Anshu Saluja
The Himalayan belt—stretching across Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh—is today at the frontline of an ecological and social crisis. Natural disasters, once seen as occasional calamities, are now disturbingly frequent, exposing the fragility of the region and raising urgent questions about the model of development being imposed on these ecologically sensitive landscapes. Climate change and unchecked infrastructure growth, particularly driven by mass tourism and mega-projects, have combined to destabilize one of the world’s most fragile ecosystems.
The Pattern of Disasters
The past few years have been marked by an alarming rise in disasters across the Himalayan states. In January 2023, land subsidence in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, forced over 900 families from their homes after years of reckless tunneling and construction in a geologically unstable zone. Later that year, the Silkyara tunnel collapse trapped 41 workers, starkly exposing the risks of mega-projects in fragile terrain.
In 2025, the cycle of disasters intensified. Cloudbursts and flash floods devastated Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, claiming lives and wrecking homes and roads. Just weeks later, Dharali in Uttarakhand was destroyed by a catastrophic mudslide that killed more than 70 people. In Jammu & Kashmir, a cloudburst in Ramban displaced thousands, while a landslide near Vaishno Devi claimed 34 pilgrims’ lives. Even tourist hubs like Dehradun and Mussoorie were cut off for days as floods washed away roads and bridges.
These are not isolated tragedies. They illustrate how climate change—manifested in intensified monsoons, glacier retreat, and shifting weather patterns—interacts with unplanned infrastructure and mass tourism to create a deadly spiral of vulnerability in the Himalayas.
Scientific Warnings
Research has long cautioned against the reckless pursuit of development in ecologically fragile zones. A 2025 study in Frontiers in Environmental Science highlighted glacier retreat, biodiversity loss, and water stress as systemic threats undermining livelihoods and infrastructure across the Himalayas. Reports from Down to Earth show how unchecked road widening, haphazard town expansion, and unregulated tourism amplify the risks of floods, landslides, and water scarcity. The evidence is clear: the current trajectory of growth is not sustainable—it is accelerating disaster.
Ladakh’s Protests in Context
It is in this backdrop that the protests in Ladakh must be understood. In September 2025, Leh witnessed massive demonstrations demanding constitutional safeguards under the Sixth Schedule and full statehood. Led by youth and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, these protests expressed deep anxieties about mega-projects—solar farms, mining ventures, and highways—that threaten to replicate the ecological destabilization already witnessed in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
At the heart of the Ladakhi protests lies a call to protect both ecology and identity. Communities fear that large-scale projects will irreversibly damage Ladakh’s high-altitude ecosystem, already stressed by rising temperatures, glacier retreat, and water scarcity. Alongside these environmental concerns, Ladakhis worry about the erosion of their tribal and cultural heritage, with mass tourism and industrialization threatening traditional livelihoods like pastoralism and agriculture. Land alienation and loss of community control over resources remain pressing fears, particularly as external corporations eye Ladakh’s mineral and solar potential. Since its reorganization as a Union Territory in 2019, Ladakh has also faced political disempowerment, with no legislature and limited representation. The demand for Sixth Schedule safeguards reflects the desire for autonomous governance that ensures community consent in all development decisions.
Without such protections, Ladakhis fear their homeland will become another casualty of the extractive and externally driven development model imposed elsewhere in the Himalayas and in Fifth Schedule tribal areas.
A National Story of Resistance
The protests in Ladakh resonate far beyond the cold desert—they echo a nationwide story of resistance to unsustainable development.
In the Himalayas, communities have repeatedly fought back against projects that destabilize their fragile ecosystems. Joshimath’s protests in 2023 spotlighted the dangers of reckless tunneling, while the long-standing opposition to the Char Dham road-widening project highlighted its role in increasing landslide risks. Earlier, the Tehri dam movement, led by Sunderlal Bahuguna, became an emblem of anti-dam resistance. In Himachal Pradesh, villagers in Kinnaur spearheaded the “No Means No” campaign against hydropower projects threatening orchards and rivers. The Lepcha community in Sikkim has resisted dams on the Teesta to protect sacred landscapes, while in Jammu & Kashmir, locals have opposed land policies introduced after 2019, fearing ecological degradation and demographic change.
In Central India, the Dongria Kondhs of Odisha halted Vedanta’s bauxite mining in the sacred Niyamgiri hills in 2013 when Gram Sabhas rejected the project. In Chhattisgarh, Adivasis continue their struggle against coal mining in the Hasdeo Arand forests. Jharkhand’s Pathalgadi movement asserted constitutional rights under the Fifth Schedule and PESA to resist land alienation and external control.
In the North-East, mass anti-dam movements have stalled projects on the Subansiri, Siang, and Dibang rivers in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, citing displacement and ecological risks. In Meghalaya, protests highlight the devastation caused by rampant coal mining. In Nagaland and Manipur, resistance against militarization and land alienation has overlapped with demands for ecological and community rights.
Taken together, these struggles reveal that Ladakh’s unrest is part of a wider national pattern—an insistence that development must be ecologically sensitive, culturally respectful, and community-led.
A Call for Change
Ladakh’s protests should be treated not as obstruction but as a warning bell. Unless India rethinks its Himalayan development paradigm, the consequences will be catastrophic: recurrent disasters, displacement of communities, and irreversible loss of cultural and ecological heritage.
Yet alternatives exist. Community-led, climate-resilient development models—rooted in local rights, ecological sensitivity, and traditional knowledge—offer a path forward. What is required is not more mega-projects imposed from outside but a shift in vision toward a development model that prioritizes both people and the planet.
The voices rising from Ladakh are therefore not isolated dissent. They are part of a chorus across the country demanding a different kind of progress—one that safeguards fragile ecosystems while protecting the rights and identities of those who have lived in harmony with them for generations.
T Navin is an independent writer. First published in Telegraph India
