India China Border Conflict-6: They want to secure the LAC but not the people there, nor its fragile environment!

Ramakrishnan, Countercurrents,com, 18 January 2023: The whole length of the Himalayan border, not just Uttarakhand,  now in news because of Joshimath disaster, faces the risk. “Multi-hazard risk is expected to increase in the Hindu Kush Himalaya( HKH),”, says a study of January 2022, by Jack Rusk et al. “Half the Himalayan population is at risk of multiple – more than one type of – natural disasters.”  Various huge-sized projects, that is man-made factors, are contributing to and aggravating the risk of living in these regions, not to speak of immense environmental damage. (Map courtesy and for more on the subject, visit https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721051147)

The dark area in the map, all along the north, represents “ below susceptibility thresholds.” That is where lot of huge machinery, heavy equipment, vehicles and blasting are being used to build massive infrastructure – being recklessly built-  in the name of defence, and that was subject matter of a case in Supreme Court, not much reported and noted ( see report below). This ‘defence’ aspect, a holy cow, is sought to be omitted, though crucial, in the current reportage of the mainstream media.

The projects are being justified in the name of promoting pilgrimages and of  ‘defence against an aggressive China’. We shall examine both; we find the former are a cover for the latter. The former can be had without the latter. But American strategic interests are  dominating, and roping in India as a junior partner. Business interests of both countries have their own role.    

The tragedy of Joshimath has raised many questions. The BJP CM of the state asserted it is an act of God, a natural disaster. Local people and activists rejected him. NTPC project must be shelved, they demanded. There are many more Joshimaths – Karnaprayag Nainital etc included – waiting to happen, experts warned. 6000 people were  officially ‘presumed’ dead in 2013 disaster, after initial estimates of hundreds. Many bodies were washed away or buried, never to be located.

Ravi Chopra Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, mentioned govt. plans to build 450 HEPS to harness 27000 MW, many of them at great heights, in Uttarakhand, a state that has 900 glaciers, reported down to earth.org.in, Jan 6, 2023.

Chandra Bhushan, CEO of the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iFOREST), who was honoured with Ozone Award by the UN-Environment in 2017 wrote:

“ What is unfolding in Joshimath is a tragedy. But this tragedy is not due to climate change; climate change-linked extreme events may have exacerbated the situation, but the sinking of Joshimath is our doing...The fact is this disaster is not unexpected; it was foretold. Over 50 years, the sinking of Joshimath has been documented by multiple committees of the Supreme Court and the Union and state governments. They warned against haphazard urbanisation, large-scale hydropower development and cutting of hills to widen roads. But time and again, their warnings were ignored.”

He explained how irrational, how reckless are the rulers, with respect to building ‘power’ projects, i.e.,hydro-electric projects (HEPs): Uttarakhand presently has 39 large and small HEPS with an installed capacity of 3600 MW; 25 are under construction with 2400 MW; plus 180 HEPs in the pipeline  with 21200 MW; even if only half reach fruition, it will have 150 HEPS … They are “plainly unsustainable,” as  can be visualized by the topography (see picture below.)

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Chandra Bhushan  questioned their rationale thus:

“…it is well known that Himalayas is one of the most unstable mountain ranges and is prone to natural disasters. On top of this, global warming is profoundly impacting the geology and hydrology of the region. Data shows that 90%  of the earth quakes, most land slides, and a large proportion of cloudbursts in India occur here.”

(Why India’s hills must stop copying the plains, Times of India, Jan 16, 2023).

Such huge and too many projects do not add to, but complicate, the ‘security’, of land and of people, it was felt.  What is ‘defence’ if it can’t defend and protect the lives, properties and interests of people?

200 people died, unsung, in a disaster in only one incident of 2021, most of them workers engaged in project sites. But they are not even counted, let alone highlighted as in Galwan. Nor are their families properly compensated  as most of them are contract labor. They are not martyrs?  

Not such massive infrastructure and huge military build-up at huge costs, but peaceful resolution of the border dispute is imperative, and possible, more so because “this is not an era of wars”  as stressed by PM Modi and adopted by G-20, with India as its current President. 

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17,000 plus Indian pilgrims visited Tibet during 2019

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A Chinese border control officer (1st R) leads a group of Indian pilgrims as they enter China from Nathu La Pass in Yadong County, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, June 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Xin).

There are amicable ways for Himalayan pilgrimages with China’s co-operation. There is no need for a new Himalayan Blunder, nor a Forward Policy-2, Modi emulating Nehru.

