Articles by Ashwani Sharma

Ignored and untapped till now, the potential of solar energy to power Shimla and other urban centres is being realised only now .

Maintenance of its British-era tunnels and creation of new ones could be effective solutions to mobility challenges in the hill town. But clearly, government priorities lie elsewhere.

As per official estimates, there are more than 31,000 unauthorised buildings in major hill towns in Himachal Pradesh, with Shimla constituting 30 per cent of these.

Extreme weather events triggered by climate change pose huge risk to life in Himachal Pradesh. To mitigate these risks, the state is now all set to install a first-of-its-kind automatic ‘Early Warning System’ in Kullu district.

With the hill town shut, the administration was able to introduce better water conservation systems and improve operational efficiencies. What can other ULBs in the region learn from it?

Himachal Pradesh has seen nearly 80 per cent loss of livelihoods, both rural and urban. The government is now pinning hopes on opening up construction and other infrastructure projects.

For the past six weeks, Shimla’s 260 odd sanitation workers are putting in extra hours to clean and maintain sewerage lines, hoping to keep its 2.3 lakh citizens safe from infection.

Sirmauris, as natives from Shillai are known, have been living for years in Shimla working as porters, tourist guides, taxi drivers, private security and waiters. So have the roughly 8000 porters from Kashmir. But none of them have faced such a financial crisis ever before, unable to meet even their basic food needs.

The worry among Himachal’s fruit growers is not just that the coronavirus lockdown will affect the apple orchards, but also the farms growing cherries, pomegranate and green almonds, all of which normally hit the market in July-August.

In the once-green British-era hill town of Shimla, unplanned urbanisation and construction have gobbled up most of the parks and grounds that children used to play in. Thankfully, there is a strong citizen-led movement that may force the government to take action to reverse this.

Even as it celebrates the centenary of its creation, Shimla’s iconic natural ice skating Rink seems to be dying a slow death, primarily due to environmental changes and unplanned urbanisation in its surroundings.

For decades, Dharamshala’s only claim to fame was as the home of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. A recent spurt of growth and the tag of ‘smart city’ has seen the town aiming to emerge as one of the best business and tourist destinations in India. Can it succeed?