Spiti and Shimla, the havens for trekkers and riders in India, the gateway to the Himalayas and Ladakh range, receive more than 20,000 travellers every year during the peak season. But this year, the destination is paying the price for the heavy footfall. They are facing acute water shortages.
Residents are grappling with the worst-ever water crisis in Shimla’s history, a stark warning of what the consequences of degradation of natural resources can be. people are getting water only after a gap of three to four days. And the reasons for the present tragedy are shameful.
The annual tourists have led to such a high degree of commercialisation that constructors and real estate investors have felled trees rampantly, and reduced the queen of hills to a concrete jungle. The natural water sources have dried up. The town has faced water woes during the summer for past many years. But the crisis this year was unprecedented and experts attribute it to the degradation of environment.
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The Shimla administration has also postponed the International Shimla Summer Festival, a major tourist attraction scheduled from June 1 to 5, due to the scarcity of water.
Even the flash floods in Uttarakhand a few years back were the result of river bank encroachment by hotels, as tourists have landed on the state in large swoops.
This could be an urgent reminder that we do not have to answer every time we feel that the mountains are calling. While it is ultra-suave to guzzle beer on the beaches, it is ultra-medieval to leave the beaches littered after your party.
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There are many who travel eco-consciously. They carry bags to dispose the wrappers. Some groups even pick litter when they are travelling. But this may not be enough. So many of us praise laurels of having Maggi on the Himalayan trails. In fact, it is quite the insta moment. But one can only imagine the amount of plastic waste being left behind with all those Maggi wrappers.
The most eco-friendly thing to do is to stay and eat with the locals. But right now, we have reached such a climax of natural disaster, that the wisest thing would be to leave the hills alone, give them some time to recuperate from the human onslaught.
Read Also: Here’s Why You Must Watch Jai Mehta’s Pani Path, A Film Based On The Water Crisis
