Preface--Making Hill Areas Great Places to Live

                                          Jit Kumar Gupta

Hill areas and hill settlements have always been source of  great attraction, fascination,  learning and inspiration  besides being most prized places to visit and stay in my life spanning about  79 years. Hill areas have been valued for the reasons, they  are known to be reservoir and storehouse, having abundance of natural resources, quality environment,  diverse ecology, unique bio-diversity, simplicity, walkability and wealth of flora and fauna. These natural assets are known to be crucial  and critical  for the balanced growth and  sustainable development of any community, state  and nation. However, during  journeys made to hill areas, it was observed that despite being  bestowed with enormous natural gifts,  hill  areas, due to its  sensitivity and fragility, are fast becoming  victim  of the  developmental forces generated by ever rising population, concentration of population in few settlements, rapid in-migration, uncontrolled tourism, unplanned development, haphazard urbanisation , increasing  mobility, mechanised traffic and transportation, and increasing globalisation. Under the impact of unplanned and unregulated development, majority of  natural gifts of hill areas are being diluted, muted, marginalized and destroyed.

Majority of emerging challenges can be attributed to the manner in which scarce and valuable land  resource in the hill areas  is being used,  abused, diverted, deprived/denuded of its valuable resources and being sub-divided for conversion from forest/agriculture to non-agricultural uses involving residential , commercial,  industrial, institutional, transportation and tourism. In addition, hill areas are also suffering due to  unplanned and haphazard manner in which buildings are being planned, designed and constructed,  without caring for the existing  terrain, slope, fragility, vulnerability, load bearing capacity,  flora and fauna. In addition,  irrational  and unscientific  pattern of planning, designing and creating highways have also made hill states vulnerable to soil erosion,  landslides, climate change and global warming.

Under  the  impact of  ever increasing developmental  pressure  generated during last  seven decades, hill areas  in India have  recorded rapid  population and physical growth besides increased demand for land, infrastructures, services and amenities in the hill settlements, for catering to the needs of the people and activities housed therein and large number of tourists/ visitors coming into the hill areas. It needs to be understood and appreciated that  considering fragility and sensitivity;  various development activities undertaken in hill areas, without caring, valuing and   giving due consideration to   local  resources and  prevailing eco-system, are known to adversely impact  the environment  and ecological  balance of hill areas

Considering the criticality, role, relevance and importance for humanity and communities, the natural gifts available in hill area, deserve appropriate  protection and scientific  preservation. Accordingly, hill areas need to be understood and appreciated for its strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, related to  its physical, structural, environmental, cultural and social  peculiarities before suggesting  policies and  launching programs to make then sustainable.

 Looking at the  uniqueness, peculiarities and complexities, promoting planned development of hill  settlements  and   designing & construction of sustainable  buildings in hill areas,  invariably remains challenging,  complex and intricate task,  requiring  different and distinct professional  skillsets and thorough knowledge and  understanding of the  basic structure/fabric  of the hill areas. It also requires understanding and appreciation of valuable resources, fragile environment,  diverse ecology ,bio-diversity, flora and fauna. These resources  need to be protected, preserved and promoted  along with evolving sustainable options of  making them safe against natural and manmade disasters during the process of planning and designing of hill settlements and structures.

  Despite  the fact, hill areas occupy about one-sixth of the  total geographical  land mass of the country and provide space for living and working to 10% of the total population, still India, as a, nation, does not have any dedicated course and institution  for  planning and  designing of hill settlements and   construction of buildings in hill areas. Planning  human settlements and construction of buildings in hill areas is either missing or is being offered as an optional subject in the course curricula, defined in the syllabi of architectural and engineering courses. Even literature available in the domain of planning of hill towns and designing of buildings in hill settlements in the country also remains limited, far and few which  has diluted  and marginalized the entire context of hill areas, in terms of  physical planning and architectural vocabulary. Majority of work  related to planning and designing of human settlements and  constructing buildings  in hill areas  is being done on the analogy of  plain areas of the country, which has led to creating numerous development and construction problems in hill settlements.

