This treasure trove of nature now has a world heritage site tag
to flaunt, as a testimony to its ecological worth and conservation efforts.
Will the fairy tale hold under pressure for infrastructure building?
On 23 June, UNESCO decided to put the Great Himalayan National
Park (GHNP) Conservation Area in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh on the
World Heritage List, acknowledging it as one of the world’s most important and
significant natural habitats for conservation of biological diversity,
containing threatened species of outstanding universal value.
Set up in 1984, GHNP (754.4 sq km) was formally declared a
national park in 1999. Two wildlife sanctuaries —Sainj (90 sq km) and Tirthan
(61 sq km) —were notified in 1994 and together they form the Great Himalayan
National Park Conservation Area, spanning 905.4 sq km.
More than 15,000 residents of 160 villages in the buffer zone
are dependent on GHNP’s natural resources. The glacial and snow melt waters
from the park become the westerly flowing Jiwa Nal, Sainj and Tirthan rivers
and the north-westerly flowing Parvati river — all headwater tributaries that
feed the Beas and, subsequently, the Indus river.
Home to rare species such as the Western Tragopan, Chir
Pheasant, Snow Leopard, Himalayan Musk Deer, Asiatic Black Bear, Himalayan
Tahr, Blue Sheep and Serow, the park supports 8% of all plant species, 10% of
mammals, 21% of birds, 7% of reptiles and 9% of amphibians. Many of these are
endemic and globally threatened.
GHNP is also contiguous with the Khirganga National Park (710 sq
km), the Pin Valley National Park (675 sq km) in trans-Himalaya, Rupi-Bhabha
Wildlife Sanctuary (503 sq km) in the Sutlej watershed and Kanawar Wildlife
Sanctuary (61 sq km). The world heritage site tag will hopefully draw more
attention to this contiguous protected area of very high conservation value
stretching across nearly 3,000 sq km.
To
begin with, GHNP was free of human habitation. But people from nearby villages
moved in and out to graze their sheep and goats and collect herbs. In 1999, the
administration paid Rs 1.8 crore to 369 families to settle these rights.
For several others, who did not have such traditional rights but depended
on the park for their livelihood, the forest administration began income
generation programmes. Subsequently, many villagers benefitted from alternative
livelihood activities, particularly ecotourism.
The process of resettling three villages from Sainj wildlife
sanctuary and providing monetary compensation to settle grazing rights in
Tirthan is still under way and facing some resistance. But there is no dearth
of local goodwill for GHNP. This May, 70 members of the community-based
ecotourism cooperative society were among those who wrote to UNESCO in support
of GHNP’s claim.
The reasons are not hard to find. The park authorities have not
denied the locals access to their many sacred sites inside the park. During
festivals, villagers enter the park to pray and make offerings to their
deities, accompanied by forest guards who ensure no poaching or littering takes
place. Unlike many other forests and national parks across the country, here,
no complaint has been lodged by local people concerning access to religious
sites in the past 12 years.
Alongside, the GHNP management has followed a strict policy to
safeguard the fragile Himalayan ecosystems, guided by the Wildlife Institute of
India and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. There
is no motorable road inside the park. This has kept the number of trekkers at
just around 1,000 per year — the hardy few who will hazard the15km trek from
where the roads end in Sainj, Tirthan, or Jiwanal Valleys.
While trekking within the park has remained regulated and low
impact, cultural tourism and moderate trekking is encouraged in the buffer zone
and boosts the local hospitality industry, in turn inspiring community efforts
for better protection and participatory management of GHNP.
“This, indeed, is a very significant moment in the conservation
history of the Western Himalayas,” says Sanjeeva Pandey, Additional
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, who served eight years as GHNP’s first
director. “There are so many small sacred groves commemorating saints who
came here to meditate in the great sanctuary of Himalayas. This inscription as
a World Heritage Site is an honour to the indigenous traditional conservation
practices as well as those sacred places.”
Amid celebration and hope, one cannot but wonder what is in
store for this magnificent wilderness in the near future. So far, GHNP has been
lucky, thanks to its demographic advantages and fine management. But that could
turn into a ticket for infrastructure development as well — free as the area is
of human habitation and subsequent costs and complications of rehabilitation.
There has been talk of hydro-electricity projects on the Sainj and Tirthan
rivers. A critical part of the national park was denotified soon after it was
set up in 1999 to make room for the Parvati hydroelectricity project. No, even
GHNP is not out of bounds for development.
But that was before GHNP became a world heritage site, did you
wonder? Before seeking security in the global spotlight, GHNP should watch how
the future pans out for the Western Ghats, another world heritage site and one
of the world’s eight richest biodiversity hotspots. The UPA government
undermined the Gadgil committee report by appointing another panel under K Kasturirangan
to water down the original recommendations, only to defer implementing even the
compromised stipulations. On 7 July, the new government is supposed to
submit its position before the National Green Tribunal on the issue. Any guess
where they will draw the line?
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