Tourists visiting Kangra valley, leave junk behind

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, June 24

Most destinations in the Kangra valley are flooded with tourists and hotels are packed to capacity.

In the absence of any check by the the state authorities, the tourists have left behind a huge chunk of plastic junk, empty liquor bottles and plastic plates, which can be seen littered in the forest, highways and villages, spoiling the clean and green environment of the valley.

Heaps of plastic covers, mineral water bottles, chips packets and silver foils can be seen in dense forests of Palampur, Baijnath and Gopalpur. It has become a matter of concern for environmentalists and residents of the areas.

During a visit to different places in upper areas of Palampur-Baijnath-Bir Billing it was , the forestlands and picnic spots were flooded with plastic items. Local NGOs, youth clubs along with their teams of volunteers were engaged in removing hundreds of empty liquor bottles and plastic junk from forests and water channels from Bundla and Kandi. In Bir, the Waste Warrior, NGO, has cleaned many forestlands in the past fortnight.

“Sustaining the biodiversity of the area is not possible without the cooperation of tourists, who lack civic sense and throw plastics items in forests, rivers and rivulets after use,” said KB Ralhan, convener of the People’s Voice, a local NGO.

However, the People Voice and the Dhauladhar Seva Samiti attribute the careless dumping of plastics items by the tourists to lethargic monitoring of officials and lack of stringent laws to deal with menace. They said the Forest Department, panchayats and civic bodies should act and fine such violators.

A cause for concern

• Heaps of plastic covers, mineral water bottles, chips packets and silver foils can be seen in dense forests of Palampur, Baijnath and Gopalpur
• It has become a matter of concern for environmentalists and residents of the areas

#himachal tourism #Tourism