In the scenic hill town of Lansdowne – where the friendly Whistling Thrush hops down the road, always a few annoying steps ahead of you; colourful butterflies hover around brilliant blue hydrangeas and Army officers sometimes spot leopards when driving late from parties – there is something that you will seldom see. Locals take pride in the fact that there is no garbage blowing in the breeze, nor any empty wafer packets dumped between the daisies or even disposable plastic glasses floating in the drains. In the small but neat marketplace, the friendly Garhwali bhulla will hand out your jalebi’s and samosas in newspaper bags. And if you happen to run into school kids, the excitement will most likely be about the saplings they have planted to make sure their town stays as green as it has always been.
No wonder then that the prestigious Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar was awarded to the Garhwal Rifles Regimental Centre earlier this year for the environmental protection and water management of Lansdowne. This recognises Lansdowne, situated at 1800 m, in the Pauri Garhwal region of Uttaranchal, as one of the most environment friendly towns of the country. The GRRC has put in a lot of effort and energy to make the cantonment a place environmentalists and nature lovers can well be proud of. While the rest of the country is getting dirtier by the day, this is one hill station where the air has got cleaner, the water bodies have increased and the flora and fauna have multiplied.
“This has been the result of years of consistent planning, implementation and close collaboration with the civilian population,” says GRRC Commandant Brigadier Ajai Prakash taking the award with a pinch of salt. Not only has the Army constructed a beautiful pond with boating and picnic facilities and populated it with dozens of noisy ducks in the hill town where water was once a scarcity; they have also done some extensive tree plantation on the surrounding slopes making them greener than they were a few decades back. “When we drive up to Lansdowne, it is such a pleasure to see hills that were barren during our college days now green with pines,” says Sushi Bight, 61, who came back to her native place after spending 40 years across the country travelling as an Army wife. “The credit goes to the Garhwal Rifles for taking it up as a challenge and every new Commandant has just carried on with the good work started by the previous one," she says.
A multi-pronged project was planned and undertaken by the Centre in the field of environment protection in the year 1999 and executed in subsequent years. This included control of pollution, conservation of natural resources, creating awareness about local flora and fauna, reasons for wildlife conservation and rain water harvesting. Awareness campaigns have consistently been undertaken to involve the local people, recruits and children in conservation efforts. This is done through seminars, drawing competitions for school children and publication of literature.
Rain water resources have been augmented by construction of numerous check dams and digging of water trenches on hill slopes. Rain water harvesting has also been made compulsory in all new constructions. This has considerably raised the ground water table. Bans on hunting, burning dry leaves and cutting trees have strictly been implemented. Afforestation has been actively taken up by planting green oak trees which conserve water. New nurseries have been created and soil erosion has been checked by construction of stone walls and creation of small ecological parks.
As for the local people, they have always followed an environment friendly way of life. Over the years children have walked to school, now as grown ups, most of them walk to work. And many of their children still walk to school. Others take the school bus. There are hardly any instances of parents dropping children in their own conveyance. Individual cars are few and even these are mostly used for travelling longer distances. Trees ranging from the tangy hill fruit kafal, pine and oak to rhododendron line up the roadsides. The results have been there for all to see. Forest cover in the region has increased, while planting of green oak and rhododendron has raised the water table. The perpetual water scarcity during summer months has partially been. The yield of the natural springs has remained almost constant, even during summers. There has been a visible increase in wild life. Brig Ajai Prakash says this has been possible because of the Army's extensive interaction with the local people. “We interact regularly with school children, women and local shopkeepers educating them about basic things like the ill effects of using polythene, improper waste disposal and dangers of deforestation. For children we hold tree plantation drives. As for the shopkeepers, eventually the threat of a hefty fine works the best,” smiles the Commandant.
Civilians have actively participated in the Army's campaign declaring the Cantonment as a No Polythene zone. Regular ‘Sharman’ by Army personnel has helped keep it clear of all non bio-degradable waste. Ban on burning of dry leaves and burying them in pits has led to improvement in humus content of the soil.
“Most of us go for a walk in the evening, we go vegetable shopping on foot and, of course, we all walk to the Ram Lila ground in October,” says retd Col Y S Rawat, who gave up his Delhi flat to move back into his beautiful ancestral house in Lansdowne. “Lansdowne is like heaven, and we hope that it will stay this way,” he says. Amen to that!
