Pilgrims' Plague Destroying Himalayas

That's nuts.

Then the locals are in good company judging by the impact to the mountains by the extreme climbing community - bodies, bottles, rope, etc., etc., etc., left behind......and that's from nature lovers (?)!!!!!

I'd like to urge senior editors at Treehugger to constitute a policy advising new writers to use caution and sensitivity while referring to other cultures, especially when writing about religious practices they do not quite understand.

Each year, for 2-3 months (not the entire year) about 100,000 people (not hundreds of thousands) walk a 45 kilometer distance from Pehelgam to the Amarnath cave. It is an extremely tough mountainous terrain where temperature often dips to freezing point. No vehicles are allowed on the journey, parts of which is a climb and in part you have to walk over snow over long distances.

The pilgrimage is generally made by people with no history of physical fitness and not even proper protective clothing. As one can imagine, every year some people die in the journey due to ill health, rain or slipping over the mountains. Just a few days ago some people lost their lives due to landslides.

I've had a close relative recount to me story of how he battled death on a journey when the weather turned particularly nasty. Dozens lost their lives that year. There have even been terrorist strikes at Hindu pilgrims from Kashmiri militants trained in neighboring Pakistan. The terrorist threat is still real and therefore the Indian army provides heavy security cover to pilgrims.

Yet despite the tough terrain, lack of physical fitness or proper clothing, threat of worsening weather, landslides and terrorist strikes, people continue to make the journey out of devotion.

Now, to see Treehugger refer to such a devout religious practice, which probably has no parallel anywhere in the world, as a "Plague" is honestly quite disturbing to me personally and most certainly offensive to sentiments of the people who make the journey.

It is akin to calling the Sunday mass across the United States as a "disease" because of automotive emissions it causes. Absurd as that notion may sound but if we're talking about environmental damage, emissions caused by millions of vehicles that congregate at Churches across the United States, 52 times a year massively outnumber emissions caused by a few hundred thousand that take train and buses to the pilgrimage in India 2-3 months a year.

The point is, some events should be not be viewed *solely* with the green glasses that our beloved writers at Treehugger are so fond of putting on. At least, they should also be viewed in the societal context in which they occur. Religion and faith are extremely important to the well being of a society. Completely discounting it and focusing on supposed environmental damage (no direct proof of which exists) is being extremely short sighted.

I doubt if the environmental damage can be directly attributed to pilgrimages with as much certainly as played out in the Treehugger post. The numbers just don't add up. Glacial retreat in Himalayas is largely caused by increased atmospheric temperature thanks to global warming. Everyone knows which countries are responsible for historical emissions which led to this temperature increase.

Agreed that human activity is partly responsible as well but increase in population of these states (J&K and HP) and tourism are perhaps far greater contributors than pilgrimages.

I understand that Treehugger probably doesn't have resources to invest in quality writers from India so anyone visiting here becomes an expert on the country. But I'd argue that with the kind of influence Treehugger has, there is a need for a writer based in the country who understands the region, its customs and can put forth an Indian perspective to a world turning increasingly hostile to us with no good reason.

Thank you Manu for so eloquently and peacefully expressing the thoughts and feelings that passed through my head when I read this article. I would suggest to the treehugger editorial staff an earnest self analysis of the thought process that leads to the writing and publication of articles like this on your website.This is not a trivial this was certainly not the first in this vein i have read on your website! It is indicative of a much wider and deeper hypocrisy that exists in western thought (even that of well meaning treehuggers) towards the developing world. This hypocrisy will eventually only serve to promote bitterness and distrust among the people of developing countries towards the west and will most certainly be counterproductive.

First, I'd like to thank Kimberly for a well thoughout and written article. Very OBJECTIVE. Very LOCAL.

Second, I'd like to urge TH not to get into the habit of self-censorship in some misplaced attempt to please and appease the peculiarities - even the environmentally damaging ones - of every culture and religion on the planet. Be polite - but be firmly frank, open and honest about environmental issues. As this article clearly was to me.

