A doom with a view: Rethinking tourism in India’s hill stations
The hills are alive with the sound of music/ With songs, they have sung for a thousand years/ The hills fill my heart with the sound of music/ My heart wants to sing every song it hears These immortal lines from the 1965 classic ‘The Sound of Music’ would surely never have been sung if Julie Andrews were visiting one of the popular hill stations in India in the summer of 2025. For the summer of 2025 has brought more than just seasonal heat to India — it has exposed a simmering crisis that’s reshaping the country’s tourism economy. From deserts to coasts, temples to tea gardens, and especially the hill stations that crown our geography, India is grappling with a question that defines its future: How much is too much? Every summer, I make it a point to visit a hill destination with my family. While I travel to exotic places around the world throughout the year as a frequent traveller, in recent years, I have started preferring Indian destinations during the summer. This shif...
