LAST CHANCE TO SAVE SHIMLA.

                 [  This piece was published in the TRIBUNE Supplement on 6.1.2018 ]

                                          

    I first came to Shimla in 1982. We used to stay in Brokhurst, Chhota Shimla, and every evening my wife and I would take our two year old son in a pram for a stroll to Mall Road and back: it was a pedestrian’s town then. The spurs radiating from the main ridge- New Shimla, Knollswood, Mehli, Strawberry Hill, Kasumpti, Nau Bahar- were all covered with thick greenery. It took five minutes to drive from the Lift to the Secretariat. Ceiling fans were unheard of. There was no nine story High Court building to proclaim the majesty of the judiciary, no monolithic monstrosity called Armsdale to accommodate a rapidly expanding and deteriorating government. Those were the last years of Kipling’s Shimla, for now it is an abomination, thanks to populist politicians, an unconcerned bureaucracy, short-sighted citizens, predatory builders and platitude spouting NGOs.

    I now live in a village near Mashobra and NEVER venture into Shimla. Its roads are a smorgasbord of potholes, there is no place to park, traffic jams snake their way all the way to Taradevi, the hills are covered with plastic. A kid in a pram would not survive  two minutes. The greenery is mostly gone, replaced by thousands of houses on 70 degree slopes, their slabs as thin as “Lijjat” papads,  govt. buildings have spread all over the hills like the parthenium weed, every one who can afford it has to have ACs now, even the monkeys of Jakhu have anthropomorphised and adopted our degraded way of life.

    So I am not at all surprised that the state govt. has decided to appeal in the Supreme Court against the 16^th November order of the National Green Tribunal imposing strict restrictions on further constructions in the city. ALL governments in the last thirty years have given two hoots for the natural environment of the state. Its rivers have been “hydroed” nearly out of existence: in a few years only four kms of the Ravi ( between Bajol and Chamba) and twelve kms of the Sutlej ( between Khab and Bilaspur) would be visible, the rest diverted to headrace tunnels. More than 102 sq.kms of prime forest land has been diverted for hydel projects, mining and road construction, 800,000 trees slaughtered, mindless and unplanned urbanisation has made slums of all the state’s towns. Governments have been mute spectators, if not active colluders, to this despoliation. They have resisted each and every move by the judiciary to redress this devastation: the ban on plying of vehicles to the Rohtang pass, the stay on regularisation of illegal constructions ( Shimla alone has more than 20000 !), the removal of encroachments on forest lands. Instead, they have implemented perversely illogical schemes such as the four-laning of the Parwanoo- Shimla highway without bothering about its ruinous implications- when complete, this will treble the tourist traffic flowing into Shimla, to about 10000 cars every day. Assuming that each tourist will stay for three days, the city will need 30000 parking slots, not counting for the 30000 odd local vehicles. There is just no way so much space can ever be created along its few and narrow roads. Additionally, the number of hotels will also have to treble to accommodate the absolute increase in the number of tourists, with attendant issues of garbage, sewage, water supply etc. Where is the advance planning for this impending apocalypse ?- not that any amount of planning can avert this certain disaster.

    The 16^th November order of the NGT is the city’s last life line, if only we collectively have the wisdom to seize it. Its three major components need to be appreciated in their proper context:

[1] No construction or regularisation of buildings in the core/ heritage areas and the green belts. The core area is the original Shimla of British times and must be maintained in its original state. The 17 green belts cover 400 hectares and are the only surviving green cover of this city, giving it its micro climate and unique charm- I read somewhere that it is the largest urban forest in the world. A 2000 notification, which is constantly being challenged politically and legally, protects it and I am glad the NGT has now put its imprimatur on it. Without these natural buffers Shimla would only be just another piece of rock.

[2] No constructions on slopes of more than 35 degrees. Shimla lies in seismic zone V, and it should not have needed a judge sitting in Delhi to impress this upon the govt. Just one look at the multi-story buildings that have come up in the last 25 years or so, especially in Sanjauli, Dhalli, Panthaghati, Mehli and the Sanjauli by-pass, and one’s faith in God is reaffirmed- nothing else can explain how these structures remain standing in the face of all laws of physics. Built on 90 degree slopes, with wafer thin slabs and skeletal pillars, no set-offs or retaining walls, no proper drainage, they will collapse like  houses of cards in the event of even a mild tremor or quake. Thousands will die but I guess by then the politician will have got his votes and the bureaucracy its shekels.

[3] No felling of trees in the Catchment forest and the sub-catchment of streams and rivulets. To really understand how vital this is, just take a trip to the Catchment forest beyond Dhalli and carefully observe the water supply scheme built there by the British a hundred years ago. It’s an environmental and engineering marvel: the waters stored and released by the millions of trees here are collected in tanks and channelized to Shimla through underground pipes, all by gravity! This scheme still supplies a fair percentage of the requirements of the town, at practically no cost. The NGT is in a way asking us to replicate this simple and sustainable model: protect the green cover of the surrounding catchment areas- Ashwini Khad, Noughty Khad, the Glen, Anandale- and there would be no need for hare- brained schemes like piping in water from the Chandranahan lake 250 kms away or lifting it from the KOL Dam, all at great cost.

    The NGT has offered a lifeline to a terminally ill patient. The govt. should act upon it, not challenge it. It will not get another chance.