Accepted Panels

The growth and development of urban spaces in South Asia are mired in a host of issues like corruption, informality, and bureaucratic hassles. Central to this is the point of in-betweenness that characterize all developmental projects in the region. The spatial reconfiguration of urban spaces has a concomitant impact on the landscape and the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas. From the municipality approving the building plans on contested plots without any documentary evidence to the land registration department issuing power of attorney to people without ample documents the urban spaces in Kalimpong district in the eastern Himalayas exhibit a complex admixture of formal and informal ties within the urban spaces. Within such a milieu people simply show the simple site map and then bribe the officials to get the necessary clearance. This is a classic case of administration reshuffling in South Asia, where any change in the administration and governance pattern is followed by a new wave of informality. The redrawing of administrative lines such as the formation of Kalimpong as a separate district has created a vacuum that is interstitial. Such ambiguity gives rise to newer avenues for people to explore and exploit. After the formation of the district things have changed considerably. With new actors like the DM coming in, the share in the profit has increased manifold. Now contractors have to pay different actors at different rates. It is within this context that material extraction has assumed center stage. The large-scale informality of construction is directly associated with the informality at the level of resource extraction as well. Engaging with this issue the paper looks at the complex interplay of formal, informal, and societal ties that shape the landscape within the matrix of urbanity in this hill town in Eastern Himalayas.