Amarnath or Haj, religious tourism is killing ecology

The improvement of facilities for pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath Yatra every year has the potential to take on a communal colour once again. With Mirwaiz Umar Farooq of the Hurriyat Conference (M) arguing against building permanent roads to Amarnath as these could disturb the ecological balance of the area, BJP politicians have been busy waving the freedom of religion card in a state where the majority population is Muslim and the yatra is largely a Hindu preoccupation. It is time everyone realised the damage done to the ecology due to excessive religious tourism. And it’s not about the Amarnath Yatra alone. The Haj does even more damage, with 2.5 million people converging in the same place at the same time each year. But more on that later. [caption id=“attachment_423663” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Haj: PTI[/caption] On Saturday, a civil society group comprising almost exclusively of Muslims pitched in with its own ecology arguments, and said it preferred “administrative measures to ensure good health and well-being” Amarnath pilgrims instead of building roads and cable cars. Elderly pilgrims are often unable to cope with the long trek and high altitudes of the yatra. The civil society group wants people over 70 to be screened rigorously for good health before they are allowed to head for Amarnath for a darshan of the lingam in that icy cave. This year, over 90 deaths were reported during the Amarnath yatra, and a concerned Supreme Court has constituted an expert committee to suggest ways to reduce pilgrim casualties. The report of the committee will come next month, and all this shadow-boxing is intended to ensure that the committee does not come up with recommendations that will surprise Kashmiris. In 2008, a decision to transfer 99 acres of land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board for building temporary facilities for pilgrims led to a major agitation in the Valley and six people were killed in violence in Srinagar. The state government then reversed the land transfer decision, this time leading to protests in Jammu, where the Hindu population is more substantial. As in 2008, this time too the argument being used is disturbing the fragile ecological balance of the region. Despite the communal overtones given to the Amarnath Yatra, the fact is religion, and religious tourism, is now becoming one of the biggest threats to ecology not only in Kashmir but almost everywhere else. According to the World Tourist Organisation, there are more than 300-350 million people undertaking tours with religious interest or duty as the motivation. That’s nearly 5 percent of the world’s population – a stupendous figure. In pilgrimage-conscious India, the rise of a new urban middle class with money to spend has spurred consumerist religious tourism, which is adding to ecological worries - given the sheer numbers involved. The Ganga, the holiest of Indian rivers in Hindu tradition, faces an ecological disaster of unprecedented proportions, thanks to the construction of dams, the rapacious use of river-bed sand by builders, and the religious requirement of immersing the ashes of cremated relatives in the river. According to an India Today report , the Gomukh glacier, at an elevation of 14,000 feet, which is a source of the Ganga, is an ecological nightmare, thanks to the one lakh or more tourists who do the trek every year. Says the report: “The signs of degradation are everywhere: what used to be a memorable trek through bhoj (birch) forests is now a trudge through a treeless landscape. Bhojwasa, five km before Gomukh, has lost the tree that gave it its name. The locals use the bhoj timber as fuel, despite a government ban, and trekkers use its branches as walking sticks. With no public toilets along the trek, travellers simply use any place they can.” But a much bigger ecological nightmare relates to the Haj – which millions of Muslims are enjoined to make at least once in their lifetime. A CNN report quotes Husna Ahmed, CEO of the UK-based Faith Regen Foundation, as saying that the damage is more than just the 100 million plastic water bottles discarded by pilgrims every year. “All the waste from food, all the fumes from coaches travelling around the city, all the energy used for powering local hotels, it has a significant environmental impact. And that’s before you think about the carbon footprint of all those flying in from halfway around the globe," said Ahmed. According to Imran Khan , writing on technology’s impact on Planet Earth, each Haji is responsible for emitting 2.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, assuming he travels by air for an average of 4,000 miles to get to Mecca. “This is based on 43.13 passenger miles flown per gallon of jet fuel…Typically 23.88 pounds of carbon dioxide are produced per gallon of jet fuel use. In reality, many Hajis travel a lot more than 4,000 miles and the impact of air travel is not only carbon dioxide.” Khan believes that fewer Muslims must do the Haj since Islam allows for deviations in extenuating circumstances. “I believe the health of the planet is one of such extenuating circumstance.” Al Jazeera quotes Rianne ten Veen, a Muslim environmentalist, expressing concern about the fact that many Muslims do frequent Haj trips. “Several of the people I met there asked, ‘How many times have you been? Only once?… This is my fifteenth time’.” Even the Prophet did the Haj only once. The overall point though is not about the Haj, but that the sheer growth in population and the exponential rise in religious tourism is turning out to be a major ecological hazard. Perhaps a hazard as big as industrialisation itself. CNN quotes Olav Kjorven, director of policy at the UN Development Program, thus: “Religions own up to 8 percent of the world’s habitable land and 5 percent of commercial forests; run or contribute to more than half of the world’s schools; account for up to 7 percent of all global investments and offer moral and spiritual guidance to approximately 85 percent of all people. Their active engagement on climate change is crucial if we are to realise a greener future for our planet.” It does not matter whether it is the Amarnath Yatra, or the need for an Antim Sanskar in the Ganga, or immersing thousands of non-eco-friendly Ganeshas or doing the Haj repeatedly. Religious fervour is killing ecology. Time for religious leaders to emphasise piety, rather than religious tourism. E-tourism would be a good substitute.