look news india
As soon as the sun starts blazing in the plains, people from entire North India including Delhi-NCR move towards the mountains. Everyone wants to spend a few days with their family in the cool valleys. But the pictures and videos that are emerging from the mountains on social media for the last few days are very scary. At some places, a 30-30 kilometer long crawling jam is visible on the roads, while at some places there is a heap of plastic waste in the lap of nature.
People are getting troubled by this traffic jam and chaos, but are still involved in the blind race. In fact, in this cycle of ‘over-tourism’ and unplanned development, the most beautiful hill stations of our country have now reached the last limit of their tolerance.
Jim Corbett wrote the real truth of the mountains 100 years ago
Exactly a hundred years ago, i.e. in the year 1926, well-known wildlife conservationist and hunter Jim Corbett had chased a man-eating leopard in the Alaknanda Valley. He wrote his famous book ‘The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’ Referring to the mountains of that period, it was written that if a devotee from the plains wants to visit Kedarnath or Badrinath, he will have to start his journey from Haridwar. At that time the entire path was very narrow, bumpy and rocky, where people had to walk barefoot for months to reach there. There were no wheels of vehicles on those roads at that time.
But today, after 100 years, the circumstances have completely changed. The journey which once took months is now completed in a week in big SUVs and on shining paved roads. For those who have a little more money, helicopter service is available, which makes the journey to Char Dham possible in just two to three days.
Statistics speak: Uttarakhand is facing more burden than its capacity
Statistics of Uttarakhand Tourism Department show that last year (in 2025) a record More than 6 crores (6,03,21,194) Tourists and pilgrims arrived. This is the biggest record so far after the formation of the state. Apart from this, around 3 to 4 crore Kanwariyas reach Haridwar and Rishikesh in the month of Sawan itself.
Just imagine, Rishikesh, which is called the yoga capital of the world, has a local population of only around 3 lakhs. When a crowd of crores suddenly reaches there, the entire infrastructure of the city falls apart like a house of cards.
6 major damages caused to mountains due to over-tourism
We can understand the serious effects that this uncontrolled crowd is having on the health of the mountains through some key points:
| problem area | Ground reality and impact (Impact on Hill Stations) |
| 1. Serious water crisis | Water consumption has increased manifold due to tourists in hotels, homestays and restaurants. The result is that local residents are left yearning for drinking water. |
| 2. Deadly pile of garbage | Plastic bottles, chip packets and disposable thermocols are scattered everywhere on trekking routes, river banks and mountain slopes, with no arrangement to process them. |
| 3. Indiscriminate cutting of trees | Forests are being cut illegally to create new hotels, shops and above all ‘parking’ space. The hills are being leveled by blasting them with dynamite. |
| 4. Danger of landslides | Due to road widening and unplanned construction, the slopes of the mountains have become extremely weak and unstable. Now even a little rain or snow melting has started causing deadly landslides. |
| 5. Backbreaking inflation for local people | Due to increase in tourism, the prices of land, rent, ration and everyday goods have started skyrocketing in the mountains. The life of the local people who are not associated with this industry has become difficult. |
| 6. Loss of culture and peace | Due to overcrowding, honking noise of vehicles, commercial nightlife and external influences, the mountains are losing their social fabric and traditional identity, which used to be their uniqueness. |
Now is the time to think…
It is absolutely true that tourism provides employment. But when this tourism reaches ‘extreme’ level without any rules, regulations and planning, then it pushes the entire area towards destruction. Today beautiful cities like Shimla, Manali, Nainital, Darjeeling and Ooty have been transformed into concrete jungles. If we do not take care now and do not respect the limits of nature, then in the future these mountains will look beautiful only in photographs, only a scene of destruction will be left on the ground.