In order to bridge the  gap, existing in the available literature, techniques and methodologies, for planning of  human settlements  and designing/construction of buildings in hill areas, it was thought prudent that a book, exclusively dedicated to both,  sustainable development and the built environment in hills, must be brought out on priority, in order to create literature for the reference of professionals on  issues  of vulnerability prevailing in hill states and possible options to address the emerging developmental challenges. Besides  bridging the gap existing in literature available on the planning and designing of hill areas; the book is the outcome and has  genesis in detailed  and in- depth discussions held with professional architects  of state of Himachal Pradesh  to make the state and built environment safe, in the wake of  large scale damage/ destruction/havoc  cause by recent heavy rains, to the  built environment, flora& fauna,  human beings and animals, in number of  settlements falling in the hill state

Writing this book  on hill areas, was both a challenge and a difficult task because of the complexity and vastness of the subject and large variations  which exist in population, settlement structure, physical, social, economic characteristics, climate, culture, physiography, topography,  environment, ecology, resource and prevailing flora and fauna, in the hill states of India, spanning the entire North- East and North- Westen part of the nation. Considering the vastness , complexity, uniqueness, prevailing dualities and contradictions in hill areas of the country , it  was  difficult to  address the entire length, breadth and depth  of growth and development of hill areas in a holistic way, in a single document. Further, the book is based on my limited involvement, knowledge and understanding of the entire gamut of hill area planning, growth and development, which I have been able to experience/ gain/gather, during my learning the art and science of  physical planning during my studies in the course of Master’s in City and Regional Planning in the Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar;  numerous visits made to hill areas; detailed interactions held with experts  during numerous seminars and workshops, organized by the Town Planning Department  and  Architects, on the forum of Institute of Town Planners and Indian institute of Architects; presentations made in the Himachal State Institute of Public Administration and learning made during numerous interactions held with students and faculty of Architecture and Sustainable Development in Hamirpur and Nagrota Bagwan. For overcoming the challenge of limitation in the skill and knowledge of Hill areas, valuable contribution  was made by my co-author, Ar. Nand Lal Chandel, former Architect-in – Chief, Department of Architecture, Himachal Pradesh, with more than four decades of experience in Himachal,  for enriching the text, which  is gratefully acknowledged.  

 Despite limitations , effort has been made to cover the entire gamut of planning and  designing of hill settlements and defining sustainable built environment, without marginalizing the environment and ecology. In order to promote the rational  and sustainable planning  and development of hill settlements,  detailed intent, content and methodology has been defined in terms of preparing  realistic Development/Master Plans of the hill settlements and its effective implementation. Suggested framework  includes confining the development of hill town within the defined urban limits and avoiding sporadic /spread/peri-urban  development, in order to minimise the misuse of land; make  urban development compact; make cities walkable and  providing basic services cost-effective and efficient. In addition, carrying out ,land suitability analysis has been suggested for rationalizing and bringing objectivity in  urban planning, for identifying areas suitable for  urbanization in hills. Mechanism of Town Planning Scheme has been suggested as an option, to eliminate the acquisition of land and depriving farmers from their precious land resource. Scheme helps in making land owners, co-parceners/integral part of urban planning process for sharing the benefit of rapid urbanization. Book also makes a detailed  reference to the guidelines framed by The Indian Green Buildings Council, regarding making  hill cities  green, sustainable, resource/energy efficient and  generators of minimum waste beside providers of  quality living. Book also showcases the provisions put in place  for making hill cities sustainable in USA, citing the example of  hill city of Santa Rosa- California, to work as guidelines,  for  rationalizing the construction of buildings and to make it supportive of  the local environment and ecology.

