Task Force Report - Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan ...

sectors viz., agriculture and road connectivity.
Over a period of time, it was realized that while the
development of the hill areas cannot be planned
without reference to the needs and resources of the
adjoining plains, with which its health is closely
linked, its own needs and specificities being vastly
different, planning for the IHR must stand on
a separate footing. Indeed, while the influence of
the IHR on the welfare of the plains was obliquely
appreciated, the need for harnessing its major rivers
that flow to the plains became an immediate issue
in national level planning. Subsequently, it was
felt in many quarters that if the “thinking for
the plains” continues to dictate the resource
use of the IHR, the fragile nature of the IHR
and the vulnerabilities of its people would
not be protected.
Various commissions and working groups
constituted by the Government of India and
the Planning Commission, from time to time,
recommended policy measures and programmes for
the development of IHR. They generally concur with
the view that the entire region does not constitute
a homogenous entity and variations on the basis of
terrain, climate, altitude, rainfall, topography, soil,
proximity to plains and various socio-economic
and cultural factors call for varying strategies to be
developed. For instance, the Planning Commission
of India has identified the following constraints that
affect agricultural productivity in the IHR (Table
1.4).
A review of the policy formulation at the national
level related to development of the Himalayan region
and hill areas, shows that while a consensus seemed
to be building up regarding the need for integrating
the environmental concerns of the IHR with the
development issues, this focus tends to get lost in
the context of the wide ranging recommendations
made for all sectors in the IHR. Interestingly, the
feedback from those Task Force members who
are deeply rooted in the IHR is that most of these
recommendations have remained unimplemented.
Some of the important Commissions and working
groups and their key recommendations are placed
in Annexure II. Keeping the past outcome in
mind, this Task Force has restricted itself
to a few critical concepts and interventions;
assured that if these are addressed, the rest
of the valuable recommendations of the
earlier committees will naturally follow.
Table 1.4. Region-specific Factors Responsible for Low Productivity of Agriculture in the
IHR (11 th Five Year Plan 2007-12)
Agro-climatic Region State/Parts of Region-specific Constraints
State
Western Himalayan Region-I J&K, HP, Uttarakhand Severe soil erosion, degradation due to heavy rainfall/
floods and deforestation, poor road, poor input delivery,
inadequate communication infrastructure and marketing
Eastern Himalayan Region-II
NE States, Sikkim,
Assam
Aluminium toxicity and soil acidity, soil erosion and floods,
shifting cultivation, non-availability of electricity, poor
road, poor input delivery system and communication
infrastructure
Source: Working Group on Agro-Climatic Zonal Planning. Planning Commission of India
22
Report of the Task Force