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 May 27. The report was prepared and submitted on the direction of the High Court.
The Uttarakhand High Court on May 27 directed the state government to submit a detailed report in response to a PIL on illegal constructions at the foothills between Dehradun and Mussorie region. The court also directed to seal any kind of construction that is in contravention to the building by-laws, which clearly mandate that no construction can be carried out where the angle of slope is over 30 degrees. The PIL was filed by Dehradun-based social activist Reenu Paul. The High Court has since May 3 been hearing a PIL by Reenu Paul.
“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.
According to the petitioner, the foothills policy mandates that the small hillocks that define the early features of the Shivalik range are preserved. The petitioner requested the court that throughout the Rajpur region, the foothills have been systematically destroyed. He produced photographs before the court showing the damage caused to the local ecology.
The court took a serious view of the matter and the respondents were given another opportunity to file a proper report and affidavit by June 9. The Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board was also directed to file a reply by that date. The court will hear the matter on June 16.