It is not true to say China is blocking Indian pilgrims. Nor Tibet is closed to foreigners, including Indians as this Xinhua report shows:

China officially recorded: Rattan (in the photo) is among the 17,000 plus Indian pilgrims that visited Tibet this year, according to the latest official data. ( October 12, 2019).  This was the second pilgrimage for Goel Ram Rattan, aged 67.

Since the 12th century, Indian pilgrims have embarked on the long trudge to Tibet, according to Nagwang, an official in Ngari Prefecture. The pilgrims come for Mount Kangrinboqe, 6,656 meters above sea level, and Mapam Yumco Lake at an altitude of 4,588 meters, both sacred Hindu and Buddhist sites…

In 2015, the Nathu La Pass was officially opened to Indian pilgrims, adding a new and shorter route for them.The Nathu La Pass sits 4,545 meters above sea level and is wedged between Tibet’s Yadong County in Xigaze Prefecture and India’s Sikkim State. It is the shortest land pass for trade between China and India, and also the highest altitude land pass for trade.

To better serve the pilgrims, Ngari Prefecture invested 16.6 million yuan (about 2.34 million U.S. dollars) in 2012 and 2013 to build accommodation facilities  in Pulan County.  It has further injected an investment of 36.8 million yuan this year to improve infrastructure around Mount Kangrinboqe and Mapam Yumco Lake. All the construction projects have been completed and will soon be put into use, according to Nagwang.

Now Tibet welcomes nearly 1,000 officially-organized Indian pilgrims annually, as well as 10,000 non-officially-organized pilgrims from India, who usually enter via the ports in Lhasa, Kyirong, and Hilsa.

He Zhende, a local official at the city of Xigaze, said they have arranged translators, tour guides and drivers and prepared food, oxygen and medicines for the officially-organized pilgrims.

“(I believe) the pilgrimages will increase the mutual trust and friendship between Chinese and Indian peoples and become an important channel to boost exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations,” he said.

(People’s daily, http://en.people.cn/n3/2019/1012/c90000-9621997.html)

In 2015, when the route was opened, Le Yucheng, the Chinese ambassador to India, said the pass was the result of a consensus reached by both Chinese and Indian leaders when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India.

“This new route is safer, more convenient and comfortable than the former one,” said Dong Mingjun, vice chairman of Tibet regional government, at the pass. It will shorten the pilgrimage time from more than 20 days to about eight.

Free jackets, backpacks and blankets were provided to the pilgrims by Chinese authorities upon their arrival…

“We hope to use this opportunity to strengthen strategic mutual trust between China and India, expand cooperation in all fields, promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges, properly handle our divergences, boost common development, and take the bilateral relations of our two countries to a new historical level,” Le said.

(https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/tibet50years/2015-06/22/content_21247055.htm)

At a time BJP-led by Modi is celebrating India heading the G-20, with 200 events planned across India, and at a time the G-20 adopted Modi’s precept “ this is not an era of wars, ”  it is pertinent to recall Modi’s summit with Xi Jinping, and decisions taken then.

Sun Weidong, Chinese Ambassador to India, recorded (thehindu.com) that event and wrote:

“ On April 1, 2020, China and India usher in the important moment of the 70th anniversary [1950-2020] of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Looking around the world, China and India, as the only two emerging countries with a population of more than 1 billion, shoulder the historical mission of national rejuvenation, play a key role in the process of the collective rise of developing countries, and inject strong momentum into the profound changes unseen in a century.

“At this moment, it is particularly important to revisit the original aspiration of establishing diplomatic relations 70 years ago and carry forward the spirit of good neighborliness and friendship, unity and cooperation.”

https://www.thehindu.com/brandhub/70-years-of-diplomatic-relations-between-china-and-india-1950-2020/article31219737.ece

70 events were planned by both sides, but shelved with a sudden shift in policy by India, under pressures from pro-US lobbies. Instead, a path of disaster, political and environmental, has been taken and pursued risking lives and properties:

200 people died, unsung, in a disaster in 2021, most of them workers engaged in project sites. But they are not even counted, let alone highlighted as in Galwan. Nor are their families compensated properly as most of them are contract labor. They are not martyrs?  

