How the highway to Hinduism's holiest shrines became a death trap
The Modi government ignored expert warnings and widened the roads to the Chardham in the Himalayas. The fallout is now visible on the ground.
Four of the holiest shrines for Hindus lie high up in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. Travelling to the Chardham – as the shrines are collectively called – always meant braving some risk.
But an expert committee warned in 2020 that the risk would multiply if the government went ahead with its plans to widen the existing roads into double-lane highways, which would leave the mountains unstable.
The Modi government ignored the warning.
And now, the fallout is being felt on the ground, with an increased number of landslides being reported along the Chardham route.
Over 300 km, driving between Rishikesh and Badrinath, we used a GPS app to tag the location of every landslide that we encountered. The number of landslides we recorded was startling – as were the stories of loss and damage we collected along the way.
Watch our report to find out more.
Also read: On the road to Chardham, a landslide every two kilometres
