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Searing heat in the north Indian plains is driving tens of thousands of tourists to the hill stations of Uttarakhand, causing traffic snarls on arterial roads and raising concerns that the fragile ecosystem of the mountainous regions will be harmed.
Authorities in Uttarakhand say that the pilgrim cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh and the hill stations of Mussoorie and Nainital are packed with tourists, and hotels and homestays are close to full capacity – weeks earlier than the usual peak season of mid-to-late May, when the summer traditionally peaks in north India.
Sanjay Vashist, a tourist from Kanpur said he came to Nainital with his family to escape the heat. “For last two years, we hadn’t gone anywhere due to COVID. Now as the situation improved, we decide to come here to spend some days in cool Himalayan environs,” he said.
The last weekend saw 300,000 people arrive in Haridwar and Rishikesh, which is 40% more than the average at this time of the year. In the hill stations of Mussoorie, Nainital, Tehri, Almora, and Ranikhet, this number stood at nearly 500,000 this past week.
Dinesh Chand Sah, president Nainital Hotel and Restaurant Association, said that on weekends they are getting over 90% occupancy. “These days we are having good rush of tourists. But if government brings COVID curbs, then the numbers will fall in the coming time,” he said
The heat has caused a spike in the numbers of pilgrims registering for the Char Dham Yatra, which begins May 3 and covers Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamnotri and Gangotri. As on Friday, more than 160,000 people have booked on the government registration portal and app for this year’s pilgrimage – 20% higher than last year. The Char Dham Yatra was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020.
“We have been waiting for Char Dham Yatra for two years. This year, it has come when summers are at peak. The yatra would provide relief from heat for some days. We plan to spend a fortnight in Uttarakhand,” said Delhi resident Kaushal Bharati.
Rajeev Upadhyay, from UP’s Bareilly, said, “This time with heatwave raging in the plains, I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time in the hills.”
Due to the rush, 90% of travel operators have no vehicles left to take further bookings, said Umesh Paliwal, president of Tour and Travel Association Haridwar. He said after two years, the tourism industry was witnessing tremendous response.
“We have 95% booking occupancy in dharamshalas for this weekend. Pilgrims and tourists are coming from UP, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and other states,” said Dharamshala Samiti general secretary Vikas Tiwari.
The rush was precipitated by record-breaking temperatures in the northern plains. On Friday, 28 weather stations recorded temperatures exceeding 45°C and four states – Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh – witnessed the hottest April this year since 1951. Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh are seeing their second hottest April since 1951.
The influx of tourists has jammed stretches of NH-58 and NH-72, especially on weekends, said a senior police officer in Dehradun. Commuting on the Haridwar-Rishikesh stretch or Dehradun-Rishikesh stretch is taking double the usual time, added the officer. “Due to the weekend rush, vehicular pressure results in major traffic congestion. We are making due traffic and parking arrangements and ensuring smooth passage of vehicles both inside the city and towards Dehradun, Rishikesh, Tehri, Pauri, Kotdwar, Roorkee side,” said superintendent of traffic police Rakesh Rawat.
In Rishikesh, which is among a top river rafting site, 20,000 to 25,000 adventure sport lovers arrived in Kaudiyala, Brahampuri, Shivpuri and Clubhouse rafting points.
In Haridwar, authorities are now constructing eight multistoried parking lots to deal with the rush. Currently, the city has only one parking spot near Har-ki-Pauri which caters to 800-1000 vehicles. Mussoorie is witnessing snarls several kilometres long and the absence of adequate parking facilities is forcing tourists to park their vehicles on the roadside, aggravating the problem manifold. “The traffic situation has gone from bad to worse and this is despite the construction of a one new parking facility,” said municipal board president Anuj Gupta. Hotels on Mall Road are running without adequate parking facilities, said Mitali Gupta, a resident of Mussoorie. Currently, the city can handle around 1,000 vehicles daily but the current inflow is at least double, said municipal board officials. The administration has decided to stop heavy vehicles at a spot two kilometres from the city and run a shuttle service at the charge of ₹ 50 per person to Mussoorie.
In Nainital, the situation is somewhat the same. The small hill station has half a dozen parking spots with a capacity of 5000 vehicles, while the number of tourist vehicles visiting the city is at least double that number. “In the tourist season, it has been decided to stop tourist vehicles on the Russian Bypass, eight kms before Nainital. From there tourists will be ferried to Nainital by shuttle service so that the pressure of tourist vehicles in Nainital is reduced” said Jagdish Chandra, superintendent of police (traffic) Nainital.
Dhiraj Singh Garbyal, district magistrate Nainital said, “The pressure of tourist vehicles will increase further in the coming years. In view of this, work is being done to find and develop new parking lots.”
The rush has also exacerbated environmental concerns, including that of the mountainous ecosystem, water supplies and improper disposal of plastic waste. “As tourism is a big industry, little attention is paid to environmental damage it does. Most people don’t adhere to norms on waste disposal and so many vehicles coming increases ambient air pollution levels. Before Covid, we had collected 10 tonnes of plastic waste from mountain areas near Gangotri and Yamnotri shrines,” said Anil Joshi, founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation
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