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Short abstract:

The paper deliberates on ecological destruction caused and awaited in the Eastern Himalayan Borderlands due to the incessant construction of mega-infrastructure projects by focussing on the everyday lives, imaginations, and experiences of the people inhabiting the region.

Long abstract:

The recent Glacial Lake Outburst flood caused due to the bursting of South Lhonak Lake led to monumental increase in water levels of the Teesta River leading to unprecedented destruction in the Eastern Himalayas regions of Sikkim and Kalimpong. Towns built on the banks of the river like Melli, Singtam, through which the National Highway 10 (NH 10) passes, saw complete destruction to life and property. In that context, this paper deliberates on the unplanned and haphazard urban infrastructure creation in the Himalayan towns along this highway, which is the only road connecting Sikkim to the rest of the country. It will look into the infrastructural intrusion in the region, which has overtime inverted the ecological balance, thereby making such infrastructural spaces more vulnerable in events of climatic extremes. As states and companies alike are using techno-fixes, to try and mitigate against a voluminous earth in revolt, the paper will focus on the everyday lives, imaginations, and experiences of the people inhabiting these mountain towns and their way of dealing with constant vulnerabilities. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork along with archival sources, the paper will engage with the working of infrastructure and its invisible effect on the ecological, climatic, and shaping of place and landscapes such as town/urban areas. Additionally, it will also focus on how the quest for ecological justice requires centring colonialism and the continuation of colonial policies by the postcolonial state to facilitate discussion on the Anthropocene in the Global South.