India, Sept. 14 -- Before Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh as a separate state in November 2000, the late Gandhian environmentalist and Chipko movement leader Sunder Lal Bahuguna frequently visited Lucknow to caution officials about the dangers of deforestation and the environmental impacts of mega projects, such as the Tehri dam. He often visited newspaper offices with his handwritten press notes to raise awareness. The government of the plains was not seen to have a grasp of the problems of the hills.

Bahuguna rarely visited Lucknow after Uttarakhand was created. He lobbied the new state government in Dehradun, which was expected to be more sensitive to the local problems, but that was not to be. The new state government con...