I have been travelling to mountains (mainly in Uttarakhand and little in Himachal Pradesh) since last 25 years. Born and brought up in Delhi, I had seen summers (April- June) extremely hot, monsoons humid (July-August) and winters (December-January) extremely cold.

First time when I went to Shimla with my friend in early nineties, it was the month of June. We started in the late evening from Delhi by bus. It was extremely hot when we boarded the bus which was of course a non-ac Himachal Pradesh Tourism bus, I don’t even remember now if there were AC buses available. At midnight when the bus stopped for a short break somewhere before Chandigarh, the weather was still hot. We had our dinner at the dhaba (hotel) and slept after that, as we were extremely tired. Early in the morning around five, I started feeling cold. I opened my eyes, looked outside the window, and could not close them again. The scene was mesmerizing – green, clean valleys, high peaceful mountains, and cool fresh air. This was a treat for eyes, heart, and lungs. When the bus reached Shimla, I was totally amazed. The place was so cold that I had to wear a sweater in the morning. It was hard to believe that in one night, the weather had changed drastically.

There were no fans in the city. Hotels, houses, restaurants, nowhere. People were mostly in sweaters, caps, shawls etc. In those times Delhi was able to manage through fans and a few coolers. I don’t remember even a single house in my neighborhood which had an air conditioner. One could see earthen pots filled with water, covered by a wet cloth and a vessel to take out water and drink. There was no ac transport, no shopping malls. Only cinema halls had air conditioners. The most popular tourist destination during summer vacations was mother/father’s maternal house in small towns or villages in the adjacent states.

Then in early 90s, the scene changed. ACs entered big cities, in few middle and upper middle-class houses. Slowly they acquired most of places and today 90% transport (metro, buses, cabs, private cars) of the city is airconditioned. ACs also made few friends such as refrigerators and water coolers/ROs. All three of them have made us their slaves. We can’t imagine our houses without them. Water coolers displaced the earthen pots from roadsides.

Air-Conditioned malls with multiplex cinemas have eaten up single screen cinema halls. Tourist destinations are no more mother/father’s maternal houses, they have shifted to hill stations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Lower middle and middle-class families of Delhi have their own air-conditioned cars. They sit in their cars, switch on the ACs and drive towards nearby hill stations where they can spend three-four days. These cars reach hill stations with their ACs. From foothill towns like Dehradun, Haldwani, Kotdwar, Zirakpur, Panchkula etc., now they are climbing lower Himalayan hill stations such as Bhimtal, Solan etc. Till here it seems that there is no problem. One would assume that once they will reach the hills, the humans will go out, roam around, relax and the ACs will take rest for few days. They don’t need to throw the cool air inside and hot air outside. They are not required at least for few days.

Unfortunately, this is not true. The problem starts a little earlier when the families start looking at the hotel booking sites and search for AC rooms. Since there is a demand so the supply has to be in place. One can easily find the ACs in lower/middle Himalayan tourist hotels/ guest houses. Even if one can manage with a fan, the normal thinking is - one has paid for the AC room, she/he should take advantage of it without bothering about its effect on the environment. For last few years, there are news of traffic jams on the roads going towards these popular destinations in hills, creating problems in the lives of the residents of the areas.

If we do not stop, this irresponsible tourism will create serious problems in the coming years not only for the people of the hills but for us as well who are living in plains. However, it doesn’t mean that one should not go and visit places, the need is to look for alternatives, park your cars in your houses, use public transport(trains/buses) to travel and reject AC rooms. If we are going to relax let our ACs also relax for some time, don’t take them along with you to the mountains. If they will continue to travel and remain with us- believe me, we will have no place on this earth to relax and enjoy.

- Ritu