Environmental Degradation -- in the Interest of Public Safety and Health of Our Most Sacred and Holy Himalayan Environment of Vedic India

Dated: 18th January 2007

Subject: Petition Pleading for Action Regarding Rampant Illegal and Hazardous Building Constructions in the interest of the Publics Safety and the Health of Our Most Holy and Sacred Himalayan Environment of Vedic India of the Upper Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj Area, Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh, India

Your Most Honorable Chief Justice,

It is only with the greatest of humility that in the interest of the Publics Safety and the Environment the following is submitted to Your Authority, Your Most Honorable Chief Justice, for consideration and action:

"The need to protect the environment spells survival of the human race and other life forms."
M.C. Mehta

It would feel criminal not to be involved in things that are believed in by simply keeping ones eyes closed and ignore what is happening here in Upper Dharamsala, Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh. When one is in a position to actually try and bring focus to an issue that is important and doesn't, then one has failed miserably in the human race. As a "universalist", the entire globe is seen as one world and one people, with boundaries drawn only for administrative convenience. Casteism and nationalism or regionalism have never been believed in and these are viewed as unnecessary evils. Ensuring uniform and balanced development of all nations, all regions -- including environmentally clean, correct, transparent urban development -- can only strengthen the emotional and moral integrity of all peoples. There are certain leaders who keep raising the bogey of discrimination to divide the people just to keep themselves afloat. Efforts to belittle the highlighting of environmental issues by playing games of dividing the people on national and regional lines and through choosing to forget that deep down we all have red blood and we share a family in humanity will only harm the world -- all of us -- in the long run.

There is only one Planet Mother Earth. The Planet does not belong to us. As global citizens, we all belong to the Planet, regardless of national origin or choice of identity and man-made dividers be it in the form of a barbed wire fence or an international border. We are all inter-connected and it is our collective responsibility to take the very best care of our ever-increasing ailing Planet. With every removal of pristine Himalayan flora, we take one step closer to our own mutually shared destruction. Sacred deodar trees are slow growing it takes approximately 10 years to grow a deodar cedar tree to the height of 5 feet, depending on the conditions.

Building contractors, as well as governance, have a moral responsibility and a special opportunity to construct only legal/authorized earthquake safe structures as their contribution to the welfare of the public, one and all. After all, what is more important, peoples safety or money? Given the choice between leaving a legacy of unsafe and unsightly concrete jungles and slums on slopes or protecting oxygen-producing sacred trees for their own children and descendents, which are they choosing? What is going to be left for the next generations?

Vedic India is a land of laws. The choice of spiritual bankruptcy and total, blatant disregard for the extremely fragile eco-system of this Most Sacred and Holy Himalayan abode on the part of certain amoral individuals must be accountable. Upper Dharamsala is in the epi-center heart of Earthquake Zone V, located on loose soil strata on sliding hill slopes with the second highest annual rainfall in all of India, as per url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:hRoKyP950yUJ:www.sandec.ch/SolidWaste/Documents/04-SW-Management/Dharamsala-Baseline-study/Dharamsala_Full_Report.pdf+2nd+highest+rainfall+in+india+dharamsala&hl=en&gl=in&ct=clnk&cd=16&client=firefox-a. On 4th April 1905, there was a massive 7.8 earthquake which resulted in 20,000 deaths; on 12th June 1978 another 5.2 earthquake; on 25th April 1986 another 6.1 earthquake with 6 deaths and 65 crores in damages; as well as intermittent tremors. Has the tragedy of October 2005s earthquake in Pakistan already been forgotten? Just as easily, it could have struck here in Kangra District. In the interest of the Publics Safety and the health of our Most Sacred and Holy Himalayan Environment, it is time to be responsible and take the correct course of action -- before it is too late.

As reported in the press, www.boloji.com/environment/61.htm, on 3rd September 2006: A seminar to mark the Centenary of Kangra Earthquake was organized by Geological Survey Of India (GSI) in April 2005. Roger Bilham and his colleague Kali Wallace write in the Seminar Volume that Kangra earthquake was a corollary of an earlier greater earthquake that rocked western Himalayas in 1400 c. Subsequent earthquakes of 1833 and 1934 were a part of the same chain of events. Such events occur due to rupture of continental plates. One of the classic examples is the 2004 Sumatra/Nicobar/Andaman earthquake where the earlier ruptured plate was further stressed and ruptured. Taking the Nepal earthquakes as a precedent overlapping ruptures in the Himalayan plates, they conclude that a similar of greater event can not be ruled out in near future.

Dr. A.S. Arya of I.I.T. Roorkee has estimated that if an earthquake of the magnitude and intensity that struck Kangra in 1905 re-strikes, the financial losses would be of the order of Rs 51.04 billion. In other words, nature's ire will render us homeless, jobless and destitute unless serious steps are taken.

One can not stop earthquakes from occurring. One can only strengthen his own house to save it from a collapse during the calamity. We will read about such houses and buildings after knowing about some recent quakes and developments in the seismology.

