Uttarakhand: Local villagers set up shops and eateries in ecologically-fragile Valley of Flowers

DEHRADUN: Valley of Flowers, the internationally-famous alpine valley situated in the Garhwal Himalayas, is facing the pressure of encroachment despite its remoteness and being nestled at an altitude of 11500 feet above sea level. Ghangaria — a reserve forest situated at the entrance of the valley — has been flooded with concrete buildings, functioning as restaurants and hotels, that have sprung up right under the forest department’s nose.This, when the valley, an ecologically-fragile area that was accorded a UNESCO World Heritage Site tag in July 2005, is supposed to be accorded utmost protection as it has high diversity and density of flora and fauna with a significant population of snow leopard, Himalayan musk deer and numerous plant species including rare herbs and flowers.
Ghangaria is the gateway to not just the valley but also the revered Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib, and sees thousands of pilgrims as well as tourists every year. According to sources, 2.102 hectares of forest land in Ghangaria has been encroached by 49 local villagers who have built shops, hotels and restaurants on the land. The villagers are from Bhyundar village, which is situated almost six kilometres from Ghangaria. In November last year, the forest department had, citing section 26 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927, which prohibits entry of trespassers in a reserve forest and accords power to forest officials to remove them, along with section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 ( restriction on the use of forest land for non-forestry purpose), had asked the villagers to vacate the land in a month’s time. The notice fell on deaf ears. Recently details of all the 49 encroachers along with the quantum of land occupied by them, were published in the form of a newspaper notice and an ultimatum given by the forest department to vacate the land by June 29. However, this notice, too, has failed to elicit a response.
Dinesh Jhingwan, a lodge owner in Ghangaria, who is among those who have been named in the forest department notice, claimed that the land belongs to villagers as they have been running their businesses here for years. "We have not encroached upon any land. It belongs to us,” he claimed.
Providing a background of the matter, a forest official deployed in Chamoli, told TOI, “It was back in 1968 that the forest department had given .05 hectares land on lease for 10 years to just four people of Bhyundar village. However, over time, as the place became popular and tourist numbers started soaring, other residents of Bhyundar also started encroaching upon the protected forest land.” He added that “the encroachers are now trying to get the reserve forest land converted into revenue land using political pressure so that they can continue to run their businesses.”
DK Singh, director of Nanda Devi National Park, who also has jurisdiction over the Valley of Flowers, added, “We are contemplating action against the encroachers and have requested the district administration of Chamoli to provide us police force to help remove the encroachers.”
Chamoli district magistrate Swati Bhadauria, when queried about the matter, told TOI that she is waiting for the orders of the state government in this regard. “The matter has been escalated to the state government by the villagers as well as forest department. A decision is yet to be taken on it. Once the decision is communicated to us, we will act accordingly.”
Meanwhile, forest minister Harak Singh Rawat, when asked as to how a World Heritage Site can be encroached upon in this manner, said, “The matter is in my notice. We are trying to work out a midway approach as we don’t want people to become suddenly jobless, since they have been earning their livelihood through tourism and removing them would not only hit them hard but also the tourism of that area. I shall be calling a high-level meeting soon to resolve the issue.”