Roads should bring prosperity and modernity to remote areas. But to Uttarakhand’s mountain villages, some of them seem to have brought fear, superstition and a surge in religiosity.
Chamoli district has witnessed a sudden explosion in the popularity of a centuries-old pilgrimage, with more and more villagers joining in, having apparently been told by local priests they need to appease the gods to stem the increase in landslides and flash floods.
It’s all playing into the hands of the ruling BJP, which should instead have found itself in the dock over its governments’ reckless road projects that are a key reason behind the increased frequency of natural disasters, a local schoolteacher and some other residents claimed.
For five to six centuries, the Lok Jat Yatra (People’s Pilgrimage) in Chamoli district, usually held from August 16 to 30, had remained a local pilgrimage, drawing in about half-a-dozen villages. This year, people from at least 100 villages have already participated.
“The BJP government aggressively built or widened highways in the hills to transport artillery to the China border or monetise the state by boosting tourism and pilgrimage. It increased the incidence of landslides and other calamities,” said Naveen Nautiyal, 35, who recently gave up his marketing job with a private firm in New Delhi and returned home to Kurur village, 240km from Dehradun.
“The priests in our villages convinced the people their lives were getting more difficult because of something lacking in their religiousness,” he added.
Nand Kishore Hatwal, 70, a retired schoolteacher in village Tapod in the Joshimath area of Chamoli, seconded Nautiyal. Tapod and Kurur, 25km apart, have been among the traditional participants of the Yatra.
“Roads have been widened in recent years, which has raised the frequency of calamities. The hill people are innocent and are easily persuaded that bad things are happening because they were remiss in their religious activities,” Hatwal said.
Lok Jat Yatris carry a Nanda Devi idol from their village to Bedni Bugyal, a high-altitude meadow at the foot of Mount Nanda Devi. They bathe the idol in a holy pond, collect a holy lotus (Brahm Kamal), perform certain rituals and return home.
A larger, joint pilgrimage is held every 12th year, with the next one coming up in 2026. The Raj Jat Yatra (Royal Pilgrimage) sees devotees converge at village Noti and walk 280km to Homkund, a high-altitude glacial lake above Bedni Bugyal.
The state BJP government plans to patronise both Yatras, having spotted their electoral potential.
“It (Lok Jat Yatra) used to be organised by the villagers. But the government began providing them with police security a few years ago,” a government official in Dehradun said on the condition of anonymity.
“With both Yatras likely to grow in popularity, the government plans to take them over and organise everything, including the funds.”
According to the Himalayan Gazetteer of 1998, only 50 people participated in the Raj Jat Yatra at the time.
“Twenty years ago, only a few dozen people would reach Bedni Bugyal (Lok Jat Yatra). But over 50,000 have been doing so over the last few years. The BJP government wants to amplify this as well as the Raj Jat Yatra for electoral gain,” a local journalist, who didn’t want to be named, said.
“Going by the example of the Mahakumbh, we can be sure that the Centre will publicise the Yatras and allot funds.”
The flash flood at Tharali in Chamoli, which left at least a dozen people missing – and presumed dead by residents – came on August 22, in the middle of the Lok Jat Yatra. It boosted, rather than deterred, the pilgrimage.
“A group of 20-odd pilgrims had passed Tharali with their palanquin of the goddess two days before the flash flood. After the calamity, we thought few would continue the Yatra because all roads in a radius of about 50sqkm had been damaged. But 10 more groups of pilgrims arrived here after August 22,” Nautiyal said.
“There were 20 people in the first group that reached our village (Kurur, 20km from Tharali) but we heard that it had grown to 100 by the time they reached the adjoining Chepdo village. Apparently, someone told them the angry goddess might strike their villages, too, if they didn’t show more devotion to her.”
Hatwal, who has published folk-based literary and theatrical works, said: “(This happens because) our area is rich in oral folk culture and art but lacks real development, for instance, in the fields of education and health.”
Local people claim that Adi Shankaracharya had set up Nanda Devi temples in many villages of Chamoli while he was striving to counter the rise of Buddhism in India.
Then Garhwal king Sonpal of the Panwar dynasty repaired many of these temples at the end of the 13th century and they were renovated again in the mid-15th century. This is when the Lok Jat and Raj Jat are believed to have started.
Yogesh Gaur, a priest at the Nanda Devi temple in Kurur, said: “Members of the Kirat caste began this pilgrimage after being invaded by some groups. Eventually, the local king came to their rescue and their belief in the goddess was established.”
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami recently said his government would “look after” next year’s Raj Jat Yatra “and try to increase the involvement of the people”.
“We are trying to preserve the written literature and write more on the Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra,” he said.
“We have involved the Kumaon and Garhwal universities in this effort and asked government departments to publicise it across the world.”
While disasters like the Kedarnath flood of 2013 that killed an estimated 6,000 people have occurred earlier, too, landslides and flash floods have become much more frequent over the past few years. The landslides have tended to turn the flash floods more dangerous, making it easier for rainwater to breach barriers and sending down mud and boulders with the water.
Days before the Tharali flood, some 200 tourists and residents are feared to have died in a cloudburst-triggered flash flood in Dharali, Uttarkashi. The same day, August 5, an army camp was swept away and eight soldiers were killed in Harsil.
A defence expert said the fast transportation of heavy weapons by trucks along the border could not have happened without the all-weather highways, mostly made by widening old roads.
“Maybe landslides have increased because the hills were pared down and tunnels built, but the government had no option if it wanted to protect the borders from China,” he said.