Development and disasters often go hand in hand. This year’s monsoon havoc in the Himalayan states and landslides in the Western Ghats indicate that the development models adopted in mountainous and hilly regions across India are flawed. It is against this backdrop that the unrest in Ladakh, aimed at special protection for this ecologically fragile border region, can be viewed.

Ladakh has witnessed the damage that mining, tourism, unplanned urbanisation and infrastructure development have wrought in neighbouring mountainous terrains. So, without going into the merits of the crackdown on the protestors in Leh on September 24, let’s consider their argument.

Ladakh is a cold desert, home to life-giving glaciers and highly susceptible to climate change. Already vulnerable to flash floods and landslides, it cannot afford large-scale anthropogenic intrusion that could further destabilise the ecological balance.

Fears of a nationalist project of development that foregrounds tourism, cash crops, mining, energy and infrastructure at the cost of traditional agriculture and local livelihoods are very real. Nowhere in the country have efforts towards an environmentally sustainable and culturally appropriate development model proved successful.

For example, the proposal for a 13-GW solar plant, spread over 80 sq km in Pang, and surveys of Ladakh’s mineral reserves have raised concerns about changes in land use and the consequent impact on the traditional mainstays of agriculture and herding. The Pang project threatens the traditional pastures of the Pashmina goats.

Tourism has grown rapidly, reaching a peak of 525,000 visitors in 2023, which fell to 375,000 in 2024 due to civil unrest. Even so, this is more than the entire population of the region, estimated at around 300,000. Uttarakhand recorded a similar trend, with 60........

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