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Char Dham road at a cost of Rs.12,000 cr has more of the strategic angle; it is massive so as to  transport missiles like Brahmos

char dham

The Uttarakhand high court (HC) in July 2021 issued notices to the Centre, the state as well as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) after a petition alleged that the muck, debris from road construction work, including the strategic all-weather Char Dham road in the Himalayan region were being dumped directly into rivers, forests or agriculture land, in violation of laws. This was being done to save the transportation cost (despite huge budgets like Rs 12000 cr) of carrying the muck and debris to the earmarked dumping sites. The PIL alleged that most of the roads being constructed or widened in the hills of the state were near slopes of forests or rivers. Many Joshimaths, disasters, are waiting to happen, warned experts…Even the heavy machinery and vehicles making hundreds of trips are enough to cause dangerous damage. (TOI Photo). 

We discussed in Part-4 and 5 of this series, how ‘Eye on China, govt plans a ‘frontier highway’, in Arunachal sector of LAC, at a cost around Rs 27,000 crore. We raised the question: Rs 3.45-lakh crore  for ‘development or for strategic preparations against China? Now we discuss this massive project (including the Rs. 12,000 crore works) in middle sector of LAC, the Uttarakhand.

These highways connect the holy shrines that have been labelled as the “Chote Char Dham” in the State of Uttarakhand – Yamunotri, G angotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath (NH-58) – and the Tanakpur-Pithoragarh stretch of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route. The project reportedly involves 16 bypasses, realignments and tunnels, 15 flyovers, 101 small bridges and 3,516 culverts. This is a half-truth, the truth in full is it is strategically important, PMO-guided.  

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A line diagram of the 900km Char Dham Highway. Image from Government of India.

In March 2018, the Lok Sabha was told that the project is targeted to be completed by March 2020. To ensure speedy and smooth completion of the strategically important project, it is being monitored at the level of the Prime Minister’s Office in the NDA government, where it is looked over by the immediate staff of the country’s prime minister.

Attorney General K K Venugopal made an internal plea to Supreme Court (SC) asking for permission to build critical infrastructure at the LAC (Line of Actual Control). He referred to the widening of 809 km of hill road, generally termed as Char Dham road..The project was a Rs.12,000 crores flagship initiative started in 2016. However, in 2018, the NGO – Citizens for Greater Doon – challenged the road expansion project on the ground of its potential impact of hill cutting, dumping musk on the fragile environment of the Himalayan state.

Taking cognizance, the Supreme Court formed the HPC (High Powered Committee) under environmentalist Ravi Chopra to closely examine the issue. Failing to form a consensus on the ideal width of the hill road, the HPC submitted two reports in July 2021: One was the so-called majority view, held by 12 members, but all government officials that favoured broadening the road.

(Apparently, the Court considered it was a team of Yes, Prime Minister..so ) In September 2021, the SC upheld the minority view of four members, including Chopra, to limit the carriageway width to 5.5 m (along with a 1.5 m raised footpath), based on a March 2018 guideline (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) MoRTH for mountain highways.

Later in November, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) appealed for constructing a double lane road to meet the Army’s requirement in the area along the LAC. It is also claimed that the construction of the ‘Char Dham road also involved the strategic angle..

Further, recently, the centre told the Supreme Court that they need wider roads in Uttarakhand to transport missiles like Brahmos and other equipment at the border areas alluding to Chinese military build and repeated transgression.

(“Brahmos is an unmanned, intelligent, medium-ranged, ramjet supersonic, and fire and forget cruise missile, jointly designed and developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia, NPOM.”)

The above is from a report, of November 12, 2021, in the website of defence think tank claws.in, by Vaibhav Kullashri, an Assistant Professor at Rastriya Raksha University, a central university. He previously worked as Research Assistant at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, CLAWS, Indian Army Think Tank, New Delhi. Being a scholar in Defense, strategic and geopolitical studies from Garhwal University, he has some first-hand knowledge of Uttarakhand too. He thus mentioned the Geostrategic Importance of Uttarakhand and India’s defense Preparedness.

“Uttarakhand shares a 345 km long boundary, Chamoli and Uttarkashi district, with China. Further, it shares a 275 km long boundary, Udham Singh Nagar and Champawat district, with Nepal. Also, the Pithoragarh district shares a border with both Nepal and China. Further, Uttarakhand is also where two crucial perennial Indian rivers – Ganga and Yamuna- originate.”

(For more on the subject, visit the  website of defence-focused, leading think tank..

https://www.claws.in/a-paradox-of-developing-strategic-infrastructure-vs-environment-concerns-where-the-balance-lies/)

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“Is the upcoming Char Dham highway speeding towards environmental disaster?”

Modi Chardham

The PM and PMO were directly involved in the Chardham project. Finally, the NGT and the Supreme court fell in line, and cleared it all. HPC Chairman had warned of the disaster; but had to resign.

