Impact of building regulations on Indian hill towns

Unique development pattern is evolved in response to various geo-environmental constraints which include difficult topography, complex geological structure, adverse climate and fragile ecology in Indian hill towns. These hill towns have been experiencing high pressure for development due to rapid growth, increased employment opportunities and increased tourist influx from last few decades; as a result, tremendous development has taken place in these environmentally fragile hill towns, which has drastically changed the overall environment in and around hill towns. Different building regulations are enforced to guide and regulate developmental activity in hill towns and minimise the impacts of development on fragile and attractive environment of hill towns. But, as evident from existing development these building regulations are ambiguities and fail to address challenges for development in peculiar hill context and consequently have enormous impacts on the urban environment of hill towns.This study attempts to highlight various issues of existing development pattern and existing building regulations of hill towns along with various factors responsible for building regulations. Various impacts of building regulations on urban environment of hill towns are also highlighted in this study.