What made for a delightful sight, at the entrance of Tholang village in Lahaul valley was to see a few villagers, mostly Lahauli men perform their daily ritual of sipping a cup or two of chai at the tea stall, or stopping by for a chat en route to their fields. This also seemed like a perfect setting to discuss a few questions buzzing in our heads- mainly to understand the Lahauli perception across different generations on progress, modernization, identity, so on and so forth. The young and middle aged Lahauli men present there insisted that if we wish to get a deeper perspective, better if we direct our questions- pointing to a man in his 70’s, a retired Colonel, to which the Colonel responded hesitatingly, “main kya baatonga?” (What will I tell?), to which the young men enthusiastically responded in chorus; “aap kaise nahi bata payenge?” (How will you not be able to tell?)
Seated on a plastic chair and making himself further comfortable, the Colonel realised that escaping the situation was not a probable option anymore. So, he began with his bit of sharing. “From times immemorial, willow trees (colloquially known as beli) have been synomous with the identity of Lahauli’s, but since last 4 to 5 years, they have started drying up. This is a very unusual phenomena as they have stood firm and blossomed in all their glory for ages.” Everyone present there, agreed. At this point, the younger ones present took over the conversation. Interestingly, for the younger lot, the arrival of mosquitoes in the valley was another significant indicator of change, courtesy the rising temperature. With more additions, the list only got longer. Changes being percieved and experienced through receding glaciers, erratic snowfall, shortage of water, off season vegetables, apple trees, hydropower projects, outmigration, and changes the much awaited tunnel linking Manali and Lahaul will intiate. Curious about their opinions on the tunnel, we gathered our guts and decided to strum the sensitive chord- the tunnel and its implications for Lahual, both positive and negative. It was just a matter of a few seconds that we put forth the question, a young lahauli, likely to be in his mid 20’s, earlier sitting at a distance from the tea stall stepped forward, and responded defensively. “Tell me, how long it did take you to cross the Rohtang Pass?” Glad to find ourselves in that discomforting situation, we answered, “hmmm, in total about 5 hours from Manali.” The others from the group, in agreement with the young guy’s opinion, added, “So you see, the 9km long tunnel will save you all that trouble, and apart that will boost the economy of Lahaul.” In the corner, much observant, with a Colonel like poise maintained throughout the discussion, sensed the situation getting a bit tense, and interuppted, “dekho ji, chaar aane nuksaan, aur baara aane faydaa hoga. Of course, the tunnel will make Lahaul more accessible, which means pouring in of different kinds of people. Outsiders might think of settling in here too. Right now, we leave for our fields without locking our houses, and the idea of theft is quite alien to Lahauli’s. The tunnel will change all of this.”
As usual, on realising that we had transgressed from “hydropower project”, the focal point of our study, we shared that our conversations with people in villages affected by proposed hydropower projects across Lahaul valley was what got us to Tholang. Traversing through different belts of the valley with the idea of preparing a status report of hydropower affected villages, people’s perceptions and possible concerns, for us, Tholang was just another village with a bunch of determined Lahauli’s staunchly in opposition to the hydros. Of course, concerns were looming large on people’s faces, but their determination to not let go off their agricultural land, and asserting their right over water no matter how high the compensation offered, was quite commendable. The enthusiasm we experienced in this part of the valley (patan valley) was drastically different from the feeling of hopelessness we felt in Miyar valley, where families/ individuals having accepted the compensation believe they have axed their own feet. More so, they feel cheated. As Virender (name changed) in Ghari village of Miyar valley remorsefully shared, “They took NOCs without our knowledge, acquired our land, promised a hospital, school, effective water connection, employment and many other things. Our demands and objections remained only on paper. Our valley is prone to cloudburst, and the 2002 and 2011 cloud burst caused massive damage. Having a dam close to our houses and fields would only worsen the situation.” But for people in Tholang, giving the hydro company officials a tough time tops their agenda. “We did not even let Mosar Baer survey our area. The Managing Director and contractors of Mosar Baer tried convincing the villagers for an NOC at least thrice but in vain.” confidently declared the men of Tholang.
A villager plucking peas at village Urgos in Miyar valley
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