People go to the lap of nature to spend time with their loved ones or to keep themselves calm and while returning, they leave a lot of garbage and dirt on the mountains. Many times there is an altercation between the locals and tourists regarding this. Be it india or nepal, switzerland or Tibet. Mountains are now known not only for their beauty, but also for piles of garbage. Especially during the summer and holiday season, when millions of tourists head towards the mountains, they leave behind plastic bottles, food packets, tissue paper, beer cans and many tons of garbage.
How much garbage do tourists leave behind?
According to a report by nypost, in a cleaning campaign conducted by the Nepali army and Unilever nepal in 2023, about 78,000 pounds (35 tons) of garbage was removed from Everest and surrounding camps. According to the report, every climber on the way to Everest leaves an average of 250 grams of garbage per day. In Fagu, Matiyana and Kharapathar of Himachal, the tourist hub of India, you will see heaps of garbage everywhere. The same is the case with the states of North East. However, sikkim is an exception to this.
A research was published in NCBI regarding the trekking region, in which it was told that every tourist leaves an average of 288 grams of garbage per day, while the national average of India is 350 grams per day. If we talk only about Manali, then according to reports, 30 to 40 tonnes of garbage is generated per day in the peak season. According to the data of 2019, 2,000 tonnes of garbage was accumulated in just two months, May and June. Overall, up to 80 lakh tonnes of garbage is generated by tourists in the Himalayan region every year, out of which lakhs of tonnes are left on the tracks alone and thousands of tonnes of garbage is wasted in hotspots like manali during the peak months.
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