Most of the muleteers are from Moradabad, Najibabad, etc and the total number of mules during the season exceeds 10000. Chopper services can only take the pilgrims till Ghanghariya. Choppers cannot fly to Hemkund as Hemkund is most of the time under fog and cloud. If somebody opts for a mule ride, then he will have to spend atleast Rs.4000 plus spend atleast two days rent and also food charges. So, taking a chopper would not be that additional an expense and also will save time. The major protest is from muleteers and shopkeepers who think their business will fall. However, there will always be pilgrims who prefer to walk to reach the shrine rather than take a ride in a mule or helicopter. More chopper services would also increase competition and the prices may also come down. The chopper takes only 6 minutes to Ghangharia. Saving three days would also mean saving three days of garbage. However, choppers and ropeways cannot cater to all pilgrims, even those who do not wish to walk, because the total number of pilgrims is too high. So, a ropeway will only be an additional facility and will in no way reduce the impacts of tourism. Rather, more pilgrims would be attracted due to the facility, who otherwise would not have ventured to visit the shrine, which they believe is a life time achievement. The flora of Hemkund Sahib has been the same from a long time ago, and the pilgrimage also is very old. Collection of Brahma Kamal is also an age old practice. These plants are perennial and propagates more by vegetative means than from seeds. Also, they grow in very gregarious populations and it is not possible to collect all the flowers. The additional facilities will cater to decrease the impact of increase in number of pilgrims. The major issue is garbage and mule dung. Mule dung is very 'hot' and as such will burn the vegetation. It can even dry the trees. So, mule dung will have to be first treated or composted and then returned to the soil. Even then, excess nutrition will have impact on local flora and will promote more weed flora. Regarding garbage collection and cleaning by the EDCs and pilgrim volunteers, it is just a redistribution of garbage from the walkways to other places. The so called collection and recycling of polythene garbage at Rishikesh takes place only once in a while. More dangerous is the developement activities at Ghangharia. Most of the hoteliers are constructing their upper stories in cement. There are also departmental constructions taking place using cement and stone. The Sikh Regiment is concreting the walkway at Ghanghariya. These have resulted in choking of the root system and hence drying of the Abies spectabilis trees all along the path at Ghanghariya. And all this happening in a Reserved Forest area. If the forest department or anybody say anything against all these, they are just treated as 'anti-development', 'pseudo-environmentalists', etc. There is no support from the pilgrim community. There are some volunteers who clean the walkways, but these volunteers are just a few compared to the large amount of environmentally-unfriendly tourists. We cannot stop the pilgrimage as it is a matter of religion and faith. We can only educate the pilgrims to be eco-friendly. Nature has helped by restricting tourism to only six months in a year and also thanks to landslides enroute which makes the journey even tougher. Some pilgrims even walk from Rishikesh till Hemkund Sahib. May pilgrims want to do the trek on foot, but they are not able to do so because of physical reasons, but they also have the full right to visit their shrine of faith. Going uphill on a rope way to such great altitudes defiinitely has problems of high altitude sickness, but if they stay only for an hour or so and immediately return after darshan to Govindghat, then it would be fine. So, in short let us be clear that tourism/pilgrimage is not going to stop and neither can be restricted. So, let us try to make it more eco-friendly and give more facilities to the pilgrims to help them make their trip impact-free. May be we have to sacrifice some land and flora so that the remaining area is left unaffected. Let us hope that the ropeway and chopper services will help in this endeavour. But I see that no one has spoken about the greater trouble- the dam proposed and under construction in Bhyundar valley. You all may ask that I am a forest officer and along with other forest officers still not able to do anything?!! Let me inform you that any forest officer is just a small servant of the public. He/she can only advice the public on the pros and cons, but it is the public who has to take a decision. Just give your support to the forest guard and see the difference he can make. In spite of all pressures and criticisms, they try to perform and do their best for the benefit of nature and in turn humanity. But the reality is that the public alienates the forest department and its staff thinking that they have come from a different world to harass the public. Somebody could volunteer to conduct a survey and find out who the real beneficiaries of the pilgrimage are - the pilgrims, tour operators, villagers, muleteers and shopkeepers from outside the state, contractors benefitting from the construction, politicians, shrine authorities, government departments, NGOs, etc? Whoever is the beneficiary there is only one entity which do not benefit rather suffer from these activities- that is biodiversity and the environment, what we call 'NATURE minus the destructive man'.
On Thursday, October 18, 2012 3:49:11 PM UTC+5:30, Rajesh Sachdev wrote: > > Centre approves Hemkunt Sahib ropeway project > > *CHANDIGARH:* For convenience of the pilgrims, the Centre government has > given its approval for ropeway from Gurdwara Gobind Dham to Hemkunt Sahib. > The project will cost around Rs 75 crore and expected to finish in 2014 > before the commencement of Hemkunt Sahib yatra in summers. > > In the first phase of the project, the ropeway will be operational till > Gurdwara Gobind Dham which will be later extended to Gobind Ghat. At > present, the pilgrims can also commute from Gobind Ghat to Gobind Dham > through chopper services which cost Rs 3,500 per person. > > Hemkunt Sahib is one of the most revered places in Sikhism where tenth > Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh meditated before his incarnation as the Sikh > guru. Every year, the doors of Hemkunt Sahib open for the Sikh pilgrims on > June 1 who can visit till October 5. > > Later, the Gurdwara is kept closed during the winters as the environmental > conditions are not suitable for human visit and survival as the gurdwara is > located at an altitude of 4,632.96 metres (15,200.0 ft). > > > http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/Centre-approves-Hemkunt-Sahib-ropeway-project-.html > > -- > Regards > Rajesh Sachdev > https://www.facebook.com/leopardguy > https://www.facebook.com/groups/indianflora/ > > > > --
