A group of retired civil servants and diplomats on Monday urged the 16th Finance Commission to compensate Himalayan states Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Uttarakhand to preserve the ecology of the region.

They urged the commission to follow up and amplify the 12th Finance Commission’s concept of a “Green Bonus” that allocated funds proportional to the steps taken by the states for ecology and sustainability.

The commission, set up in December 2023, will recommend distribution of tax revenue between the Union government and the states for a five-year period between the financial years 2026-’27 and 2030-’31.

In a letter, the Constitutional Conduct Group said that the Himalayan states face a double whammy of financial compulsions. They have limited sources of income as they do not have an industrial or manufacturing base, services sector or surplus agriculture other than some fruit crops, thereby making potential employment bleak, the group said.

“On the other hand, the cost of providing basic development to the people is much higher than that of the plains because of topographical, connectivity and climatic reasons,” the statement added.

The former bureaucrats said that despite this, the states make a non-monetary, yet vital, contribution to the “country’s wellbeing, quality of life and in sectors like agriculture, climate control, hydel power, carbon capture and tourism”.

The letter claimed that northern India and its Gangetic plain “would not survive” without the forests, the glaciers and rivers that originate from Himachal, Kashmir and Uttarakhand.

“These rivers sustain a population of almost 400 million people and are a lifeline for many cities,” the group said.

The signatories added that the states are facing the brunt of cloudbursts, flash floods, land subsidence and collapsing infrastructure.

Between 2002 and 2025, Himachal Pradesh lost 1,200 lives and suffered a loss of Rs 18,000 crores in these disasters, according to the former bureaucrats.

“The position of Uttarakhand is even more dire: in just the last ten years (as of 2022) it has recorded 18,464 ‘natural disasters’ in which 3.554 lives were lost,” they added.

The signatories to the statement include Punjab’s former Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, Delhi’s former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and former Indian Administrative Service officer Harsh Mander.

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