SATURDAY, NOV 26, 2011

9 ROCKY ROAD
TROUBLE IN THE HILLS

THE NEXT MANALI

hen it is complete, the road to Zanskar will put the remote region on the itinerary of tourists who visit Jammu and Kashmir. Already, tourism is on an upswing in the state with more than 11 lakh tourists having visited the Kashmir valley this year, the largest number in the last 25 years. Close to 1.48 lakh also visited Ladakh in 2011, two times more than the previous last year. But in the absence of regulations to control tourism, there are fears that the hidden kingdom may soon become the next Manali overcrowded, commercial and dirty. At present, despite absolutely no monitoring of who has access to the canyon and its waters, damage to the region has been minimal as visitors are few. Going to Zanskar is an expensive proposition for the average tourist. Once the Darcha-Padam-Nimu road is complete, the number of tourists will increase at least 20 times, says Mohammed Farooq Lala, head of the humanities and social sciences department at the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar. Unless preventive measures are taken, Zanskar will soon resemble any other tourist destination, complete with the ubiquitous packets of chips. Tourism is fairly new to Zanskar. Both Zanskar and Ladakh were closed to foreigners till 1974 because the harsh terrain made them difficult to administer, and they are sensitive areas close to the international border. Ever since it was opened up, the region has attracted adventure tourists from all over the world, who come to raft the muddy brown river Zanskar in summer or trek the icy blue and white chadar, as the frozen Zanskar is called, in winter. The Zanskar river is one of the few in the world that flows through the high vertical walls of a canyon. For centuries, trekking the chadar has been the easier way out of the region for the people of Zanskar.
SHARANYA GAUTAM

RIGHT FREQUENCY

adio Zanskar is a remote schooling programme for the region so that children dont have to leave home to receive an education, at least till they are older. The project was set in motion by Tanzin Norbu and Paul Howard, both associated with the Royal Geographic Society in London, to help improve schooling in Zanskar in winter when schools remain closed for up to four months. We also want to make education more accessible to future generations in Zanskar, especially because of its growing importance in helping people deal with the changes that are likely to occur when the new road is completed, says Howard. The duo came up with the idea as Tanzin, from the village of Testa in Zanskar, had to leave home at the age of seven to attend school in Manali, staying with an aunt. Subsequently, he went to

university in Jammu and London, where he met Howard. Earlier this year, the duo trekked the chadar to Zanskar and left a solar power wind up radio there to test their idea. The coming summer, they are planning to distribute 10 such radios with memory cards of recorded lessons in selected villages in Zanskar in the pilot phase of their project before they progress to the real radio aspect of it.

Locals wait for months for the river to freeze so that they can leave their villages. Walking out on the chadar can take up to five days, but the alternate route through the high mountain passes is more arduous. Over time, the chadar trek has gained popularity because of its uniqueness and many travel magazines have declared it a must-do experience. The Darcha-Padam-Nimu road, which is expected to be ready in 2021, is set to be an all-weather road through the region. With the road running a few feet above the chadar, the traditional ice route will become obsolete. Anvesh Singh Thapa, who owns tourism company Expeditions India, has been guiding groups down the Zanskar since 2001. He says that more than 10 new outfits offering trips in the region have sprung up over the last three or four years and the current year has been one of the busiest on the river. Most of the new companies have no environmental ethics and campsites are getting dirtier by the season, says Thapa. Lala says that immediate curbs on tourism in Zanskar are unlikely. The J&K government has been struggling to encourage tourism in the Valley. They will not miss out on the chance to cash in on Zanskar, he says. People like Thapa, who have spent much time by the river at its undisturbed best, hope the government will bring in regulations to save the canyon. Something like the system in place at the Grand Canyon in the US, he suggests. At the Grand Canyon, commercial use is capped and heavily charged, and private trips are decided through a draw of lots. All visitors have to follow no trace principles that ensure minimum human impact on the canyon. No fires are allowed below the rim of the canyon and all trash, including toilet paper and human refuse, has to be carried out. But at the Directorate of Tourism Office in Srinagar, a general sense of nonchalance surrounds the lack of regulations. A senior official agrees that garbage needs to be regulated to keep the area clean but he sees no pressing need. Most tourists to Zanskar are foreigners and they are aware of these things, he says. The official says that trips are free, and rafters and trekkers are accompanied by experienced guides. Anyway, the landscape is so harsh, the water is so dangerous, only those who are technically sound and confident of their abilities will attempt these activities, he says. We come into the picture only when there is a mishap and we

Senior river guide Peter Knowles has been canvassing against the road and for the Zanskar canyon to be converted into a national park. One tourist described it as building a multi-storey car park next to the Taj Mahal
have to arrange for an airlift. The officials dont know how many rafting groups have visited this summer. An official at the additional directorate of tourism office in Padam puts the number at two. Rafting guides say it is more than 15. For years, senior river guide Peter Knowles has been canvassing against the road and for the Zanskar canyon to be converted into a national park along the

