Guess What; HP is a Model State for Sustainable Development

In the midst of raging debate, I thought it would be a good exercise to figure out what have
the governments been doing all these years about preparing the state for dealing with the
adverse impacts of climate change, extreme weather conditions and natural calamities.
What has been done for disaster management, how does it actually work on the ground and
how well equipped is the state machinery to deal with the consequences of such disasters;
are we climate proofing our infrastructure, are we adapting our development path to suit
the climate changes that are predicted for the future in the state?
Opinions, some of them bordering on rhetoric, on what went wrong and what should be
done going forward are flying thick and fast. My experience for the past more than two
decades has taught me that we, as a system, are very good with making policies and laws,
strategic plans and vision documents. I believed that Himachal Pradesh could not have a
dearth of regulatory framework though could be without commensurate institutional
framework for dealing with any of the issues that the state is faced with - be it sustainable
development, adverse impacts of climate change, adaptation, mitigation , vulnerability
studies of the state to the village level etc.
Most of us believe the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Assessment Report 6
(IPCC AR6) that global warming will continue to increase in the near term (2021-2040)
mainly due to increased cumulative CO2 emissions in nearly all considered scenarios and
modelled pathways. We are witnessing that the Western Himalayan Region (WHR), of which
Himachal Pradesh is a part of, has been a hotspot of several hazards like cloudbursts, Glacial
Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), convective storms and forest fires in the recent past. It is
widely acknowledged that the WHR may face higher magnitude of heavy and extreme
rainfall because of its accelerated warming.
Let’s take a deep dive, actually not even deep (this information has been gathered from the
website of DEST& CC) and see what our governments have done these past couple of
decades since UNFCCC and IPCC have been raising multiple alarms or since at least when the
GOI launched its ambitious National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008.
We are starting on a wrong foot because unfortunately the state does not have its own
Environment Policy, instead we have Environment Policy Guidelines (EPG). The EPG states
that the developmental vis-a-vis environmental model followed in the State is generally
directed by central policies and laws which do not fully address the requirements and
unique aspects of mountain areas. The main purpose of EPG is to develop approaches
compatible with the mountain eco-systems and its unique aspects such as fragility,
inaccessibility, marginality, diversity, climatic peculiarities, etc. According to EPG these
characteristics and special features of the state guided the identification of issues of
environmental concern in the state, the ones which need priority attention and those issues
are;
I. Construction of highways, massive buildings and big dams
II. Extension of orchards into environmentally sensitive agricultural and forest lands.
III. Destruction of forest cover.
IV. Deep Channel cutting for minerals and open cast mining for building materials.
V. Pollution and garbage.
Unfortunately as per this document the state does not feel that higher vulnerability to
adverse impacts of climate change in the mountains - therefore climate proofing of its
development, projected extreme weather conditions, fragile topography, climatology and
geology - also need priority attention but nonetheless an exercise was undertaken. The state
government is aware that environmental issues need priority attention.

There is an Environmental Status Report (ESR) on the basis of which EPG mentioned above,
has identified sectoral guideline, identified issues in different sectors and have also
identified actions that need to be taken. There are many gaps in both, identifying the areas
of concern and also within the identified area the issues that need attention. However it can
be safely said that the government has its heart in the right place.

HP has a council for science, technology and environment (HIMCOSTE) and also State Centre
on Climate Change. HP has a State Knowledge Cell on Climate Change (HPKCCC) which was
set up under National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) in the
Department of Environment, Science & Technology and Climate Change (DEST&CC).

State also has an Environment Master Plan (EMP) formulated in 2013 in order to ensure the
sustainability of environmental heritage and natural resources and to develop a long term
perspective of achieving environmentally sustainable development. This document runs in
to thousands of pages. Executive summary itself runs in to 89 pages. The sectoral baseline
data/information has been based on Census of India, 2001 with relevant and available
updates from Census of India, 2011 (Statistical Handbooks of Directorate of Economics and
Statistics, Government of Himachal Pradesh, statistic obtained by line departments, State
Agriculture Plan, District Agriculture Plan, State of Environment Report, State Biodiversity
Strategy and Action Plan. Source of data have been provided in each sectoral reports.) As
per EMP vulnerability assessment has been done both sectorally and geographically. Village
level climatic vulnerability assessment and indicative adaptation plan framework has also
been done for river Beas basin in Kullu and Mandi district, arguably the worst hit in the
recent floods. The unit for assessment of geographical vulnerability is tehsil and district, the
scenarios have been prepared for year 2011, 2021, 2031 and 2041. Sectoral vulnerability has
been assessed at tehsil level with respect to water, air, land, natural critical habitats, climate
change, hazard susceptibility, spatial areas of conflict, quality of life (health) and quality of
life (education).
I am sure the state can undertake an exercise to see whether its vulnerability report and
indicative adaptation framework plan whatever it was, is in sync with what actually
happened here, now, in 2023.I did not find any of these documents user friendly or any
information contained in them easily understandable.
HP has created an environment Fund in 2008 under the now DEST & Climate Change .The
State through DEST & CC has also prepared a comprehensive "State Strategy & Action Plan
on Climate Change (SAPCC)". Under this Action Plan, block level climate change vulnerability
assessment has been undertaken. So the state seems to have information about
vulnerability status of the entire state up to block and village level.
The state has Aryabhatta Geo-informatics and Space Application Centre (AGiSAC) which was
set up in 2011. The centre is a technical hub that is supposed to serve as a repository for all
data on the state’s environment, as well as its natural and man-made resources, and climate
change. It helps government departments make evidence-based development decisions and
to monitor results. The state has a Hydro Power Policy,2006, has Payment for Ecosystem
Services Policy, Sustainable Tourism Development Policy 2013, Integrated Master Plan for
Sustainable Tourism etc. All these policies and initiatives are not an exhaustive list of what
the government has been doing. There could be many other relevant initiatives and policies
that I have not been able to find out about so far. HP also has a State Strategy and Action
Plan on climate change which was put together in 2012 and State Action Plan on Climate
Change 2021-30.