The above is the caption of a report, 13 AUGUST 2018,  by india.mongabay.com, citing environmentalists,

“Unchecked infrastructure projects were one of the main reasons for aggravating the floods….But environmentalists working in the region feel that what the government is doing to the fragile region is nothing but criminal.”

They point out that trees are being cut in an unaccounted manner, hillsides are being cut and the muck is being dumped in the rivers in an unaccounted manner.

The activists point out  the irony of this: the Char Dham project was touted as a tribute to the victims of the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, claiming nearly 6,000 lives and inflicted damage worth billions of rupees. Unchecked infrastructure projects were one of the main reasons for aggravating the floods.

“When the 2013 disaster happened, everyone agreed that this was developmental activities overburdening the Himalayas and there is a need to regulate developmental agenda and protect the fragile areas. When they are just such porous mountains why should such a project be conceived?” questioned Mallika Bhanot , an environmentalist. She stated that the government worked on all the four valleys simultaneously showing an absolute lack of empathy of the government towards the security of pilgrims travelling to those shrines and towards the residents of those valleys, while also bypassing environmental norms. 

https://india.mongabay.com/2018/08/is-the-upcoming-char-dham-highway-speeding-towards-environmental-disaster/

Thus, because of a possible “environmental disaster”, the Court acted as above.  But soon the Court fell in line. After all the project is handled by the PMO.

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Char Dham Project: How Govt Bypassed Environmental Clearance

After all defence is a holy cow, and PMO handled the project; and Attorney General K K Venugopal made an “internal plea”. Technicalities were ‘managed’:

The expansion project was split into segments of less than 100 km to avoid undertaking an EIA. That is how thequint.com reported, 22 Dec 2021. Though the judgment is quite detailed, the conclusion is concise and clear:

“This Court, in its exercise of judicial review, cannot second guess the infrastructural needs of the Armed Forces … The submission of the appellants requires the Court to interrogate the policy choice of the establishment which is entrusted by law with the defence of the nation. This is impermissible.”

The report gave details and analyzed:

The Supreme Court judgment in the case of Citizens for Green Doon versus Union of India allowing for the construction of the Char Dham road project with an expanded configuration did not come as a surprise for those who have been following judicial decisions related to large projects in the country. The judgment follows the same approach adopted by courts and tribunals – the Supreme Court, High Courts and the National Green Tribunal – in cases concerning challenges to environmental and forest clearances given to large projects.

The Application Filed by MoD

The judgment dealt with the application filed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) seeking a modification of the earlier order of 8 September 2020, which limited the width of the highway, as per the 2018 Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

According to the Union Government, there has been a material change in circumstances, necessitating an improvement of roads to enable the movement of troops and equipment to Army stations on the Indo-China border…

(A material change? It may be noted that the earlier order was given after June 2020 Galwan incident; but still later modified.)  

While it may be true that the court, in the exercise of its power of judicial review, can only focus on the ‘decision-making process’ and not the ‘decision’ itself, the legality of the decision is still within the domain of the court. An executive decision still needs to be tested on grounds of arbitrariness, fair play and justice. There are two issues that deserve consideration while analysing the decision.

Splitting Up of Projects to Avoid EIA

India’s environmental law, the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, requires that the expansion of all highway projects of a length of 100 km and above and construction of projects over 20,000 sq metres be undertaken after an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). ..Though the project involves the expansion of 900 km of road, it did not undergo an EIA process (prior to the project)  since the expansion project was split into segments of less than 100 km to avoid undertaking an EIA.

The Char Dham decision, in this way, undermines the Supreme Court decision in Deepak Kumar versus Union of India, which was a landmark and precedent-setting judgment holding that mining entities cannot split up projects to escape from the requirement of conducting an EIA.

However, this should not act as a carte blanche to escape from both the requirement of environmental law compliance and a judicial review.

It is also pertinent to point out that the ‘hands-off’ approach of the higher judiciary is not limited to just issues of security concerns. Courts have repeatedly held that they will not interfere in matters that concern ‘policy decisions’ or even ‘economic matters’. This leaves a very small window open for courts’ powers of judicial review.

There is also a critical need to consider environment and ecology as a ‘security’ issue – our forests, mountains and rivers ensure ecological security and our line of defence against climate change.

