Policy vs. Planet: Bureaucrats Urge Urgent Green Reforms for Himalayan States

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The Himalayan area, which has often been described as the ecological backbone of the Indian subcontinent, has become central to biodiversity sustenance, climatic pattern regulation, as well as the provision of freshwater to millions. With rising environmental degradation and developmental demands, a group of ex-Indian bureaucrats has put out an inspiring call to the central government, which is to increase the green bonus to Himalayan states to 20 percent instead of the 10% that is being paid by the current administration. Having been initially developed as a fiscal stimulus to compensate the states for keeping the ecological state and the forest cover, this is considered to be not enough anymore, given the ever-increasing challenges in the form of glacial melting, deforestation, and the frequent occurrence of natural disasters.The interference of the bureaucrats highlights the urgency of re-appraising the system of environmental governance in India and in the ecologically vulnerable areas in particular. When they state that India cannot afford the destruction of the Himalayas, it is an expression of both a strategic as well as a humanitarian issue in that the sustainability of the region should be considered related to the national security level as well as the climate resiliency.

Why Bureaucrats are Calling for Immediate Green Reforms in the Fragile Himalayan Region

This Article critically discusses the justification of the proposed increase, the ecological and socioeconomic implications of the Himalayan states, and the larger set of implications for federal policy, intergovernmental equity, and sustainable development.Bureaucrats are calling for immediate green reforms in the Himalayas due to rising climate change impacts, such as increased floods and landslides, which are worsened by deforestation and unplanned development. These reforms are needed to protect the region's fragile ecosystem, which provides vital water resources for millions and is experiencing a "new Himalayan crisis" of environmental degradation and vulnerability.

The Call for urgency

The Himalayan India states are currently faced with an ecological slip point. The latest request by over a hundred ex-civil servants has sparked a scholarly debate on the sufficiency of the so-called green bonus policy.

The Appeal
In November 2025, the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a group of 103 retired Indian bureaucrats, filed an official memorandum to the 16th Finance Commission’s Chairperson, Dr. Arvind Panagariya. The memorandum suggested that the Commission should increase the current percentage of the green bonus by 20 percent in relation to Himalayan states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Jammu & Kashmir. The bonus, which was initially designed by the 12th Finance Commission, was to be used in the form of a financial incentive to entice the states to maintain the forest covers as well as the ecological services. The previous authorities also argue that the current distribution grossly undervalues the environmental and economic costs that the states have to bear in sustaining the important mountain ecosystems of India.

Ecological Precariousness and National Impact
The emergence of the appeal is based on the growing rate of extreme weather conditions such as glacial lake outbursts, landslides, flash floods, and forest fires, which, in the last several years, have destroyed the Himalayan settlements. The bureaucrats caution that, when the Himalayas are ruined, a chain reaction of repercussions across our country can erupt, such as having the Gangetic plains soil left deserted, relying on the Himalayan rivers as the source of their irrigation and drinking water. The petition reads that India cannot spare the Himalayas from being destroyed, as this will bring to the fore the fact that the region is an absolute necessity in climate regulation, carbon absorption, and water security.

Fiscal Justice and Environmental Guardianship
The former civil servants stress that the Himalayan states are overly taxed in the fiscal system of India. In spite of their ecological stewardship, these states face the limitation of industrial growth and infrastructure development due to the fact that they have a delicate terrain. The green bonus, they say, has to be changed so that it can capture not only the opportunity cost of conservation but also the real services provided to the rest of the country through the ecosystem. The existing 10 percent cannot be adequate to alleviate such structural losses as well as to encourage sustainable development routes.

A Call for Recalibration of Policy
The request is not just a monetary one but an appeal to systematic changes in the environmental policy in India. It calls on the Finance Commission to have a more sophisticated approach to valuing ecological resources, and to formalise climate-sensitive transfer of resources using fiscal means. By anticipating the Himalayan crisis, the bureaucrats aim to re-package environmental conservation to be a national enchantment as opposed to a regional burden.

Why the Himalayas Matter?

