natural ecological disasters as the one happened June 13 in the Kedarnath Valley claiming thousands of lives and collosal loss to state’s already defixit economy. What’s your take friends ?