Dalai Lama’s abode McLeodganj losing tourists

Lalit Mohan

Located in the lap of snow-clad Dhauladhar mountain ranges and surrounded by lush green deodar forests, the small hill station of McLeodganj at one time used to be one of the must-visit places for foreign tourists. Most of the foreigners came here to explore the Tibetan culture, attend sessions of the Dalai Lama and meditate under Tibetan monks or other spiritual centres that have come up in the area.

Located at an average elevation of 2,082 metre (6,831 feet) from the sea level and established by the British, it is today known more as an abode of the Tibetan Spiritual head — the Dalai Lama.

However, the increasing flow of tourists brought in more and more commercial activity. Lush green once, the town has slowly converted into a concrete jungle of multi-storey buildings. This month, the last three trees were felled on the Dalai Lama Temple Road in McLeodganj by a hotel owner with the authorities turning a blind eye to the violation. The trees were axed to bring up a new illegal construction.

The concretisation of McLeodganj is also proving counter-productive for the very reason for which it was done. With the mushrooming of unplanned constructions, the town is losing its charm as a spiritual tourism destination. It has brought in problems such as lack of parking places, traffic congestion and unhygienic stingy conditions to once pristine hill destination. Over the years, there has been a steep fall in the number of foreign tourists coming to McLeodganj.

Ram Swaroop, who runs a lodge on the Temple Road, which is famous among foreign tourists, said: “There has been a steep fall in the number of foreign tourists coming to McLeodganj. Most of the foreign tourists used to come from Europe seeking to explore spiritualism. However, the way the town has turned from a peaceful destination into any other tourist destination with honking cars and traffic jams being a norm, the long staying foreign tourists are gradually losing interest.”

Core area

In the old developmental maps of Dharamsala, the core area of McLeodganj extended from the main crossing of tourist spot to the Dalai Lama temple. The core was marked as an area, where the old buildings could not be altered with. The idea of keeping the core area was to protect the heritage of McLeodganj and keep construction minimum in the area in the view of Dalai Lama’s security. However, over a period of time, many illegal buildings came up here. All these buildings were illegal and their structures were neither approved by the Municipal Corporation nor the Town and Country Planning Department. At present, hardly anything has been left of the core area of McLeodganj. Most of the old buildings of the core area have been converted into multi-storey hotels.

In what seems to be an award for illegal building owners, the Town and Country Planning Department has done away with the core area of famous tourist spots. In the new development map of Dharamsala that has been notified, the core area of McLeodganj has been finished. Though the Town and Country Planning Department has finished the core area in the new developmental plan, sources said it would not help hoteliers.

The new developmental plan of Dharamsala would be implemented from the date it was published and it does not mean that the old illegal structures would become legal after it.

The owners of illegal hotels in the core area have contended that there was not even an inch of vacant land in the core area. So, if the old buildings are not legalised, there would be no use of changes in the developmental map. Since the new developmental map cannot be implemented with retrospective affect, it is unlikely to help hoteliers. It can only help them in case they demolish their old structures and construct new ones in its place. The core area of McLeodganj is now full with illegal and unsafe buildings. Seven storey buildings have been constructed in the area, whereas the construction of more than four storey buildings was banned in the area as it falls in seismically active zone.

As to who would be responsible in case of any accident and loss of life due to these illegal buildings is a question that nobody wants to answer. Will it be owners of these buildings, the authorities who allowed them to come and gave them power and water connection or the law enforcement agencies?

The retention policy

In Dharamsala, between the time period when the retention policy was announced by the previous Congress government and later struck down by the Himachal High Court, a large number of hoteliers and owners of commercial building resorted to the construction of additional floors in their buildings hoping that these would be regularised. However, all these buildings have been rendered as illegal and the authorities concerned of the Town and Country Planning Department or local Municipal Corporation authorities have initiated action against these buildings.

About 150 hotels in McLeodganj lost their power and water connections that adversely affected tourism in the area. As the news of a large number of hotels losing their power and water connections spread around, tour operators stopped taking bookings for McLeodganj with a view of not harassing tourists. The impact continues even till now. This year in April, considered to be the peak tourist season, McLeodganj had just 10 per cent occupancy in hotels.

Sanjay, a hotel owner in upper Dharamsala, said a large numbers of illegal buildings came up in their area after the retention policy was announced by the state government. The reason for that was that Sudhir Sharma, the Minister for Urban Development, represented Dharamsala and authorities were soft on violators. The then Municipal Commissioner had initiated action against the owners of some illegal building by disconnecting their water and power connections. However, he was transferred out. The powers of the Dharamsala MC Commissioner for taking penal action against the owners of illegal buildings were also transferred to the Town and Country Planning Department that led to more illegal hotels coming up in the area, he said.

Sanjay Sharma, a resident from Dharamsala, said illegal constructions were encouraged by those in power in the previous government and now, people are being made to suffer. Some floors were added to a building right next to the office of Dharamsala Municipal Corporation building and an illegal hotel was constructed there. However, no action was taken against the person running the hotel, he said.

Sources in the Town and Country Planning Department said after the High Court scrapped the amendment to the Town and Country Planning Act, most of the buildings that were to be regularised became illegal. Under the existing provisions of the Municipal Corporation Act, the buildings that have deviated 10 per cent from the original map can be regularised after compounding (imposition of fine) by the Municipal Commissioner.