The Himalayas are not just a geographical characteristic but a basic ecological and cultural unit of South Asia. Their conservation is important in terms of maintaining the climate, water security, and national resilience of India.

Sub-continental Keystone
The Himalayan range serves as a climatic controller to the whole Indian subcontinent. Its forested slopes and snow-covered mountains become sinks of carbon, regulators of the monsoons, and a buffer against the temperature. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) reports that the region has brought a high level of forest cover and biodiversity in India, with more than 100000 plant species and hundreds of endemic animal species being present. The Himalayas also affect the South Asian monsoon system that supports agriculture in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Any disturbance of this fragile equilibrium in the form of deforestation, glaciers, or uncontrolled building activities may have a ripple effect on food security and rural living.

Water Towers of Asia
The Himalayas are often also known as the Third Pole, because it has enormous reserves of freshwater stored in the form of glaciers, rivers, and aquifers. They are the largest sources of river systems like the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Indus that serve a population of more than 500million down the line. Climate change, coupled with the glacial melt and unpredictable patterns of precipitation, endangers the sustainability of these sources of water. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a pace that is even greater than what has been previously predicted, and this poses a threat of water shortages as well as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).

Social, Economic, and Cultural Importance
Other than that, the Himalayas have diverse indigenous communities whose means of livelihood rely on agriculture, pastoralism, and eco-tourism. These people are the guardians of the traditional ecological knowledge and practices that are sustainable. They are, however, being marginalized more as a result of their policy neglect and environmental degradation. It is also a very important spiritual and cultural region and the pilgrimage places- Kedarnath, Amarnath, and Hemkund Sahib are also visited by millions of people every year. The fact that the Himalayas' integrity would be lost would not only represent an ecological tragedy but also a cultural break.

Strategic and Geopolitical Significance
The Himalayas form the northern frontier of India, with its neighbours being China, Nepal, and Bhutan. They have natural defense and depth as they offer a strategy. But, instability brought about by climate conditions like landslides and collapsing infrastructure may undermine the security of borders and the stability of the regions. In line with this, it is not only the environmental issue that maintains the Himalayas, but also the geopolitical foresight and national sovereignty.

Difficulties of the Himalayan States

The Himalayan states face difficulties including severe environmental degradation from deforestation and climate change, leading to increased landslides and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). Although it is of great ecological importance, Himalayan states are faced with a multifaceted set of environmental, economic, and institutional problems that undermine the ability to protect fragile ecosystems in order to develop sustainably.

Climate Vulnerability and Environmental Degradation
The Himalayan states are becoming more vulnerable to all climatic hazards like the glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), unpredictable rainfall, landslides, and fire episodes in the forests. According to the record provided in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2023), glaciers in the area are receding at unprecedented speeds, threatening the availability of water in the long run and exacerbating our risky situations. Uncontrolled tourism, deforestation, and infrastructure project development, which are mostly promoted as development, have also destabilised the slopes and disturbed local ecosystems. All these pressures have left the region ecologically weak and very susceptible to climatic shocks.

Underdevelopment Barriers and Economic Disadvantages
Himalayan regions are extremely constrained in terms of industrialisation, transportation, and urbanisation due to mountainous geography as compared to the lowlands. Such limitations lead to reduced income-generating and restricted job opportunities. However, the expense of sustaining ecological services, including forest conservation and watersheds, is disproportionate. These structural disadvantages cannot be compensated by the current fiscal transfers, which include the 10% percent green bonus. This puts a paradox in this idea, as states are punished instead of compensated to be good environmental custodians, as argued by former bureaucrats.

Gaps by institutions and the neglect of the policy
The Himalayan states are facing challenges of poor institutional structure and a lack of central government focus on their policies. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been evaded or watered down, especially where the scale of the project is a large infrastructure like a hydropower dam and highway. In addition, preparation for disasters and climate adaptation has also not been funded and well incorporated into the state plans. Lack of strong intergovernmental coordination is another cause of the disjunction of the national development goals and regional ecological realities.

