Recently the Guptas organised a lavish destination wedding in the ski resort of Auli in Uttarakhand. This was in the news headlines not only for its VIP guest list, but also for the fines slapped by the authorities for litter and open defecation. Recent headlines also spoke about people returning from some of India's hill stations because these places were literally fully up; had no room. These headlines are symptoms of all that ails our hill stations; the reasons why these once-beautiful locales are literally being destroyed.
The Guptas are a South Africa-based business family who chose the Himalayan ski resort of Auli for the wedding of Suryakant and Shashank Gupta. It was a lavish wedding that reportedly cost about 200 crores and had personages such as the CM of Uttarakhand in attendance. There were performances by Bollywood performers such as Katrina Kaif, Sidharth Malhotra and Kailash Kher and even a yoga session from Baba Ramdev. The family is also known to have some murky links with tainted South African leader Jacob Zuma.
There are many questioning the political patronage that the Gupta family seems to enjoy, but the thing that is most upsetting is the terrible after-effects of the wedding excesses that they left behind. The weddings of Suryakant and Shashank created mountains of trash; leading to fines of Rs.1 lakh for littering and Rs.1.5 lakhs for open defecation. This would be small change for deep pockets such as these, but the question is, how did they get permissions for something of this scale? Have there been any arrests, inquiries or proceedings initiated in view of the damage that is clearly done to the ecology?
Many of us want to escape the heat of the plains and escape to some scenic locale in the hills. The result is that our hills stations have become over-developed and terribly crowded. Traffic jams on the winding roads, shoulder to shoulder crowds on the mall roads, ugly new, precariously perched hotels… this is the new reality of these once-peaceful and lovely little towns nestled in the higher altitudes.
So much so that this year, tourists heading to Manali, Shimla, Nainital and Mussourie were forced to turn back. There is no place to park, the water shortages are so acute that hotels put up signs and have to turn tourists away. People on social media routinely share horror stories of being stuck in traffic jams for many hours, walking miles to find parking, stampede-like situations and more.
As a result of the saturation of the well-known spots, developers are now turning their rapacious gaze upon other hitherto unexploited locations. For instance, no one wants to go to Shimla now, it is too crowded and commercial. Instead, people want to visit Mashobhra, Kufri, Fagu and so on. Nainital is seething mass of tourists during the season so people want to visit Ranikhet, Bhimtal, Almora, Mukteshwar and so on.
There is no off-the-beaten-track anymore. People are beating a path to everywhere! And the problem is that we are not responsible tourists. We are loud and demanding, we have little respect for the local people, their customs or culture. We ask for fast food rather than sample local cuisine. We litter with impunity, think nothing of taking our vehicles to inaccessible locations causing pollution and disturbing the wildlife.
Many have spoken about the need to have a hill station conservation policy in place; to limit the number of visitors and formulate regulations to protect the fragile ecological balance. However, it is clear that much of the ‘development’ that takes place in the hills is unplanned and likely to be in contravention of regulations. Looking at some of the hideous eye-sores that pass for hotels and lodges in the hills, it seems likely that permissions were obtained by greasing some palms rather than sticking to regulations.
Legislation and added regulations are probably not the answer. The only thing that can save our hills stations is us, the tourists. Unless we become more thoughtful and responsible travellers; sensitive to local people and the natural environment, we will continue to destroy the very locales that we rush to – to get away from it all. Soon there may be nowhere left to get away from it all.
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