However, buildings that had a deviation of more than that were liable for demolition. The affected hoteliers are now looking for legal options to escape the situation. Sources said a proposal had been mooted for the owners of illegal hotels to register up to six rooms under the Bed and Breakfast scheme of the Union Tourism Ministry. However, to register under this scheme, hoteliers would have to give an undertaking that they would not carry out any commercial activity on the premises besides renting out six rooms. It remains to be seen if hoteliers opt for this scheme.

History of McLeodganj

• In March 1850, the area was annexed by the British after the second Anglo-Sikh War. After annexation, it became a cantonment for the British troops stationed at Kangra. The cantonment was established on the slopes of Dhauladhar mountain ranges.
• During the British rule in India, the town was a hill station, where the British visited during the summer season. A cantonment was established in Dharamsala in 1849. In 1852 Dharamsala became the administrative capital of Kangra district.
• By 1855, it had two important places of civilian settlement, McLeodganj and Forsythganj, named after a Divisional Commissioner posted in the region at that time. In 1860, the 66th Gurkha Light Infantry, later renamed the historic 1st Gurkha Rifles, was moved to Dharamsala. Soon, 14 Gurkha paltan villages were established nearby and the Gurkhas patronised the ancient Shiva temple of Bhagsunath.
• Lord Elgin, the British Viceroy of India (1862–63), liked the area so much that at one point, he suggested that it be made the summer capital of India. He died in Dharamsala while on a tour there on November 20, 1863, and lies buried at the St. John Church in the wilderness at Forsythganj, just below McLeodganj. His summer residence, Mortimer House, became a part of the private estate of Lala Basheshar Nath of Lahore and was acquired by the government of India to house the official residence of the Dalai Lama. 
• The twin towns of Forsythganj and Mcleodganj kept growing steadily in the coming years and by 1904 became important centres of trade, commerce and official work of Kangra district. Much of the town was destroyed by the devastating 7.8 magnitude 1905 Kangra earthquake on April 4, 1905. About 19,800 people were killed and thousands were injured in the Kangra area.
• The earthquake destroyed most buildings in Kangra, Dharamsala, and McLeodganj, including the Bhagsunag Temple. Thereafter, the district headquarters was shifted to a lower spot, and the town waited another half century before anything significant transpired in its history.
• In March 1959, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled to India after the failed uprising in 1959 in Tibet against China. The Indian government offered him refuge in Dharamsala, where he set up the Government of Tibet-in-exile in 1960, while McLeodganj became his official residence and also home to several Buddhist monasteries and thousands of Tibetan refugees. Over the years, McLeodganj evolved into an important tourist and pilgrimage destination and has since grown substantially in population.

Action fast shifting to Bir Billing

With McLeodganj getting plagued by traffic jams, poor hygiene and poor roads over the years, the tourism from the area has started shifting towards Bir Billing, the world famous paragliding site. Many tourists are now going directly to Bir due to less traffic congestion and paragliding option.

EXPERTSPEAK

‘Not following IS code 1893 disastrous’

McLeodganj is located on a very fragile litho logo and is always under compressional stress due to its location between two major tectonic features. The presence of almost north-south transverse faults near Bhagsu and trending fault crossing the McLeodganj city further increases the risk. Under such conditions, having high-rise buildings without following the Indian seismic (IS) code 1893 and any information on litho logo will be very disastrous if an earthquake occurs in the region. It is well known that Kangra region is under high stress due to continuous convergence of Himalayan region. It is important to focus on disaster resilient structures rather than increasing the risk in the region. McLeodganj is a place of tourist attraction and have daily influx of very high tourist population with very narrow road network. Rescue operation, in any case, would be a disaster. So, it is important that we make the public and hoteliers aware. Dr AK Mahajan, A geologist, professor at environment sciences department, CUHP

‘Hotel discounts even in peak season’

It is a fact that tourism in Dharamsala is going down. This year, the hotels are being forced to offer discounts even in peak season in Dharamsala that illustrates that things are not moving in the right direction. Since the hotel industry was the biggest employer in the Dharamsala region, the government should form a policy for the promotion of tourism in the area that should be implemented in a planned manner. Sanjeev Gandhi, General secretary, Hotel Association of Dharamsala

‘More tourist attractions needed’

Poor infrastructure in the form of lack of parking places and roads ails tourism in McLeodganj. Another aspect is that there is no place in McLeodganj where tourists coming here can spend some leisure time. There are no parks or places, where people can go. They come here and have just two roads to roam about. The government should develop certain places, where tourists can spend some time. Dr Akshay Runchal, Member of one of the oldest families of McLeodganj

‘Individual, collective greed likely to cost dear’

The fragility of our denuded hillsides groan under the weight of illegally built, multi-storey hotels. Desecration of our forests with decimation of trees, illegal structures and massive amounts of dumping further adds to the woes. Inadequate garbage collection and the increasing number of bore wells cause groundwater levels to drop. Unrestricted movement of cars to scenic sites and the excavation of partial or entire hillside are turning many areas in McLeodganj into an eyesore. If no immediate action is taken, climate change, which is already unleashing its devastation on each continent, and the mass extinction of species, which may ultimately include humans, is well under way. Our individual and collective greed is now likely to lead to our deaths, and of our world in all its natural, fragile beauty. If we truly believe that we are all part of the web of life, then there is no denying that our species is tearing it to shreds. Gazalla Abdullah, An environment activist