Apart from what the state government has done several of GOI’s initiatives also enable the
state to better prepare itself to meet the exigencies of climate change and pursue a path of
sustainable development. GOI has set up National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change
(NAFCC). The objective of the fund is to assist State and Union Territories that are
particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in meeting the cost of
adaptation. There is clean technology fund (CTF) from where HP has been taking
development policy loans apart from the WB.
In “HP Towards Green and Inclusive Development Report”, a World Bank report (undated),
it is stated that HP is seeking to develop in an environmentally and socially sustainable
manner. Towards this end, it is devising suitable policies for its key revenue earning sectors -
hydropower, tourism, and industry- as well as for rural development, as the vast majority of
the state’s people live in rural areas and depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.
This document states that HP has moved away from the conventional method of assessing
impacts on a project-by project basis and adopted a river basin approach to impact
assessment. These Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessments (CEIA) are a big step
forward in managing the combined impacts of a number of hydropower projects on a river
basin. This document also claims that Himachal Pradesh has also appointed an independent
panel of two experts from the environment and social sectors to advise the state on all
aspects of hydropower development to ensure that future growth in the sector takes place
sustainably. Another very heartening development is the state’s understanding that since a
river basin is one natural, ecological unit, any degradation in the upper reaches can have
major impacts downstream. The state is therefore formulating Integrated Catchment Area
Treatment (CAT) plans to enable planners to stabilize entire catchments and avoid
fragmented prescriptions. Himachal Pradesh has therefore mandated that all hydropower
projects of 10 MW and above set aside 2.5 percent of project costs to implement CAT plans
in the river basins in which they operate. By mid-2015, the state had prepared and finalized
integrated CAT plans for the Sutlej and Chenab river basins; erosion levels are high in the
Sutlej basin and the river carries one of the largest silt loads in the country. Work on the
three other river basins was in progress. HP is the first state in the country to have
mandated E-Flow which is 15% of the lean season flow. E-flows from individual hydropower
projects are monitored by the state’s Pollution Control Board and can be publicly seen on
the web on a real-time basis, enabling the people to monitor compliance. HP is the first
state in India to adopt a unique benefit-sharing practice that shares project earnings with
local people. Revenues generated from the sale of 1 percent of additional free power
provided by the developers to the state are to be distributed annually among the long-term
residents of a project affected area throughout a project’s life. Another innovation is that
during the project’s construction phase, hydropower developers are required to contribute
1.5 percent of project costs to the Local Area Development Fund, 2009 (LADF) to finance
infrastructure development in the project area.

The point I am trying to make is that the governments understand everything. They have a
vast set of data, information, knowledge of which they are not making any use on the
ground. I understand that despite so much to show on paper there is still unavailability of
adequate data of requisite quality and also quantity related to how climate change is
impacting and likely to impact the specific areas in the state and whatever incomplete
information is available is also not accessible in concise form at one place despite
institutional framework on paper available in this regard. A sincere, consistent,
comprehensive endeavour has to be made for better understanding of the processes
influencing the climate of Himalayas. We need to do what we purport we are doing with
utmost diligence and there should not be any gap between what we say we will do and
what we do on the ground.

We need to start a meaningful and a participative debate as to whether the policy and
vision for development of the state is in sync with what is being predicted in future for the
state in terms of adverse impacts of climate change including on occurrence of extreme
weather conditions, quantity and distribution of precipitation and snowfall, availability of
fresh water, impact on biodiversity etc. Are we listening to the overwhelming scientific
advice about what can and cannot be done in the mountains in the name of development?

We need to work together with our leadership from across the party lines and convince
them in the light of more than adequate scientific evidence that mountains can’t develop
like the rest. We cannot leave our future in the hands of leaders whose vision extend only
up to the next elections. If we make politicians of all hues in the state sit together and
ponder over the issues together and find solutions together we can stop these things
becoming an election issue and stop them from trading charges with each other.

Sustainable development - howsoever cliched and abused this phrase sounds - is the need
of the hour and without political will we cannot move forward and we know that from the
fate of UNFCCC. The biggest hurdle in front of all us is to generate that political will and only
people of the state can achieve that if they strive together.