India, May 1 -- With the onset of a scorching summer - the heatwave last month saw temperatures shoot up sharply in just a few days - popular destinations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are witnessing heavy tourist demand. This is an early surge in bookings for a Himalayan holiday. But can the mountains withstand this holiday rush? Earlier this year, euphoria following heavy snowfall had quickly turned into a nightmare for holidaymakers and locals with a traffic gridlock on narrow mountain roads awash with snow and slush.

What we are witnessing, in recurrent fashion, is not a travel boom but a systemic failure of scale. While snowfall is now rarer than in the past decades, swelling holiday crowds during long weekends, year-end break...