Why build more hotels when Uttarakhand could become India's skills engine

Why building educational institutions is a better path to promoting Uttarakhand than relying on unplanned tourism that is degrading its environment

In Uttarakhand, the second season of the “winter Char Dham” has just begun. This is the state government’s way of ensuring all-round religious tourism, maximising revenue from the business. Last year, about 30,000 pilgrims visited the winter abodes of the deities, which are situated in the lower reaches of the Himalayas. Just like last year, this year too, winter Char Dham will be making its contribution to the piles of garbage, much of it plastic, adorning the mountainsides and to the general environmental degradation that accompanies the business of housing and transporting pilgrims to the sacred sites. None