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At 11,204 feet, Gangotri to get polling booth

On Holi eve, Rishikesh ashram pledges not to use wood in rituals

Need to introduce forestry in school curriculum

Travel Uttarakhand by Caravans

Rishikesh - Gangotri highway blocked

SC issues notice to government in Char Dham Project

Doon Students Join Worldwide Protest

At 11,204 feet, Gangotri to get polling booth

Gangotri, which is among the 4 revered Char Dham shrine towns in Uttarakhand, will get a polling booth for the first time in the Lok Sabha polls. The polling booth in the shrine town situated at an altitude of 3,415 metres (11,204 feet) above sea level – would be the highest polling station in Tehri constituency where 141 seers, including 133 men and eight women, will cast their votes.

Earlier, the seers had to trek up to 29 km, often in snow, to nearby booths in Dharali and Mukhba villages to exercise their franchise, according to Devendra Singh Negi, sub-divisional magistrate, Bhatwari block.

Negi said that the move is meant to encourage more voters from the area to cast their vote. “Snow often leads to blocked roads in the upper Himalayan region which keeps voters from travelling such a long distance,” he added. The sub-divisional magistrate said that the Border Roads Organization (BRO) has also been asked to swiftly clear roads.

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On Holi eve, Rishikesh ashram pledges not to use wood in rituals

On the eve of Holi on Wednesday, Parmarth Niketan, the largest ashram in Rishikesh, took a pledge to follow clean and green practices while conducting their rituals. The ashram decided they will be using gobar patties instead of wood for the ‘Holika Dahan’ and also continue this practice in their other rituals hereafter.

“We have pledged to make all our daily “havans” and “yagnas” woodless from the auspicious occasion of Holika Dahan. In this way, we can utilize the cow dung which too often lies wasted on our streets, and also save trees and protect our environment,” said Swami Chidanand Saraswati, head of the ashram.

He added that “this year, Holi was falling at the same time as the International Happiness Day, International Forest Day (21 March 2019) and World Water Day (22 March 2019).”

“In accordance with the significance of the festival this year, a special pledge has been taken to keep our forests and sacred rivers clean, and to make all our festivals and holidays into clean and green ones. It is only by protecting our nature & culture can we truly be happy and thereby protect our collective future.”

People from around 35 countries participated in the pre-Holi celebrations at the ashram during which eco-friendly, organic colours of turmeric, sandalwood and natural flower dyes were used. Michael Miller, a visitor from London, said, “Celebrating Green Holi is very important since Holi is about releasing past mistakes and letting go of the damage we have done to the earth and to each other.”

Laurie Larson, another visitor from Korea added, “As I’m throwing the colours and flowers, I symbolically release the past but at the same time, the colour is also a reminder of all the beauty that surrounds us.”

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Need to introduce forestry in school curriculum

To mark International Day of Forests which is on 21 March 2019, Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE) on Tuesday held an event at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in line with this year’s United Nations have chosen theme – Forestry and Education: Learn to Love Forests.

The programme, which was graced by environmentalists and scientists from across the country, aimed to promote the importance of education at all levels in achieving the goals of sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation. Leading environmentalist and Padma Bhushan awardee Chandi Prasad Bhatt, who was the keynote speaker of the event, stressed that there is a need for introducing forestry in the school curriculum.

The programme was presided over by chief guest C.K Mishra, secretary, Union environmentalist ministry. He urged the youth to come forward with an innovative strategy to help India achieve its carbon sink target.

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Travel Uttarakhand by Caravans

For the individuals who give the trek a skip thinking an absence of proper facilities and different reasons, resembles your time is up. The government of Uttarakhand, in a bid to promote the travel industry, will present mobile caravans or RVs outfitted with every facility you can expect to discover in a standard house.

Obviously, convenient homes will empower you to get to remote areas. The plan also includes the development of parks for the caravans to be stationed.

These complexes will provide water, power and waste disposal facilities. Along these lines, combined with the government's endeavour to build homestays in and around popular tourist spots, soon most Himalaya vistas will be charming from your windowsill.

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Rishikesh - Gangotri highway blocked

Nearly 200 vehicles were left stranded after a landslide blocked the Rishikesh-Gangotri national highway stretch near Bemar area of Tehri district on Saturday, 16 March 2019, morning. Officials said that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had been pressed into service, and was clearing large chunks of debris from the area. Till the time of reporting, no casualty had been reported.

According to BRO officials, the landslide occurred due to road cutting work being carried out in Bemar area under the all-weather Char Dham road project. Commander of BRO task force SK Shrivastava said that, “We are trying to restore traffic at the national highway, but boulders and debris falling from the hill is affecting our efforts to clear the stretch. We hope that the traffic will be restored by late night. Meanwhile, we have called police to ensure safety of commuters.”

Notably on Thursday, the forest department had ordered to stop construction works at 5 locations of the Rishikesh-Gangotri national highway in Tehri district under the all-weather road project after it was found that the private firms had failed to build a concrete wall to stop the construction debris from falling into the river.

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SC issues notice to government in Char Dham Project

The Supreme Court on Friday, 15 March 2019, issued a notice to the secretary of ministry of road transport and highways (MORHT) and sought a reply on why they have violated the order of getting environmental clearance for new projects in the ongoing Char Dham road project.

The SC was hearing a contempt petition filed by activists and NGOs. The petitioners objected to the new construction work started at many sites in the 900 km long ambitious project which aims to connect the four sites of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath through and ‘all-weather road.’

The ministry has to revert to the court in the next 30 days. Sanjay Parikh, advocate of the petitioner said that the SC, earlier this year, allowed the Centre to go ahead with its ambitious Char Dham project and refused to stay the ongoing construction work. “However, it stated that any new project under the scheme must be undertaken after getting the environment (EIA) clearance”, Parikh added.

“We have filed the contempt petition in the SC last month stating that the government was grossly violating the court order, and work of tree felling and fresh slop destruction is going on in full swing on various new stretches of the Char Dham route. For instance, the stretch of NH-94 from ‘Km 76’ to ‘Km144’ untouched before the SC order, which came in January,” Parikh said.

“Now, massive tree felling activities have begun on this stretch and it is currently on,” Parikh said, adding that members of the NGO ‘Citizens for Green Doon’ also attempted to speak to the ministry regarding the issue. However, they received an unsatisfactory response.

Accordingly, while hearing the contempt petition on Friday, the SC issued notice to the MORHT to explain “how and why there is violation of the court’s order on environmental clearance in construction of the Char Dham all weather road projects.”

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Doon Students Join Worldwide Protest

Hundreds of students from various schools in Dehradun joined pupils worldwide on Friday, 15 March 219, to protest against climate change as part of the ‘FridaysForFuture’ movement. The students staged a protest inside The Doon School. Besides The Doon School, there were students from Cambrian Hall, Welham Boys, Hopetown Girls, Unison World School, and Gyanodaya Meerut who participated in the protest.

Piyush Malviya, director of public affairs, The Doon School, said, “The movement was first begun by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish school girl who bunks school and sits outside the Swedish parliament every Friday and is a Nobel Prize nominee. She claims that she will do this until Sweden makes progress towards fulfilling the Paris Agreement.”

He added that the movement has now expanded and is no longer limited to Sweden. “Students from more than 2000 cities in 123 countries protested against climate change on Friday. Spearheading the movement in Uttarakhand was The Doon School,” he said.

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