About
Our Work
The Gangotri region of the Uttarakhand Himalayas contains one of the largest glacier systems in the world. Due to global warming, these glaciers are receding at a particularly alarming rate. This has prompted international attention given the dependence of hundreds of millions of Indians on this perennial source of the Ganga. However, the area is also suffering localized ecological degradation due to the growing tourist and religious pilgrimage trade. The energy demands of this now permanent and growing influx are denuding the alpine highlands, while polluting the area with all the detritus of mass consumer culture. Moreover, the ecosystem, including the few species of trees such as Birch (the ubiquitous Bhoj in local language) that can grow in the cold and dry alpine climate, have suffered severe decline. Gaumukh at the snout of the glacier now resembles a shanty settlement in a cold desert, rather than the holiest of holies it is renowned to be.
All this has motivated me to spend the last twenty years conducting ecological research, restoration and awareness campaigns in the Gangotri-Gaumukh region. As a mountaineer, I have had the chance to travel throughout the higher Himalayan reaches of Uttarakhand and observe the precipitous decline in the ecology and aesthetics of these epicentres of mountain tourism. My own doctoral research focused on the particular ecological and economic issues facing this type of tourism in the Indian Himalayas. Now a Reader in the Department of Economics, Govt. Post Graduate College in Uttarkashi, I continue my conservation work in the surrounding district.
As such, this website will hopefully reveal some of the progress we have made in our efforts, including our successes with our Birch tree plantations and cultivation of medicinal plants on a trial basis. Also detailed are some of the major obstacles we have had to overcome, but also the support we have garnered over the years. Hopefully, this story will inspire others to take up the Himalayan task of restoring the "Abode of Gods" to their original natural splendour and pilgrimage to its sacred ecological roots.
