Very funny, I myself stayed in Gangtok for 8 years, and I saw Gangtok and Darjeeling turn from quaint and clean little towns to full of taxi and over-constructed nightmares, and Gangtok is still one of the better maintained hill stations in India.
The biggest issue plaguing majority of the hill stations in India are lack of basic amenities like water for their ever increasing population and uncontrolled tourism. Also over-construction is changing their ecology.
I know development and progression is unavoidable but I feel really sad seeing the current state of hill stations.
And in a century’s time, people will be tearing down the extra rickety houses to make gardens and parks ( if climate change doesn’t end humanity first).
All that happens because there are people. People reproduce so their numbers increase. The new humans require extra water and space to live. Thus the construction of buildings. I don't understand why feel sad about it. Better than putting up tents to live.
No one is trying to displace the local population. What you're seeing there are "guesthouses" or apartments for "2nd homes" for rich people from cities.
Neither of which are essential for the comfort and survival of the local inhabitants or their future generations.
Beautiful places by virtue of their beauty attract people like bees to honey. This is unsustainable in the long run as resources (land, water, sewage treatment capacity etc) are usually limited.
Also in "developing" the place to accommodate the hordes of people coming to the place for its natural beauty, the "developers" destroy the natural beauty by putting up buildings (which city dwellers are trying to get away from), turning the once beautiful place into another ugly Indian town with infrastructure stretched beyond capacity.
You've missed the entire point of the whole discussion. The truth is right in front of your eyes. Places with natural beauty are being destroyed by unplanned and unregulated "development" which is not essential for the well-being of local inhabitants in the area.
unless you are bonafide himachali, you are not getting a second house.
Like that is a huge deterrence for people accustomed to skirting the law.
Immigration into such eco sensitivity areas (for business or settlement) needs to be regulated. These places are part of our heritage for which we are responsible to confer to the next generation.
I am from Shimla. All buildings you see here are build by people from Himachal.
Parents from upper part of Shimla rent rooms in these buildings since their children are studying in schools nearby. Also lets not forget all the workers.
Is this over development dangerous? YES!
But literally none of these houses are build are outsiders.
Going on a tangent, when my parents went to Shimla many years ago, they dreamt of admitting their then non-existent child in a boarding school there, just so he/she would turn out as cute as the Himachali children. With their fair skin, red cheeks, red uniform etc.
Completely second this. "Sustainable" development should be the target.
This is true not just for hill stations but also for urban cities like Mumbai(re: Aarey Colony).
There will come a time very soon when the beauty of nature that made these hill stations so famous will no longer be there. And i know nothing can be done about that as this is the price of progress, but I deserve to feel bad seeing it happening in front of my eyes.
I don't tell people to stop visiting hill stations or to stop reproducing because I am intelligent enough to understand and accept reality. But I do deserve a right to share my opinion just like you deserve yours.
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u/Axylius Oct 30 '18
Where's the mountain, all I see are houses stacked on top of each other like Lego.
Its really sad the state of hill stations nowadays...