ITANAGAR — Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said on Tuesday that the Himalayas were "at a critical juncture," and that development in the region must be guided by ecological awareness rather than driven by infrastructure targets alone.
He was speaking at the launch of a White Paper titled 'The Future of the Himalayas', released by the CP Kukreja Foundation for Design Excellence in New Delhi on the occasion of World Earth Day.
Khandu argued that ecological preservation and economic progress were not opposing goals — but that achieving both required what he called a "calibrated, middle-path approach."
He stressed that development in the Himalayan region had to be grounded in scientific assessment, responsible planning, sustainable infrastructure, community participation, and strong policy alignment.
Describing the White Paper as a "timely step," Khandu called for institutions including NITI Aayog and other stakeholders to adopt a mission-mode approach — one that embeds resilience and contextual understanding directly into decision-making frameworks.
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The White Paper paints a sobering picture of a region under mounting pressure.
It recorded a 15 to 20 per cent increase in extreme rainfall events since the 1950s, contributing to rising landslide risks and growing stress on infrastructure systems. The report frames these not as isolated incidents but as deeply interconnected challenges.
Drawing on a multidisciplinary Himalayan Roundtable, the document calls for a fundamental shift — away from project-led interventions and toward system-level planning that aligns development with watershed and basin-scale ecological processes.
It also identifies ecological carrying capacity as a non-negotiable factor in any development planning going forward.
The White Paper underlines that the Himalayas are far from an isolated geography.
Through water resources, food security, and ecological balance, the region directly affects between 1.3 and 2 billion people — making the stakes of mismanaged development global, not merely regional.
The report flags key structural gaps holding back effective governance: fragmented oversight, underutilisation of scientific data, and mounting pressure from tourism and rapid urbanisation.
Its prescription is coordinated, data-driven, and community-informed planning — built for long-term resilience rather than short-term gains.