Further, as reported in the press, www.boloji.com/environment/68.htm, on 8th October 2006: Dr. A.S. Arya, a seismologist from the IIT Roorkee, suggests development of indigenous strategies for earthquake hazard evaluation and risk reduction programs. The evidences of stresses building up on the plate margin in the central Himalayan region indicate that the area is most vulnerable for a major earthquake. Arya carried out some probabilistic damage studies in Kangra area of H.P. He states that if an earthquake of same intensity (M 8.0) that struck Kangra (H.P.) in 1905 was to repeat in 1991 and if all the 18,15,858 houses (as per 1991 census) were without earthquake safety provisions, the losses in terms of property would be to the tune of Rs 51.04 billion. However, he states that if all the houses were made earthquake safe as per the building design code of the BIS, the extra cost involved would be only Rs 6.35 billion, resulting in a net saving of Rs25.09 billion. The lives lost and houses destroyed would naturally be reduced drastically.

No one wants to be the one to take this action (under verbal and physical threat) in the interest of the Publics Safety and the health of our Most Holy and Sacred Himalayan Environment of Vedic India but someone must before every last tree has been chopped down and tossed off the side of the hill in the middle of the night. Simply an aging housewife, having chosen a contemplative lifestyle of semi-retreat, practicing yoga as a support to meditation, a quantity of time is spent in padmasana with eyes closed. But one cannot keep their eyes closed all of the time to the environmental degradation, depletion of trees, and rampant illegal and hazardous building constructions. Environmental issues interest not only westerners/foreigners who have settled in India -- but are also a concern of native Indian citizens, from local brave co-signatories on a plea for assistance, to Shri M.C. Mehta, all the way up to the former Chief Justice of India, Shri Y.K. Sabharwal, as detailed in a 10-page Key Note Address entitled, Environment-Awareness-Enforcement, delivered at the Asia Pacific Jurist Association Conference at Vigyan Bhawan in January 2006: http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/new_links/speach.htm. To quote a Supreme Court judgment, in an M.C. Mehta versus Union of India case, No one has any right, human or fundamental, to violate law with impunity and right to use a building for a purpose other than authorised." As reported in the press on 6th January 2007, (www.hindu.com/2007/01/06/stories/2007010623610400.htm)

Since 1997, Lisa Mastelotto, wife of Tenzin Wangdu, has loved India and considers India as home. Upon moving to McLeod Ganj, Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh, the Holy and Sacred Himalayan Environment was most appreciated: watching the sun set through the trees outside the kitchen window and west-side living room window, as well as the unobstructed view of His Holiness The Dalai Lamas palace. Since that time, what has been witnessed is totally heart-breaking the sickening sounds and sights of escalating and incessant illegal and indiscriminant chopping of trees, resulting in depletion of flora and fauna, and soil erosion. Upper Dharamsala is rapidly transforming into a hazardous, unsightly concrete jungle and a slum on slopes, with multi-story building constructions that are illegal and dangerous to the Publics Safety and to the health of our Most Holy and Sacred Himalayan Environment of Vedic India.

As reported in the press, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Minister, G.S. Bali, stated, if we wish to make Himachal an international tourist destination in the true sense, then steps will have to be taken to preserve our rich culture and heritage, www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060628/himplus.htm. Tourists (international and national) do not make the journey to Upper Dharamsala to see these monstrous concrete eyesores but, rather, come for the renowned pristine Himalayan beauty of flora and fauna. Most foreign tourists prefer to stay in villages, not concrete jungles.

The illegal felling of trees and flora, as well as the illegal, hazardous construction of a concrete jungle of buildings and forced urbanization of the pristine hill area most urgently needs to be stopped immediately to save what little is remaining of the environment of the Upper Dharamsala area in the interest of the Publics Safety and the health of our Most Holy and Sacred Himalayan Environment of Vedic India.

There are several illegal/unauthorized structures which the Town and Country Planner has already either issued notices to stop construction and/or demolition notices (Asia Plaza, Sahil Plaza, Sahiwa Hotel, etc.) -- but to date concrete action has yet to be executed (as reported in Hindi Dainik Baskar article, Alert in McLeod Ganj regarding the Land Mafia Dons (rough translation), 19th July 2006) as well as over 270 encroachments in McLeod Ganj as cited by the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister in the press, www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20061203/himachal.htm. In fact, the response of these builders is to determinedly increase the speed with which the illegal and hazardous building constructions are being thrown up, demonstrating total disregard for the law, the Publics Safety and the health of our Most Holy and Sacred Himalayan Environment of Vedic India. It appears that once these illegal and hazardous building constructions are up and finished, no one dare to actually demolish and remove them.

The purpose of this submission/petition to Your Most Honorable Chief Justice is to stop immediately all illegal/unauthorized, hazardous building constructions in progress, as well as to uproot and eradicate any and all future illegal/unauthorized, hazardous building constructions here in the Upper Dharamsala and the surrounding areas from being undertaken in the interest of the Publics Safety and the Environment -- as well as to bring to Your Most Honorable Chief Justices attention the unfortunate condition of governance connected with these hazards through promulgated retroactive retention policies and further disregard in respect to environmental degradation. There will soon be more mobile phone towers standing than sacred trees -- at the rate the trees are being mutilated and illegally removed -- with the local governments knowledge and even protection.

Most humbly praying and appealing to Your Authority, Your Most Honorable Chief Justice for morally correct justice -- to take the appropriate action in the interest of the Publics Safety and the Environment, we remain,