A Tale of Two Skies

Preservation of nature and environment in India and Canada - a contrast.

A Tale of Two Skies

I’ve been trekking in the Himalayan Mountains in India since I was eight years old. From Kashmir in the west to Uttarkhand in the center and Bengal, Sikkim and Meghalaya in the east. These are stunningly beautiful mountain ranges are the highest in the world. You go through narrow mountain paths with forests rising on one side and a sheer drop thousands of feet below into raging rivers. You move from ice capped peaks and glaciers into the valley of flowers. As you walk above the clouds close to the skies, you can see birds with eye-searing sapphire-blue bodies and large wings, gliding below you.

Then there are the rivers that flow down from the mountains. I want to show you the huge mountain river systems that are critical to the climate and environment that is under attack. The Lidder River in Kashmir flows down from the Kolahoi glacier where its cobalt blue water mixes with rivers with neutral color. The Bhagirathi originates from the Gaumukh glacier at the foot of Gangotri and is a source stream of the Ganges river system. The Alaknanda emerges from the Satopanth Glacier near Badrinath and meets the Bhagirathi at Devprayag to officially form the Ganga. The Ganga (Ganges) flows downstream from Devprayag through major pilgrimage destinations like Rishikesh and Haridwar before entering the plains of Uttar Pradesh. There are numerous other rivers that crisscross the mountains like the Mandakini, Pindar, and the Alaknanda. The western part of Uttarakhand is drained by the Yamuna and its massive network of Himalayan tributaries. Then, there are the rivers of Eastern India – the Teesta in Bengal; Siang, Subansiri and the massive Brahamaputra river system that flows into India and Bangladesh from Tibet.

One of my favorites is the Saryu river that originates in the Kumaon region of Uttarkhand State near Bageshwar and flows southeast to meet the Kali River. I have spent hours watching fish swim upstream on the Saryu river. The most famous fish that swims upstream on the Saryu River is the Golden Mahseer. Known colloquially as the "Tiger of the Freshwater," it is celebrated for its incredible fighting strength and is highly sought after by sport anglers worldwide. Adult Golden Mahseer spend much of their time in the deep pools and larger sections of connected river systems. Twice a year—most notably during the pre-monsoon floods (March to June), they migrate upstream into the fast-flowing, gravel-bottomed stretches of the Saryu River to spawn. They swim upstream to find highly oxygenated, shallow, and slow-moving waters. These mountain environments are rich in clean stream substrates where their young can find abundant insect larvae and safely grow. After the spawning run and as floodwaters recede, the larger breeder fish fall back downriver.

The reason I am mentioning these rivers is that they help maintain a delicate environmental balance. The forests and trees on the slopes keep the soil firm and the plant, animal and fish life in balance. But, humans know better and across the mountains we see massive deforestation that lead to frequent landslides, destruction of roads and destruction of life. In the name of ‘development’, petty bureaucrats allow private developers into areas that should be strictly protected.

How is this delicate balance destroyed? A case in point is the mountain town of Joshimath, located in the Chamoli District of the northern state of Uttarakhand.The town of Joshimath literally sank. The phenomenon, known scientifically as land subsidence occurred when wide cracks ripped through more than 600 homes, roads, and hotels, forcing emergency evacuations. The sinking of Joshimath was not caused by a single event, but rather by a combination of unstable geology, aggressive human development, and environmental factors. Joshimath was not built on solid bedrock. Instead, it sits on loose, unconsolidated debris of a centuries-old landslide and a receding glacier. This soil is inherently loose, weak, and highly prone to shifting. It is precisely on this unstable land that heavy infrastructure and mega projects were authorized. Massive state-run infrastructure projects severely compromised the ground. Locals and experts point to the authorization and construction of a hydroelectric plant and the widening of national highways. Heavy blasting and underground tunneling for these projects punctured underground water aquifers, causing water to gush out and hollow out the earth underneath the town affecting rivers, fish and forests alike.

