Red road through the snow

China’s decision to build a road to Mt Everest’s base camp, supposedly to boost tourism in the wake of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has serious ramifications for Indian security. So why is the PMO still silent on the issue?

By Suvrokamal Dutta

T he recent Chinese decision to announce its plans to construct an all-weather road to Mount Everest, keeping in mind the tourist fallout from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has raised many eyebrows internationally as well as sent ripples through the Indian establishment. It is another matter that the Prime Minister’s Office has so far maintained a stoic silence.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua recently reported that China will build a 107-km “paved highway fenced with undulating guardrails” up to the Mt Everest base camp, partly to accommodate the “green” Olympics' monumental torch run, which China says will reach the 29,035-foot summit of Everest. The 150 million yuan (US$ 20 million) project, with the road running for the most part at 5,000 metres over the mean sea level and scheduled to be completed in about four months, is designed to become part of the Tibetan tourist experience. Chinese Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng has defended his government’s audacious project, saying that it is an ambitious infrastructure venture that would greatly benefit the people in the region. “The purpose of this new infrastructure project is to make it more convenient for those who would try to make an assault on the world’s highest peak,” Sun said. Vehemently disagreeing, the World Wildlife Fund has opposed the project, stating: “Making mountain roads motorable would increase tourist activities, which would increase pollution of the fresh water sources originating from the Himalayas.” Syed Iqbal Hasnain, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and a renowned glaciologist, says that a road like the one planned by the Chinese “can completely change the ecosystem dynamics”. Describing glaciers as “super-fragile systems”, Hasnain argues that “if indirect impacts of [global] warming can be seen so dramatically, direct human intervention would be even more dangerous”.

Human rights activists also believe that the road’s construction forms part of China’s attempts to demolish Tibet’s cultural and natural heritage. Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the occupation, has described the construction projects as a “second invasion” of Tibet. Environmental activists say that the construction will increase pollution through fuel-burning, the felling of trees and the accumulation of waste, and could enhance glacial fracturing. They worry that this will add to problems already caused by the increase in the number of pilgrims and tourists to the area due to the recent opening of Beijing-Lhasa railway track, the highest rail system in the world.

Tenzin Tsultrim, head of the environment and development desk in the exiled government of Tibet in India says that “for the past 50 years, especially in Tibet, China has carried out massive development projects with complete negligence of social responsibility”.

The sudden announcement by China to construct this road is not without meaningful purpose. The reasons given by China for the construction of this road – tourism – is hardly the sole reason, nor the logic so simple. Already, China has established several military and nuclear arsenals over Tibet, and rules it with an iron hand. The free press is not allowed to enter Tibet; protests in any form are considered worth cracking down upon.

Given the quantum of opposition to the proposed highway, what is surprising is the stoic silence with which the Government of India has greeted the decision. The government seems to be ignoring, for whatever reason, the security and environmental consequences of this mega project in the highly- sensitive Everest region. The prime minister claims that China is India’s most important and economically most important neighbour. While that might be true, there is an abiding fear that he might tumble into the “Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai” trap, born of Nehruvian naivete. It is ideologically natural for the Indian Left to keep its silence on this issue. It is still expected, though, of the Congress party to take a strong line. The Bharatiya Janaya Party has criticised the Indian government, calling it “clueless about the whole development”. Former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha says that the Chinese plan “has security implications for India”. With China already refusing to acknowledge Arunachal Pradesh as being part of Indian territory, matters will become all the more complicated with the completion of this road. China would then be able to keep an elevated eye on Sikkim, West Bengal, the Northeast as well as Nepal and Bhutan. Key military and civilian installations such as oil refineries, coal-fed power stations, hydelpower plants, and military and air force bases, could all come under Chinese surveillance.