 In addition to looking at the  planned and sustainable development of urban settlements, book also focuses on  providing guidelines to the architects/engineers regarding  making built environment sustainable. Book includes de,fining factors which must be valued and kept in mind while  selecting sites in hill areas for construction of buildings/location of projects along with  siting of buildings in the site plans for the architectural projects. In order to ensure that  built environment remains sustainable, book also provides detailed principles, guidelines and methodology of planning, designing and construction of buildings, including the options to be used for  making buildings sustainable , cost-effective and energy efficient over the entire life cycle of the buildings. Book also details out the example of SECMOL school  building, constructed in Leh, as a role model of sustainable, vernacular and solar passive architecture. The building  remains zero-energy and zero-waste.  In addition to looking  at the new development, book also looks at the causes which led to numerous disasters in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh and suggest options  to minimize and eliminate the chances of such disasters taking place again in  future.

Tourism , which has done more damage than good to the environment and ecology in hill areas, has been dealt specifically by providing detailed study in two distinct chapters , which underlines the need for promoting sustainable tourism in the hill states. In addition, looking at the enormous wealth of the manmade and natural heritage existing in the hill state, agenda for promoting and managing heritage based  tourism has also been included and detailed in the book. While  defining the agenda for sustainable tourism, reference has been made to the best global practices and national tourism  policy, put in place by the government of India, to make tourism rational and sustainable.

This book titled, ‘Making Hills  Great Places to Live’,  is the nineteenth  book in the series, of my  humble endeavor to make value addition to the available literature in the domain of urban planning and architecture. My earlier books focused on subjects related to healthcare, planning, architecture, environment, sustainability, shelter, heritage, land,  human settlements, Capital city of Chandigarh, Religious Capital Amritsar and Decoding SDG11. I am indebted to Institute of Town Planners India, for publishing my two books namely; Housing and Habitat Planning and Heritage Conservation and preservation, as Readers’ Volumes; Institute of Architects for publishing my book, ’Readers Volume on Housing; J K Cement for the book,’ Making Cities Great Places to Live”, Mr. N. K. Patel, President ITPI for the book, ’Sourcing Land for urban Development”; Hindu College of Planning and Architecture,  Sonipat for the book Architecture Teaching Learning -Way Forward” and Copal Publishers for printing the book- Decoding SDG11-Making Cities and Communities- livable safe , resilient and inclusive.’

 Looking at the entire context, I would like to dedicate the book, ‘Making Hills Great Places to Live ’,  to the people of hill areas; community of learned professionals, practitioners and researchers engaged in the art and science of teaching and practicing architecture and engineering; professions of architecture, physical planning, urban development, construction and policy makers involved with the growth and development of Hill areas/hill settlements in  India. I hope, contents of the book shall be critically and objectively looked into by  all the stakeholders involved in the governance, management, planning of hill settlements and designing and construction of built environment in the hill states of India, town planning  professionals , architectural fraternity faculty and researchers. Book is intended to provide an overview of existing status of Hill areas of India and problems/issues/challenges faced in the process of its growth and development, besides suggesting different options/approached for  making Hill areas role model of sustainable development. It is hoped the book will help, support and make value addition to  teaching learning of both students and the faculty in the domain of hill areas; understand the context and fine grains of hill settlements/area  with more clarity; offering enough material for researchers to look into finer elements of the hill areas to take the study forward  for effectively weaving  hill areas  in the national fabric.

 I would like to dedicate this book to the sacred memory of my mother, Late Smt. Leela Gupta who, as a teacher, made me where I stand today in my professional career, despite all odds and hardships she faced in bringing me up and educating  me to the extent possible; and to my Late father, Sh.  Ved Parkash Gupta, whose benevolence I was deprived of in my early childhood. I would be failing in my duties, if I don’t acknowledge the valuable and unqualified support, given by my wife Alka  and my children Akhil, Nikhil, Sapna, Niya and Aparna,  in this endeavor of writing and making this book a distinct reality.

December 23,  2023

                                                                                   Jit Kumar Gupta

Former Advisor, Town Planning,

                                 Punjab, Urban Planning and Urban       Development Authority, Chandigarh

.