Healing Himalayas – Pamir Institute

Tackling Trash Atop Mountains: Sustainable Mountain Tourism

December 11, 2021 observed as International Day of Mountains has the theme of Sustainable Mountain Tourism in the first year of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. Most of our hill-top tourist hot-spots, mountaineering sites as well as hill hiking and trekking routes suffer from littering and a resultant waste management issue. Inevitably these tiny towns have a larger proportion of tourists visiting than the number of people living there and the inaccessibility of hill and mountain roads adds to the trash troubles. Not to mention the problems of resource scarcity, inflation and traffic.

The Everest is not spared from the plastic menace and littering. Many humans may not have conquered the world’s highest peak but their trash sure has dominated the previously pristine and sacred peak. That’s the case of most peaks that are being scaled.