Preserving Dehradun's Natural Beauty: A Plea for Sustainable Development
It appears that despite many protests and suggestions by the concerned public, the leadership and planners are bent on disfiguring Dehradun and consigning it to the fate of polluted, garbage-laden, traffic-jammed cities in the name of progress. For the Dehradun valley and Mussoorie, those who came from outside to govern and administer have not kept the natural ambience and the local tradition of living with nature at the top of their guiding principles for developing the valley or the state. In fact, they seem to have neglected it altogether in the name of their version of 'progress'. This is not Doon-specific but a copy of other developing urban habitats elsewhere. It was the natives or settlers before the state was constituted who fought bravely the legal battle with the mining mafia until the Supreme Court banned extraction of limestone from our hills to produce white lime. It was the Doonites who have always been very proactive to stop the denudation of our green cover. Yet, colluding with the unscrupulous Real Estate mafia and equipped with central funds, the concretisation of Doon valley goes on.
Why this mania to provide all kinds of access to a small hill station like Mussoorie through the city of Dehradun? First, the entire Mussoorie range from Bhadraj to Cloud’s End to Everest House to Mussoorie to Landour to Bhata Ghat to Lal Tiba to Nag Tiba to Dhanaulti to Surkunda Devi to Kanatal to Nakot to Chamba and to New Tehri can be developed into a contiguous series of hill stations full of resorts, hotels, and holiday homes. The approach to these can be from Vikas Nagar, from Selakui, from Maldevta, from Narendra Nagar, etc. The potable water to these pockets can be given by lifting and treating water from the Yamuna and Ganga and various springs along the slopes of this range.
And why are the governments still carrying on with the charade that Dehradun is an interim capital? Why invest so much in a temporary capital? What happened to the much-hyped Gairsain where more than Rs 300 crores have already been invested? If all this 'anti-Doon' investment were made for Gairsain, then it would have become a fully functional capital by now and a new hill station could also have been created. And if so, why has the government not moved to Gairsain now, as it is the Summer Capital? Also, why this mad scheme of building a raised road system over Bindal and Rispana rivers and widening city roads? Is it to facilitate the economy of hospitality ventures on these routes?
To top all this plunder, the potable water scheme for the valley has been based mainly on aquifers. The lowering of subsoil water strata has caused the drying up of the natural green cover, which has been denuded in the name of progress. We have two major national rivers running in the east and west, so why could water not be lifted from there, treated, and supplied to the urban and suburban areas of the valley? We, the Doonites, are also not pleased with the much-hyped Delhi-Dehradun highway that has cut down the travel time at the loss of thousands of hundred-year-old trees in the Shivaliks. And now, again, just to cater to tourism to Mussoorie and Rishikesh, more denudation is being planned. In great angst, we plead with the authorities to leave Dehradun and take the charade of 'capital elsewhere. This is enough. I wonder why the central government is not controlling the progress of this nascent state! We get the feeling that the local government is not able to understand the uniqueness of this part of the nation, which requires very typical and innovative planning to make it the garden and orchard of the country.
Yet, instead of embracing a vision rooted in the unique geography and cultural richness of our valley, the authorities seem determined to enforce a one-size-fits-all model of urbanisation. The tragic consequence is a city steadily stripped of its essence—its verdant forests receding, clear streams reduced to polluted channels, and its once-crisp air now heavy with the fumes of unchecked traffic. The timeless Doon way of life—marked by canopied boulevards, open spaces, and a deep respect for the natural world—is being relentlessly sacrificed at the altar of mindless construction and heedless modernity.
It is high time that those entrusted with the stewardship of our valley pause for genuine introspection. True progress is surely attainable, but it demands reverence for this region’s singular heritage and an ear attuned to the lived wisdom of its people. Let us aspire to a Dehradun where advancement and preservation walk hand in hand, and where every resident may once again feel both protected and truly at home. Only then can the valley reclaim its birthright—a harmonious sanctuary of nature and community, unspoiled by the false promises of indiscriminate growth.