This area has gone through unregulated urbanization. Joshimath is a major gateway for Hindu and Sikh pilgrims heading to Badrinath and Hemkund as well as tourists traveling to the Auli ski resort. To accommodate the influx, multi-storied hotels and buildings were rapidly constructed without proper load-bearing assessments or structural planning. Significantly, the town lacks a centralized wastewater and sewage system. Over the years, domestic waste and water has constantly seeped directly into the highly permeable hillside soil, steadily liquefying and loosening the ground from within.

There are major climate change impacts. The fragile Himalayan ecosystem faces increasingly intense weather events. High-intensity rainfall and historical flash floods—such as the devastating Rishi Ganga floods—further erode the base of the slopes, accelerating the ground's downward shift. Warnings regarding an impending crisis were explicitly documented as early as 1976, which advised against heavy construction and recommended preserving the slopes. These recommendations were largely ignored for decades, culminating finally and physically in the structural collapse of Joshimath. The land subsidence and aggressive development in Joshimath and the wider Himalayan region have triggered a cascading ecological crisis, the environmental impacts of which I shall expand below.

This destruction impacts the environment, humans, animals, aquatic life, and the delicate, interconnected, fragile mountain ecosystem. The visual footprint of this crisis spans across critical geological zones, vulnerable river basins, and historical pilgrim paths in northern India. Some of the direct effects are as follows:

Hollowed-Out Aquifers: Heavy tunneling punctures deep underground aquifers. This drains vital, ancient freshwater reserves and dries up natural mountain springs.
Massive Slope Instability: Blasting for roads and dams fractures mountain bases. This triggers frequent, catastrophic landslides during monsoon seasons.
Severe Soil Erosion: Unregulated construction strips away native vegetation. Without roots to anchor the soil, heavy rains wash away fertile topsoil.
Debris Pollution: Tons of concrete, muck, and construction waste, are dumped directly into pristine mountain valleys, permanently altering the landscape.

The human impacts are terrible.
Forced Displacement: Thousands of locals have lost their ancestral homes, agricultural lands, and livelihoods, creating a class of "climate refugees."
Psychological Trauma: Families live in constant fear of sudden structural collapse, destroying community cohesion and cultural heritage.
Economic Collapse: The local economy, which relies heavily on religious pilgrimage and tourism, has suffered massively due to sporadic closures.
Loss of Clean Water: The drying up of traditional natural springs leave entire villages facing severe drinking and agricultural water shortages.
Harm to Animal Life and Habitat Fragmentation: Mega-highway corridors and dams cut through dense forests, destroying the contiguous habitats of endangered Himalayan wildlife.
Disrupted Migration Corridors: Species like the Snow Leopard, Asiatic Black Bear, and Musk Deer can no longer safely migrate across fragmented landscapes.
Noise and Stress: Constant heavy machinery operation, rock blasting, and crushing plants disrupt the breeding, nesting, and feeding patterns of wildlife.
Human-Wildlife Conflict: As forests shrink, displaced wild animals increasingly venture into human settlements for food, leading to fatal encounters.
Devastation of Fish and Aquatic Ecosystems and River Suffocation: Silt and muck from construction smother riverbeds, destroy the spawning grounds of native fish like the Golden Mahseer that I have touched upon earlier while describing spawning on the Saryu river.
Altered Water Flow: Hydroelectric dams divert and block natural river paths, drying up stretches of river and trapping fish populations in isolated pockets.
Water Temperature Spikes: Slower, dammed water warms up rapidly, depleting dissolving oxygen levels that cold-water Himalayan fish need to survive.
Disrupted Food Chains: There is loss of aquatic insects and microorganisms due to muddy, polluted water starves larger fish and water-dependent birds.

All this does is rupture the fragile Himalayan balance. The Himalayas are the youngest and the most tectonically active of the mountains in the world. Their balance is exceptionally delicate because the slopes exist in a state of dynamic equilibrium. When humans strip the slopes of forests, block torrential rivers, and drill deep tunnels, the mountains lose their natural resilience. This ecological disruption creates a vicious feedback loop with climate change. It accelerates the melting of Himalayan glaciers, increases the frequency of devastating ‘glacial lake outburst floods’ and turn predictable seasonal weather into deadly natural disasters. It is now well accepted that human activities are responsible for global warming. Human activities are also responsible for physical destruction of the environment.