(https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/bjps-char-dham-project-how-govt-bypassed-environmental-clearance)

Another report added:

A Bad Year For Environmental Law

While the judgments have a common thread – the principle of sustainable development – they miss the impact the principle had on the outcome of the litigation. In the Essar Oil case, the Supreme Court allowed the laying of an oil pipeline in a marine wildlife sanctuary on the grounds that any damage due to leakage is not irreversible; in the N.D Jayal case, the Supreme Court allowed the construction of the Tehri Dam in the Himalayas, and in Rajeev Suri, the Supreme Court allowed the government’s decision to construct the Central Vista.

In all the three judgments, where the court extensively dealt with the principle of sustainable development, they, in fact, refused to interfere with the government’s decisions involving large projects. There is nothing in the judgments that could show how the court could regard these projects as ‘sustainable’.

The NGT too fell in line:

“A day before the Char Dham judgment was delivered, the NGT dismissed the legal challenge to the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Highway”, which involved the felling of 11,000 trees on the ground that this highway is part of the 210 km-long Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor and that it will help in moving troops to the India-China border. Needless to say, the NGT held that no EIA was required since the 210-km highway is split into smaller segments. A week earlier, the National Green Tribunal dismissed the legal challenge to the International Airport at Vishakapatnam. 2021 clearly has not been a good year so far as environmental rule of law is concerned.

HPC Chairman had warned of the disaster; but had to resign

Over-ruling the environmental concerns, the SC had in December 2021 allowed widening of the three highways — Rishikesh to Mana, Rishikesh to Gangotri, and Tanakpur to Pithoragarh — forming part of the project — in the Double Line-Paved Shoulder (DL-PS) format with a width of 10 metre, after the Defence Ministry highlighted security concerns and said wider roads were imperative in the region to move arms and heavy ammunition quickly to the border in view of the India-China tensions.

In a letter on January 27, 2022 HPC Chairman Ravi Chopra had “expressed the desire to be relinquished from the assignment”. The court accepted it and discharged him.  It was a committee constituted by the Court to “consider the cumulative and independent impact of the Char Dham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojana (Char Dham Highway Development Project) on the entire Himalayan valley”. A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant requested Justice Sikri to accept the assignment.

Himalaya Road Construction

“ The government is bent on rapid economic growth in which neither nature nor people matter, Nature has decided that enough is enough”:Ravi Chopra, former HPC Chairman.  Reaching pilgrim centres directly by cable cars – the PM announced plans for it- in such terrains does not just sidestep environmental concerns, but is deadly.

“Char dham project is being constructed in the ecologically sensitive area of the Lesser Himalayas which have a history of frequent landslides because of their recent origin and are, therefore, unstable”. The PMO bulldozed all the environmental concerns. All institutions  fell in line.The Supreme Court-appointed HPC Chairman, environmentalist Ravi Chopra, resigned in January 2022, and was replaced by Justice Sikri.

After the current wave of disaster in Uttarakhand, its Chief Minister asserted it is an act of the god, not man-made, not due to policies adopted. Local people and environmentalists protested. 

Ravi Chopra recalled his views and warnings in a latest interview to downtoearth.org.in,  07 January 2023:

“ This is an area that has been known to be a sensitive slope. In fact, way back in 1976, the government-appointed MC Mishra Committee had already warned that construction work should be avoided, particularly along the toe of the hill, because of its sensitive nature.

But the development should be sustainable within the context of the region’s ecology, geography and cultural features…It is unwilling to look at sustainable alternatives….There is also a very strong dam-building lobby that is at work. So that is probably the reason as to why they are pushing ahead with hydropower projects.

As far as the Tapovan-Vishnugad project is concerned, the committee that I had headed in 2013 and 2014, had recommended that no dams be built in the paraglacial zones, above the Main Central Thrust, MCT. The Tapovan-Vishnugad Project should have been canceled and none of the dams on the Dhauliganga and the Rishiganga, upstream of Joshimath, should have been built. If they had listened to us, the February 2021 and the Joshimath disasters could have been avoided.

But as I have said earlier, the government is bent on rapid economic growth in which neither Nature nor people matter.

Nature has decided that enough is enough. It will not accept any more desecration and it will impose its own solutions. The ensuing disasters will force people to become more sensitive towards preserving Nature… ”  

The environmentalist who warned of  ensuing disasters had to quit. Polls, politics and business decided:

PM Modi approved the Tanakpur-Pithoragarh section of the Char Dham all-weather road project in 2016, and the construction of the route started in 2017. The project was planned to be finished in 2019; revised deadline ((Covid and other technical issues) is 2023 (polls ahead in 2024.). Similar ‘development and prosperity’ schemes were handed out in 2016, just before the last Assembly election. Then, the PM had announced the Char Dham Yatra route worth Rs 12,000 crore.

thequint.com, 16 Nov 2021, reported and commented under the caption:                       Modi’s ‘Development’ Plans for Uttarakhand Can Wreck Its Ecology.