Social Economic Marginalisation and Migration
When put together, the cumulative impact of the environmental stress and economic stagnation has led to the outmigration of most Himalayan villages, resulting in the existence of the so-called ghost villages and the loss of traditional ecological knowledge. Women and the indigenous populations, whose common role is serving as the primary custodians of the natural resources, are the most affected by these changes. Without the specific assistance and open development patterns, the region is at risk of increasing socioeconomic disparities and destroying its cultural heritage.

Policy requirements and 20 percent Bonus

The suggestion to increase the green bonus distribution among Himalayan states to 20% instead of 10% is a part of a larger policy requirement: harmonization of fiscal transfers with ecological protection and climate security in the country.The Himalayan states face unique difficulties due to their fragile environment, which necessitates specific policies and financial support, notably a demand for a "Green Bonus," sometimes discussed as a 20 percent bonus, to compensate for their significant ecological contributions to the nation.

Re-conceptualization of Fiscal transfers by means of ecological valuation
It is ineffective that, under the current structure of the green bonus, the real ecological value of the Himalayan states remains contained in a symbolic meaning. These areas provide vital ecosystem functions of carbon capturing, hydrology, and biodiversity protection that are in the interest of the entire country. However, the traditional metrics continue to be used in determining the fiscal allocations, including population and gross domestic product, thus enhancing ecological governance. Ex-civil servants argue that the Finance Commission must use a more advanced model of valuation that contains environmental demerits as well as long-term sustainability metrics, thus making a shift to an ecologically eco-centric federalism.

International precedents and compared models
Costa Rica and Bhutan are nation-states globally that have led in payment-for-ecosystem-services (PES) schemes rewarding areas and communities that preserve watersheds and forests. The green bonus in India, which is conceptually similar, does not have the level of scale and institutional strength of these models. A 20 percent allocation would bring India towards the international best practice, and thus consolidate its climate commitments of the Paris Agreement and its national targets under the National Action Plan regarding Climate Change (NAPCC). In addition, it would indicate a transition to climate-sensitive fiscal forms of federalism, where ecological vulnerability limits the decisions on the budget.

Sustainable Development and Climate Adaptation
Green bonus augmentation is an investment that goes beyond financial compensation but is a strategic project for youth climate adaptation. The Himalayan states are faced with disproportionate risks due to the melting glaciers, landslides, and other extreme weather conditions. Such states would receive enhanced fiscal support to build resilient infrastructure, build disaster preparedness, and develop low-carbon livelihoods. It would also allow the local governance structures to have the capacity to carry out decentralized conservation programs in line with the values of participatory development and environmental justice.

Enhancing International Governmental Coherence and Hybridity
Inter-governmental equity is an even greater concern. After the deduction of their respective ecological benefits, Himalayan states have often been disproportionately transferred to lower per-capita income because of demographic and economic limitations. The balance is corrected by a recalibrated green bonus, which would contribute to the consistency between the environmental goals and financial instrumentation. It would also strengthen the constitutional requirement of cooperative federalism, thus making sure states are neither punished for environmental soundness nor disadvantaged by performing their national duties.

Conclusion

The idea to increase the green bonus introduced to the states located in the Himalayan region to twenty percent instead of ten percent is beyond merely a fiscal change; it is an ecological or a national duty. These states are custodians of the most delicate and crucial ecosystems in the Indian state, facing being burdened disproportionately with bearing bearable environmental and developmental impacts, and provide the country with part of its climate, water security, and biodiversity. These requests, pushed by retired bureaucrats, point to the need to re-establish a balance of fiscal federalism such that it embodies ecological merit and intergovernmental fairness. India can make the solutions to climate-sensitive transfers institutional to reinforce the promise of sustainable development and environmental justice. In addition, a policy change like this will enable the Himalayan communities to engage in adaptive and low-carbon development and protect national interests. Sustainability of the Himalayas as an issue should not be seen as a local priority in a time of rapidly growing climate change and environmental destabilization, but as one of the key supporting pillars to long-term sustainability and success of India.