Third, It is honestly quite disturbing to me to see any reader of TH going out of his way to 1) confuse himself of what is actually said and meant in an article 2) try to confuse others about the message the author of the article tried to convey 3) actually misquote the author in a negative way 4) and assume that others in India automatically have confused themselves in a similar way.

On top of that, it is even more disturbing to see someone inappropriately compare the sins of an apple with the sins of beef steak. The sins of one are not directly comparable to the sins of the other, in this case. And second, even if they were, one should not say: someone from religion X should not highlight some of the negatives of religion Y unless he/she also highlights all the negatives in religion Z ( and religions/cultures A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L and so on to infinity). It is highly inapproriate for someone to say that negative this or that from religion/culture/tradition this or that should not be discussed UNLESS everyone else everywhere else is willing to own up to their and to other's negative this or that because of beliefs in this or that. I am not religious. Baptized a Catholic but definitely not Catholic. I am opposed to many things about Roman Catholicism. But I also defend the good things about Catholicism and other religions (even though I tend to militate against religious belief in general). What I do NOT do is say: Don't criticize Catholicism because of its negative stance on this issue IF you don't criticize the negative stances of this other religion of my choice. Inappropriate logic. Downright bizarre.

Point being that TH is an environmental website that specializes in environmental issues and prioritizes highlighting environmental problems - and that is how it should remain. That does not mean ignoring other issues. It means not letting those other issues obfuscate the necessary green message/news that needs to be delivered. If TH writers start putting on equally dark blue shades on top of their dark green glasses, and then on top of that they put on dark red, dark orange, dark yellow, dark purple, dark pink, dark brown, dark silver, and so on to infinity, then the messages coming from TH writers will be anything but green and may become pointless to the extreme. It would be completely short-sighted to do so. Yes, consider other issues confronting you, but don't lose sight of the ball - the environment. I am glad to see that this article takes the religious issue into consideration but does not let that issue side-track the necessary environmental message.

I am very glad to see that TH is ablle to rely on devoted, intelligent, responsible writers that overwhelmingly do high-quality work and are willing to research and write articles about environmental issues affecting the countries that they live in. I find it highly insulting to state that someone who is not from a country can not be knowledgeable about issues in that country. I have a degree in international politics and did, at one point in my life, extensive studies on the Balkan wars. I remember having extensive discussions with Serbian nationalists at the time of the Bosnian war where they were telling me that no massacres were occurring and that I had no clue of what was going on there because: you are not from there, so you don't know. I don't have to be Bosnian to know what was going on there. As a matter of fact, I would go as far as to say that in order for me to be honest about what was going there, I had to be completely REMOVED from the issue. Nevertheless, this individual not only has the gumption to imply that the author is incapable of knowing the issues and being objective, but on top of that implies that he is automatically both more knowledgeable AND objective for the simple fact that he lives in the country. I guess a researcher on Russian nukes in Harvard should keep his mouth shut and let any Russian high-school dropout lecture him or her about the intricacies of the safety of Russian nuclear installations. I'm sorry but such logic is inappropriate. Downright bizarre. The author seems more than qualified to write on this issue. Regardless of the bias some may display against her. TH is lucky to have her writing on Indian issues - whether she be writing from Canada or whether she be writing from her current location of INDIA.

I, for one, have not developed a negative opinion of India or Indians based on the inappropriate comments made by one Indian, as I know that most educated Indians will not subscribe to that logic. I have met some truly intelligent Indians (outside India of course) who were extremely competent in the fields of research they chose - even though they had nothing to do with those fields: business expert who was not and never had been a business man, Basque nationalism expert even though you guessed it, and so on.

Manu, Thanks for such thoughtful and insightful comments to this article. And your response TH????

Zee and David, thank you for supporting the objections I raised. I'm waiting for a response from TreeHugger as well. Even wrote to the editor after posting this. Haven't heard from them yet.