Two stories in this issue of TerraGreen examine the development challenges in the state of Uttarakhand.

The first story, “The Ghost Villages of Uttarakhand: The Need for Rehabilitation” brings out the geographical skewness in the development that came in the wake of the formation of Uttarakhand state. The tax holiday plan offered by the Government of India to incentivize location of industrial units in Uttarakhand resulted in attracting sizeable investments into the districts in the plains—Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. However, per capita income in the hills is only half of that in the plains.  One of the unfortunate corollaries of limited employment and income generating opportunities in the hills has been a mass exodus. For many decades, if not centuries, menfolk from hill districts moved to the plains for more lucrative employment opportunities, and hill districts were described as a money-order economy because a very large fraction of the expenditure in these districts was dependent on remittances from hill folk working in the plains.  In recent years however, it is not just menfolk, but entire populations who are moving out of villages in the hill state.  Over 1,000 villages are completely depopulated in the state—leading to what the author calls the 'ghost villages'—where housing infrastructure still remains, but without those who once occupied it.

The necessity of adequate income generating opportunities, and more importantly of adequate infrastructure (especially roads, and electricity distribution and cellular networks) is highlighted by this dynamic of abandoned villages. The broadening in the distribution of development benefits is therefore a key concern.  There has been an unfortunate focus on a few geographic regions where industrial activity is based, or tourism is concentrated or hydroelectricity projects are located.  As the special report on “Uttarakhand’s Battling Interests: Time for Change” in this issue brings out, this has led to zones of high environmental stress, where addition of new economic and employment opportunities now occurs only at a high environmental costs. This, therefore, is the other side of the coin—'overdevelopment' in some geographic zone, accompanying 'non-development' in other geographical zones. This is a serious issue and one that needs social and political attention, apart from economic planning.  It signals the need for a massive rethink of development strategies and priorities.