The findings, in a report by the Dehradun municipal commissioner and Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) vice-chairperson, were placed before the Uttarakhand high court on Thursday

In six years, the Dehradun district administration has given permission to flatten at least 14 hillocks in the Himalayan foothills between Dehradun and Mussoorie, which environmentalists said disregards concerns about its geological stability.

The findings, in a report by the Dehradun municipal commissioner and Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) vice-chairperson, were placed before the Uttarakhand high court on Thursday. The high court has since May 3 been hearing a PIL by Dehradun-based activist Reenu Paul who contends that though the state’s bylaws, amended in 2015, prohibit construction wherever the natural slope is more than 30°, the rule is being flouted. The report was prepared and submitted on the direction of the high court.

“The Doon Valley region had been declared an eco-sensitive zone in 1989. There is no sign of that now. The Mussoorie-Dehradun highway runs through an area that used to be a dense forest. That’s all gone. There’s heavy traffic, indiscriminate construction. Building laws, forest laws, roadside laws, highway laws — they’ve all been flouted,” said environmentalist and senior advocate Aalok Mehrotra. “Is it possible the authorities knew nothing about the establishments and the hill-cutting being illegal?”

Besides the damage to ecology, the other concern is geological stability. Both Dehradun and Mussoorie lie in seismic zone IV, of high risk. Geologists have often warned that Uttarakhand is due for a major earthquake, much more intense than the Kangra quake of 1905. Hill-cutting makes the terrain more unstable.

An example of what is at stake is a cluster of three slums that has come up on these hills, which is in danger because of the region’s instability. The petition states that a few years ago, an entire family from one of the slums had been killed when their house on a cliff caved in.

However, the report said, these slums are “protected”. In 2018, the Uttarakhand high court had asked the government to clear all encroachment in three weeks. Because these slums were highly populated, the state government had decided to give them a reprieve and issued an ordinance protecting them from eviction for three years. That three-year deadline ends on July 27 this year.

Noted Mussoorie historian Ganesh Saili said this has been a recurring problem. “All the way from Rajpur Road to Mussoorie, you can see violations of the UP Road Act, which does not allow construction of houses next to roads. But steep hills continue to be cut, making the area more vulnerable to earthquakes,” he added.

For now, the report has said two teams at the level of the MDDA have been constituted — one, to identify buildings built before and after 2015 in the area, another, to seal and demolish those found in violation of guidelines. The Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology will, concurrently, conduct a detailed survey and prepare a report on landslide-prone areas.

Source: PTI

(The story has been published from a wire feed without modifications to the text. Only the heading has been changed)

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