Kumaon Trip In Retrospect: Kosi is sunken...

This is one of a series of posts describing short strolls/hikes from a trip of Kumaon undertaken with my family during December 2012. While sightseeing was an important aspect of this trip, it had added significance since I have family roots in this Himalayan region (indeed, both my parents were born and brought up here). I myself was born and brought up in the middle of the Indo-Gangetic plain (and visited limited parts of Kumaon only a few times), but almost all the family stories I heard as a child were rooted in that area. Interestingly, I myself acquired a love for the hills while living halfway across the world, when I moved to the NYC area for work, and became a (day) hiking enthusiast. This trip was an opportunity to both visit the places I had often heard about as well as acquire at least a passing acquaintance with a part of the mighty Himalayas that span the northern frontiers of India. Some hiccups at the start of the trip required us to modify our plans to omit long walks from our itinerary, but there were still enough opportunities to experience and visually document the natural beauty of the area, as well as some of the worrisome signs of its spoilage.


T.S Eliot wrote in The Wasteland:

"Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves

Waited for rain, while the black clouds

Gathered far distant, over Himavant"

In the course of this trip, as we encountered the river Kosi (not to be confused with the river Kosi that flows through the state of Bihar) at different points on its course, I found myself saying: Kosi is sunken! Over the rest of the trip, this became a general refrain encompassing my family's concern at what we saw not just in terms of the waters in the Kosi and other smaller rivers starting to dry up, but regarding other aspects such as the decline in levels of cleanliness and general aesthetics from past decades. Some changes were dramatic enough to be apparent even to me based on what I remember from brief childhood visits to a few places. For my parents, the evidence of spoilage was much more marked and affecting. To provide a particularly jarring example, Kosi near Ramnagar has been completely straitjacketed by a bevy of tourist resorts lining its banks, almost eliminating public access to the river bank for an extended stretch (this is not dissimilar to what happened in several places in the U.S. a century ago but is now being remedied by miscellaneous public waterfront access programs), and despoiling the natural beauty. Ramnagar itself has morphed from an idyllic foothill town to a congested and trash-strewn place. Someshwar and Baijnath (see my post about the latter's wasted potential) are a few other examples, as is the temple complex of Jageshwar where it was a bit surprising to find that archaeologically important temple structures that should have been carefully preserved were being used without any ASI supervision for regular prayer ceremonies.

There is still much natural beauty left in Kumaon, some of which I visually documented in earlier posts (Binsar being a shining example) with a few more examples provided below.

Pindari glacier (flanked by the Nanda Devi group of peaks) provides a
background to this view of Almora when en eroute from Mukteshwar

A breathtaking view of snow-clad peaks and a cloud-shrouded valley
from my hotel balcony in Kausani
(the visible peaks include Trishul, Mrigathuni, Nanda Devi and Nanda Kot)

Another majestic view from my hotel balcony in Kausani after fresh snow
had fallen in the higher altitudes the previous night

But there is also much that has undergone disfigurement and decline.

Kosi near Almora

Alas, Kosi is sunken!

Zooming into specific sections of the above view, one can
see trash strewn near the banks and at places on the boulders
in the river bed of the Kosi at Someshwar

Littered river bank (Someshwar)

It is inevitable, one might say. Development exacts an ecological price, and it is hypocritical to criticize the local population for seeking the same advantages available to other regions. But what price is to be paid, and what will be the consequences?  It is noteworthy that many of the problems we noticed emanate from mismanagement, lack of imagination, and negligence rather than irreconcilable conflict with modern lifestyles.  Many of these issues are common to most parts of India and not specific to Kumaon. However, in the context of Kumaon they are particularly pressing because this is an ecologically sensitive region.  It is noteworthy that Kumaon lacks glacier-fed rivers, with the Kosi being the main river flowing through the region. Its depletion (and the visible signs of pollution that included  litter on and near the river bed near Someshwar, Garur, etc.) bode ill for long term water availability in a time when even major rivers of the world are starting to dry up. Furthermore, the Himalayas are relatively unstable young fold mountains extremely prone to landslides. Lack of water and the vegetation depletion resulting from that and the increasing demands of population will only increase those dangers.

All of the above ties to a broader pressing need: to develop a land ethic that reflects the realities of our times, and can help guide the effort to achieve a balance between economic and ecological concerns. This certainly cannot happen merely by adoption of (frequently unimplemented/unenforced) government policies. It would require engagement by individuals. And not just individuals living 'close to nature', but even city-dwellers who need to feel a stake in conservation efforts. Spending the past few years in an area in the U.S. with a very strong hiking culture despite its high degree of urbanization, I have come to realize and admire how a simple activity such as hiking is instrumental in enabling the urban/suburban resident to build a connection with the land. The results can be in seen in the grassroots involvement of several communities in the preservation of open spaces, and in a volunteer organization that builds and maintains hundreds of miles of well-marked hiking trails in the Greater NYC region. Open natural spaces are as much a part of a nation's heritage as ancient monuments and artifacts (perhaps much more important in the grand scheme of things), and the best way to ensure their continued existence is to ensure that individuals feel a love for them and a stake in their preservation. While not the panacea for everything, widespread public engagement is definitely a prerequisite for any meaningful long term effort. It would be wonderful to some day see the same kind of grassroots hiking culture flourish in and around major urban centers in India.

On the above note, I could not do any better than to quote a few sentences culled from Aldo Leopold's essay 'The Land Ethic' and thereby conclude this post:

"A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources', but it does affirm their right to a continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state."

"A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity."

"It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic value; I mean value in the philosophical sense."

"Perhaps the most serious obstacle impeding the evolution of a land ethic is the fact that our educational and economic system is headed away from, rather than toward, an intense consciousness of land. Your true modern is separated from the land by many middlemen, and by innumerable physical gadgets."

"The evolution of a land ethic is an intellectual as well as emotional process. Conservation is paved with good intentions which prove to be futile, or even dangerous, because they are devoid of critical understanding either of the land, or of economic land-use."