Articles by Ashwani Sharma

This article is part of our special series Environmental Sustainability & Climate Change in Tier II cities supported by Climate Trends. The colonial summer capital is taking some key steps on the energy front in its goal of becoming a green city. Presently, 67 government buildings are switching over to solar power and more than 1,000  street lights are working on solar energy. Also, dozens of city hotels are maximising their use of solar energy systems, while several residential buildings have installed photovoltaic technologies to cut down their monthly power bills. “This is our 2021-22 mission for a green city project…

In cities, flyovers and elevated walkways enable movement of vehicles and people. In the hill regions, tunnels perform the same function, as can be seen in Europe and Scandinavia. Shimla is no exception to this. “When Britishers conceptualised Shimla, they considered tunnels an important component of mobility, especially for pedestrians and built five such tunnels in the town,” says Rakesh Sharma, a retired IAS officer. “The importance of the tunnels still remains a key component of urban mobility plans in the hills”, adds Sharma, who was associated with the framing of Shimla’s Interim Development Plan (SDP), which was first finalised…

This article is part of our special series Environmental Sustainability & Climate Change in Tier II cities supported by Climate Trends. In May 2018, 51-year old Shail Bala Sharma, an Assistant Town Planner (ATP) was shot dead at Kasauli –a popular hill station and cantonment in Solan district, known for its quaint colonial buildings and landmarks. She was out to enforce a Supreme Court order to demolish half a dozen illegal constructions in the town, mainly hotels, lodges and guest houses. Hotelier Vijay Singh, whose hotel was slated for demolition, allegedly opened fire on her and the accompanying town and country…

This article is part of our special series Environmental Sustainability & Climate Change in Tier II cities supported by Climate Trends. Natural disaster triggered by unusual climate events is a way of life in Himachal. The latest incident is that of flash floods triggered by sudden heavy rainfall in Kinnaur with the IMD issuing yellow weather warnings of heavy rainfall in middle and lower hills of the state in the coming few days. Fortunately, no lives were lost. Earlier in June 2005, when the Pareechu lake in Tibet burst its banks, the loss of property, both private and public, was…

The 2018 drinking water crisis in Shimla, a horrifying time when the hill town did not get a drop of water for almost eight days, was a wake-up call both for citizens and urban planners on the need to conserve its water resources. Environmentalists had then stressed the need for putting in place an efficient water management system, not only for Shimla but for the entire hill region. “The 2018 water crisis was an opportunity that called for a response based on scientific inputs about the overall water scarcity problem in the Himalayan region and a way forward to avert…

“Despite best efforts to facilitate the state’s economic revival, the success rate is not beyond 50 per cent,” said Rajinder Guleria, advisor, Baddi-Brotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) Industries Association, “There are issues of logistics, mobility, manpower and enhancing liquidity.” For a hill state mainly dependent on its farm economy, tourism and export oriented pharmaceutical clusters, Himachal Pradesh currently stares at nearly 80 per cent loss of livelihoods, both rural and urban, especially as its mainstay, the tourism industry, is under total lockdown. The Baddi-Brotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt, Himachal’s largest industrial belt, has an annual turnover worth Rs 45,000 to 50,000 crore, and employs three…

They are a part of Shimla’s invisible corona warriors, the 260-odd sanitation workers who maintain the hill town’s 280-km sewerage network. “For the world, corona may be a novel virus, but we are exposed to infections and other health hazards every day,” says Attar Singh, a sewage worker, “though we do take due precautions to stay safe.” This, as they try and keep Shimla’s 2.3 lakh citizens safe from infections that lack of proper sewerage infrastructure and treatment can cause, including COVID (as recent news reports suggest). Thankfully, Shimla town has not had a single positive case so far. Attar…

Harshvardhan Chauhan, a-five-time MLA from Shillai, a poverty-ridden belt in the interiors of Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district, has been stuck in Shimla these last few weeks due to the lockdown. “But in a way, this has been a blessing in disguise, me being here than in my constituency,” said Chauhan. “I have been able to help 250 to 260 daily-wage earners from my constituency held-up in Shimla due to the 21-day lockdown. These poor workers have run out of money, food and other daily needs. But their problem is just not of today. The crisis is much deeper for all…

The coronavirus outbreak has hit Himachal Pradesh with a triple whammy. With the state having closed its borders before the national lockdown, the tourism industry, on which lakhs of livelihoods depend, was completely shut down. While initially just three positive cases were reported, with one death, and a manageable number of foreign returnees requiring surveillance and tracing, the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has caused a sudden increase in the number of positive cases even as health authorities scramble to trace primary and secondary contacts of those who had visited Delhi. The third whammy is the potential catastrophic disruption of…

In 2010, a 10-yr-old school girl Vipasha Srivastava, wrote a moving letter to the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court complaining about lack of recreational spaces in the state capital, Shimla. The letter triggered instant action. A Bench led by then Chief Justice Kurian Joseph (who later retired as a Supreme Court Judge) sent notices to the state’s Chief Secretary seeking answers to Vipasha’s questions. The bench termed the issues Vipasha mentioned in her letter as very important since it concerned the healthy, all-round growth of children. The Court also ordered Shimla Municipal Corporation to get funds from the…