A Dangerous March Towards A Himalayan Ecocide

On 12 November 2025, the Uttarakhand Forest Department decided to cut 7,000 Deodar trees to widen roads for the Four-Dham project.

The Scale of the Crisis

• Extreme Climate Impacts: In 2025, India experienced extreme climate events on 331 of 365 days.
• Human Cost: These disasters resulted in over 4,000 deaths.
• Most Affected Regions: Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, particularly Dharali, Harsil, Uttarkashi, and Chamoli, were hit hardest by cloudbursts, landslides, and flash floods.
• Primary Cause: These disasters are man-made, stating that “unsafe land use” is the primary catalyst, while climate change acts merely as a “force multiplier.

Importance of Deodar/Devdar (“Timber of Gods”)

• Bio-engineering: Their extensive root systems act as natural anchors, holding the loose Himalayan soil together and keeping the mountains stable.
• Anti-Microbial/ Water Purification: These trees release terpenoids and phenolic compounds. 
  • When their leaves fall into the water, these compounds kill harmful bacteria and promote beneficial microbes, contributing to the Ganga’s “self-cleansing” property.
• Temperature Regulation: These forests help maintain local cool temperatures; removing them leads to higher temperatures and faster glacier melt.
• Translocation Failure: Copy-pasting a 100-year-old ecosystem through tree translocation is scientifically impossible and ineffective.
  • Translocation of trees means uprooting a tree from its original location and replanting it at another site instead of cutting it down, usually to make way for construction projects.

Scientific and Geological Risks of the Four-Dham Road Widening Project

• Engineering Standards: The government is applying the DL-PS (Double Lane with Paved Shoulder) standard, which mandates a 12-metre paved surface in areas demonstrably prone to disasters.
• The Main Central Thrust (MCT): The development is occurring north of the MCT, a major geological fault line where the Indian plate pushes under the Eurasian plate. This zone is highly unstable, consisting of moraines (loose stones and soil).
• Glacial Hazard Zone: The area has hanging glaciers and is fed by the fast-receding Gangotri glacier, which sustains unstable, moraine-laden tributary glaciers, one of whose avalanches contributed to the Dharali disaster.
• Ignoring Recent Disaster Signals: The decision follows recent flash-flood devastation in Dharali and Harsil, indicating neglect of cumulative disaster risk.
• Angle of Repose: Soil is only stable at a specific natural angle. 
  • By using vertical hill-cutting to widen roads, engineers have destabilised the slopes.
• Landslide Zones: Due to these engineering choices, the 700km Four-Dham road now contains over 800 landslide zones, leading locals to mockingly call it an “all-pedestrian road” because it is often impassable for vehicles.

Policy and Long-term Consequences

• Policy Violations: These projects constitute a direct violation of the 2014 National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) and the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
• Judicial Disregard: The Supreme Court had previously advised against cutting Deodar trees in these specific areas, yet the work continues.
• Rapid Warming: The Himalayas are warming 50% faster than the rest of the world.
• Future Trajectory: Rapidly melting glaciers will cause a temporary rise in water levels (leading to floods), followed by permanent water loss and dried-up rivers (leading to droughts).

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Way Forward

• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): The government must mandate rigorous, cumulative EIAs with independent expert review before approving or tendering any Himalayan project.
• Engineering Adjustments: The government should prohibit vertical hill cutting and legally enforce construction strictly within the local Angle of Repose.
• Focus on Stability: There is a need to replace uniform road-width standards with terrain-specific designs based on geological and landslide-risk assessments.
• Community Involvement: Authorities should institutionalise consultation with local communities and incorporate community risk feedback into statutory clearance and monitoring.

Conclusion

The Himalayas, among the world’s most climate-sensitive landscapes, are becoming increasingly vulnerable, and their protection is essential for India’s long-term national interest. 

• Only science-based planning, ecological restraint, and local participation can ensure sustainable connectivity.

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