LIFE IN THE HILLS: (Above) The Rangdum Monastery sits atop a sugarloaf hill en route from Zanskar to Kargil. (Below) Women dressed in traditional finery enjoy the mask dance festival

lines of the Grand Canyon. The road to Zanskar is being blasted out of the cliffs of the Zanskar gorge. An international tourist described it as building a multi-storey car park next to the Taj Mahal, says Knowles, who first ran the Zanskar river in 1985 and was among the first few to run the Colorado. As more tourists come to Zanskar, villagers are making a little money renting out their land for campsites. Knowles says that if the government charges high permit fees for the chadar trek and rafting, the revenue could be used to fund local communities and conservation. When I spoke to officials about Zanskar, I realised that it figures very low on national and local concerns. No one is really interested, says Knowles. Most people in the country havent even heard of the canyon. Sharanya Gautam

Wet, wetter, driest

In the rainiest corner of the world, there is a severe shortage of drinking water. Cherrapunjee has been let down by authorities who have no idea how to harvest its copious water
MANOSH DAS

ush undulating hills dotted with wild flowers and rain-heavy clouds hanging low overhead. This was once the wettest place in the world. But try this for irony residents often have to walk miles to get water to drink. These days, five minutes after a typical Cherrapunjee downpour, the water simply drains away. Women and children walking with pots perched on their heads is a common sight in this town these days. There is, in fact, a name now for this shortage Cherrapunjee syndrome. A whopping 11,000 mm annual rainfall is not enough to give the town sufficient drinking water because it has yet to learn to conserve the water. Rampant deforestation has also depleted the water resources of Sohra or Cherrapunjee, say environmentalists. Perennial springs which had abundant water in the recent past are now on the verge of drying up due to large-scale destruction of forests, says Julia Nongkynrih, a botany student. The failure to harness rainwater has further compounded the problem. The perennial spring sources of the area are in the upper, middle and lower areas of Cherrapunjee and they flow with abundant water all

through the year. The Lawsamlight spring source in Upper Cherrapunjee generates 2.59 lakh litres a day in the driest season of the year, Lumchina in Middle Cherrapunjee 1.8 lakh litres and Wahdawai in Lower Cherrapunjee 1.29 lakh litres. But the authorities have been unable to tap this supply. To make matters worse, there have been inordinate delays in the Public Health Engineering (PHE) project to construct treatment plants for the Cherrapunjee Water Supply Scheme (CWSS). This project is expected to supply 20,000 litres of water each day to a population of 30,000 at the rate of 70 litres per head per day. But as of now there is every sign that Cherrapunjee is set to become the wettest desert on earth. Water, in fact, is the biggest election issue in the area. We have had enough and are determined to ensure that next time around, the candidate we vote for provides safe drinking water to us, says 60-year-old Kong Isabela Nongrang. Politicians have been promising Cherrapunjee water for years now. Be it the assembly or the parliamentary elections, one agenda that has been high on the priority list of the voteseekers is water, but to no avail, says Iaibor Warjri, a college student who has watched the towns decline over the years. This is the worst period of the dry season for this town. The problem Cherrapunjee faces is

WHEN PLENTY ISNT ENOUGH: There is now a name for the shortage Cherrapunjee Syndrome

very simple. There is hardly any soil left there to retain water because the rain, over thousands of years, has washed it all away. What has contributed to this scarcity is the conspicuous deforestation in the region. The hills are all barren except for isolated patches of oak forest, says a research scholar at the North-Eastern Hill University. He was of the opinion that ground water

management strategies have to be adopted for mitigating the ill-affects of overexploitation of its resources and other anthropogenic effects on its recharge mechanism. The strategies include controlling and regulating new bores, curbing wastage of water and encouraging rain water-harvesting techniques. Perched at an altitude of 1,300 metres and about 56 km from Shillong, Cherrapunjee is a

land of heavy rains and perpetual rainbows. During the monsoons, the place receives about 366 inches of rain, making the area totally inaccessible. Till recently, it was the wettest place on earth before nearby Mawsynram wrested that distinction away. Daily rainfall in Cherrapunjee may amount to about 700 mm, even if its registered intensity does not pass 40 to 60 mm per hour. The heaviest showers occur from May to September, accounting for 88 per cent of the total volume. The highest monthly precipitation has been recorded during the months of June and July with daily rainfall of more than 700 mm. More than 70 per cent of the annual rainfall is received during the south-west monsoons. Situated about 15 miles north of the IndiaBangladesh border, the terrain rises steeply from the border to the Cherra town, which sits at an elevation of 4,500 feet. After passing over the plains of Bangladesh, the monsoon clouds hit Cherra with a vengeance. With the onset of monsoon, Cherrapunji is at its spectacular best. Exotic flowers are in full bloom and rare species of frogs can be sighted. The waterfalls in Cherra Mawsmai, Nohkalikai (the fourth highest in the world), Umhein, Kynrem, Dainthlen, and Nohsngithiang (literally the falls kissed by the sunset) make for breathtaking scenery. The only thing missing is water to drink.