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Villagers in Mussoorie’s Chamasari gram sabha say unregulated muck dumping from road construction is obstructing the flow of the Rispana river
Residents warn of heightened landslide and flood risks, citing a fatal muck slide in September 2025 and unstable slopes ahead of the monsoon
The Rispana river is a key source of drinking water and groundwater recharge for parts of Dehradun
Complaints to authorities have so far resulted in limited action, with safety measures linked to future funding
It was snowing when Down To Earth (DTE) visited. The kaccha road had turned slippery due to rain and snow, making it extremely risky for vehicles to navigate the seven-kilometre stretch connecting several villages of the Chamasari gram sabha to the nearby townships of Jharipani and Barlowganj.
The road lies around 16 kilometres from Uttarakhand’s capital, Dehradun, and close to the popular tourist destination of Mussoorie.
The Barlowganj-Chamasari road links 12 villages under the Chamasari gram sabha. The other side of the road connects the gram sabha to the famous tourist spot, Sahastradhara in Dehradun. To lay the 15-kilometre road, nearly 800 trees were cut. Despite resistance from activists, work began in 2024. Villagers, whose demand for a road dated back to 2004, initially welcomed the project. A year later, that relief has turned into fear.
The soil excavated during road cutting has been dumped directly into the river Rispana.
“Our safety and movement have become an everyday challenge,” residents of Companybagh, one of the villages under the Chamasari gram sabha, told DTE.
Unattended muck turns into thick sludge during rain, making the road slippery and dangerous. “This morning, two young girls fell off a two-wheeler when there was a sudden landslip and rocks came rolling down the road. They were lucky and didn’t hurt themselves. I fractured my leg three months ago after a fall,” said Vikram Rawat, a 34-year-old resident of Companybagh.
He and his wife Deepa Rawat (30) have since shifted temporarily from Companybagh to Dehradun’s Rajiv Nagar locality.
“The reason behind the move was the daily risk of commuting on the four-kilometre-long unpaved road,” said Deepa. “I am pursuing a course in Dehradun, around 16 kilometres away. The road connecting our village to Barlowganj is extremely dangerous. The excavated soil has been dumped casually along the road. The unstable slope has increased the risk of falling stones and frequent slips. After my husband fractured his leg, we decided to move out for now.”
Daily life has become harder for others as well. “Women struggle to take livestock for grazing or bring fodder from the forest,” said Neeta Rawat, a member of the Companybagh self-help group. “The slope has been cut in such a way that muck and rainwater flow down from both sides and cover our fields.”
The anxiety among villagers is rooted in a recent tragedy. On the night of September 16, 2025, heavy rain washed muck downstream. A family in Makret village was buried. The Rispana river, which enters Dehradun’s Rajpur at Shikhar Falls, was severely damaged.
Water from the Rispana is treated at the Shehanshahi Ashram and supplies drinking water to parts of Rajpur. The river also recharges local springs, which are critical sources of drinking water and irrigation.
“It is important to restore and conserve the upper catchment,” villagers told DTE. “If the source is damaged, the impact will be felt far downstream.”
In 2023, researchers from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, led by Harinandan — now affiliated with ICFAI University Jharkhand — carried out a detailed rock slope failure analysis of the limestone slopes along the Sahastradhara–Chamasari road.
The findings, published in the journal Innovative Structure Solutions, flagged serious stability concerns linked to fractured limestone and weak gypsum infill in the slopes.
“Our findings indicate a precarious load-bearing capacity of only 100 kilonewtons,” said Kumar, one of the researchers involved in the study. “Any additional loading such as unregulated muck disposal poses an imminent risk of large-scale plane failure, where intact rock slabs could detach and slide onto the roadway, endangering lives and infrastructure.”
The study recommended the immediate installation of structural support measures at the slope toe to resist additional shear stress and reduce the risk of collapse. “There is an urgent need for geotechnical interventions in tectonically vulnerable road corridors,” Kumar added.
For some villagers, the fight to protect the river began even before the road project. In 2024, Amit Panwar and other young residents launched a campaign against sewage flowing into the Rispana. “We identified the sources of pollution and found that leachate from a garbage dump and a biomethane plant nearby was polluting the river,” Panwar said. “After raising the issue with authorities, the garbage was moved to Dehradun for processing.”
During the monsoon, two water pipelines lifting water from a natural spring for drinking and irrigation were damaged by a mudslide. Also, two water tanks remain buried under the debris. “This led to a water crisis in Companybagh, Khetwala, Simiyana, Talanigad and Badheda villages,” said the newly elected gram pradhan, Vikram Rawat.
Villagers are now calling for tree plantation to stabilise slopes, and urgent removal of muck dumped into the river. “The muck has obstructed the flow and raised the riverbed up to the bridge,” said Narendra Singh Dhanai, 54, who runs a small shop in Companybagh. “If this riverbed material is left as it is, it could be disastrous.”
Villagers say they are often criticised for demanding a road. “But isn’t access to health services, schools and hospitals a basic right?” asked Narendra Melwan, former gram pradhan of Chamasari, under whose tenure the road project was initiated.
“The people here have lived with hardship for years,” said Shiv Singh Rawat, 73. “At the same time, the community has always been vocal about conserving the river, local biodiversity and land.”
He pointed to the Rispana rejuvenation programme launched in 2017 under then chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, which included tree plantation along the river. “Our concern is the damage unmanaged muck can cause in the future,” he said.
In December 2025, Rawat registered a complaint on the Chief Minister’s portal against the contractor. “No designated dumping zone has been identified for the stretch,” he said. “Muck dumped along the road has buried Anigad, a feeder of the Rispana, along with shrubs and smaller trees. Local biodiversity has been disturbed, and the river’s head is being damaged.”
A Public Works Department team surveyed the area following the complaint and responded on 16 December, stating that road cutting was being carried out according to design and layout. It said a safety wall could be built once funds were allocated. Citing the long-term nature of the project, the complaint was closed.
Villagers say the response offers little reassurance. They are urging the authorities to identify proper dumping zones for the remaining four-kilometre stretch connecting Companybagh to Chamasari village.
From Chamasari, a six-kilometre road laid earlier, which connects the gram sabha to the popular tourist destination Sahastradhara in Dehradun, has also been damaged. Recently, they wrote to Cabinet Minister Ganesh Joshi, who, during a public grievance meeting, instructed officials to expedite repairs and address other concerns before the coming monsoon.