“ The PM also said that the third decade of this century will belong to Uttarakhand and it will see more tourists here in the next 10 years than it has in the last 100 years. ..But on a closer look, the kind of development and planning being promoted in Uttarakhand will mostly benefit some contractors and companies. The general public is not getting anything special from it, and it also goes against the ecology of the area. 

The Govt Doesn’t Want to Learn Any Lessons : These disasters are man-made, not natural

Often, disasters are dismissed as being caused by climate change, but the truth is that except for a few incidents, most of the disasters are man-made. The occupation of river beds, illegal construction and poor city management are behind this…In particular, the destruction of forests and mountains in the Himalayas and working against sustainable development are the major causes of disasters.

This is the reason that every year, these roads get washed away, and along with the waste of public money, there is an irreparable loss to the environment.

Prime Minister Modi’s idea of reaching Kedarnath directly by cable cars does not just sidestep environmental concerns, but it is also not in sync with the philosophy of the religious journey…But the once-quite-serene Kedarnath is now filled with the roaring of helicopters. These helicopters openly flout the rules laid down by courts and their constant noise is threatening the existence of birds and animals in the protected Kedar Valley. If the yatra goes on slowly, then travellers will stay and spend more time in these areas, i.e., local shopkeepers, dhaba owners, tea vendors, traders and goods-carrying people and many others will benefit. In contrast, helicopters and the highway benefit only select companies and travel agents..

Another environmentalist had warned:

“ After the Kedarnath disaster of 2013, (but before Modi arrived as PM) when the reconstruction of the shrine situated at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet started, eminent geologist Dr Naveen Juyal had warned that heavy construction and uncontrolled use of cement or iron could in future lead to further disasters in this sensitive area. Juyal, explaining the scientific basis of his statement, said that in areas with heavy snowfall, there is a risk of the topsoil slipping when the snow melts in summer. But when a race is on to win elections, instead of paying heed to environmental concerns and scientific arguments, politicians are more interested in grand proclamations about ‘development’.”

PM Modi proved no different. 

(https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/narendra-modis-development-plans-for-uttarakhand-can-wreck-its-ecology)

All this death and destruction along the LAC does not add to security, but undermines it. Give up the Forward Policy-2. Settle all disputes by peaceful negotiation, with an approach of give and take, advised experts like AS Bhasin.

Comparison with China is not proper because, unlike India, they are threatened by the US and the West, by AUKUS, QUAD and a militarized Japan, provided with a nuclear umbrella. The more vulnerable topography of the Indian side of Himalayas is also different from that of Tibet plateau, north of Himalayas.    

People, experts and environmentalists are silenced in the name of ‘strategic’ needs – more of Indo-Pacific strategy – and  interests of  big contractors and infrastructure business groups. A negotiated peace does not suit their interests, but eminently fits the mutual needs of India and china.

Protection of peace and environment are inseparable as well as imperative, across the world and India is no exception.

 

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The author is a political observer who contributed to countercurrents.org.

Articles in this series by the author are listed below:

See also India-China war at 60 : A Review, 01/12/2022

https://countercurrents.org/2022/12/india-china-war-at-60-a-review/?swcfpc=1

India-China conflict in the Global Context:  Part-1  (25/12/2022)

https://countercurrents.org/2022/12/the-global-context-of-india-china-conflict/

and part- 2 on The Arunachal sector ( 27/12/2022)

https://countercurrents.org/2022/12/india-china-conflict-in-the-global-context-the-arunachal-sector/

Part- 3 : India China Border Dispute: Some Myths (03/01/2023)

https://countercurrents.org/2023/01/india-china-border-dispute-some-myths/

Part- 4 : Modi’s precept “this is not an era of war,” should be applied to China and Pakistan as well : Normalization, not chauvinism, is the need of the hour (09/01/2023)

https://countercurrents.org/2023/01/modis-precept-this-is-not-an-era-of-war-should-be-applied-to-china-and-pakistan-as-well-normalization-not-chauvinism-is-the-need-of-the-hour/

Part- 5: India-China Border Conflict: Dangerous, Divisive Games of  BJP in the Northeast (14/01/2023)

https://countercurrents.org/2023/01/india-china-border-conflict-dangerous-divisive-games-of-bjp-in-the-northeast/?swcfpc=1