I have now migrated to Canada. I am amazed at the sheer beauty of this massive country and its people. I love its millions of glacier fed lakes, its huge forests, and its Atlantic and Pacific coasts. I have developed a spiritual connection with the Rockies. I have traveled from the Glacier National Park in Montana, USA, through Waterton in southern Alberta through the prairies, to the Banff and Jasper national parks through the Columbia ice fields following the Trans-Canada Highway. While driving on the Trans-Canada highway, one can see overpasses. Normally, we would expect overpasses to be used by cars. Not these ones though. They have been specifically built to let animals move from one side of the forest to the other. These overpasses are completely green and animals are at the center of it. I sit in silence on a rock looking at the ten peaks of Moraine Lake in Banff. The snows melt into the stunning blue lake below. In the farthest peak, I see a snow avalanche slowly floating down into the azure blue lake. This is mother nature at its grandest and it is our duty to protect this priceless natural inheritance.

In sharp contrast to India, Canada preserves and protects its environment through an organized combination of federal conservation strategies,

Indigenous-led stewardship, civic action, and sustainable industry practices are followed helped by the cultures of First Nation Canadians. Because Canada contains 24% of the world’s oldest boreal forests, 20% of its freshwater, and the world's longest coastline, environmental care is viewed as both an economic priority and a cultural duty.

The primary ways Canada preserves its natural landscape include:

The Nature Strategy ("A Force of Nature"). The Canadian government has launched an aggressive $3.8 billion conservation framework built around three primary operational pillars:
Protecting Nature: Actively funding up to 14 new marine protected areas, 10 new national parks, and 15 national urban parks. This initiative aims to safely conserve 30% of Canada's land and oceans by 2030.
Building Well: Mandating that infrastructure projects work with natural infrastructure—like wetlands and forests—rather than destroying them.
Mobilizing Capital: Establishing a specialized expert task force to direct corporate and private financial tools sustainably toward long-term conservation funding.

First Nations - Indigenous-Led Conservation; First Nations communities play a critical role in safeguarding Canada’s ecosystems.
The Indigenous Guardians Program: Backed by a $230 million investment, this initiative empowers First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities to manage, monitor, and exercise ecological stewardship over their traditional territories.
Arctic Oversight: This expansion includes a dedicated Arctic Indigenous Guardians Program to preserve vulnerable northern ecosystems experiencing rapid climate shifts.

Community Actions & Citizen Science: Everyday citizens participate heavily in grass-roots environmental care through targeted daily habits and community volunteer networks.
The Protect Nature Challenge: A national framework encourages citizens to build local pollinator gardens with native wildflowers, slow down on roads for migrating wildlife, and transition to a low-waste circular economy.
Targeted Cleanups: Volunteers work with initiatives like the Ghost Gear Fund, which has successfully cleared more than 2,500 tonnes of abandoned fishing gear from coastal waters to protect marine life.
Eco-Gardening: Urban and suburban Canadians practice chemical-free sustainable gardening by utilizing organic mulching, minimizing water waste, and leaving fallen leaves to provide safe overwinter habitats for insects.

Direct Financial and Economic Evaluation: Canada actively tracks the tangible economic return of preserving pristine landscapes. Healthy ecosystems provide vital filtration and climate stability. Areas administered by Parks Canada generate an estimated $372 billion in natural benefits annually by providing free water filtration, flood mitigation, and agricultural pest management.

So, this is the tale of two skies. The sky is the same, the planet is also the same. The environment and climate know no border. Visas do not stop the wind. Preservation of nature is a duty for all of us. But, population and human greed is not evenly distributed as we see in the disasters in India where my old mountain haunts are being steadily destroyed despite laws that remain on paper. And then we see Canada where everyone, from children to seniors, actively participate in preserving an invaluable inheritance - the treasure that is Mother Nature – Gaia.


Cover Photo -- Animal Overpass on the Trans Canada Highway.