Maybe there's a punny solution to the Himalayas' rubbish problem
Updated
Strewn along the Himalayas' most iconic road is a sad litany of trash.
"Piles of rubbish," says Canadian cyclist Walter Dumont of the bottles, cans, glass, plastic and other debris that adorn the roadsides of the 500-kilometre Manali-Leh Highway.
"And you wonder who, how and why is it there?" Mr Dumont asks rhetorically, at a picturesque campsite along the route.
The sight of the majestic mountain landscape blighted by trash saddens him.
"For such a beautiful backdrop setting, you hate to see that," he says.
As a regular Asian traveller, he rationalises.
"It's hard on us, to my values anyway, but I also understand a lot of the people living up in the hills here have a very hard life and that [litter] is probably low on their priority," he says.
The Manali-Leh Highway is torturous ribbon of broken tarmac and gravel, snaking its way through the lower Himalayas up into Ladakh, a heavily Tibetan-influenced region of India's northern border with China.
But for Ladakhis who depend on visitors like Mr Dumont, rubbish is a risk they can't afford to ignore.
"If we don't keep our environment clean, we may lose our tourism sector," warned community organiser Padma Sethi, while supervising a roadside clean-up just outside Ladakh's capital, Leh.
The area's remoteness means there is little in the way of facilities or services.
Indian travellers along the route tell the ABC that wanton discarding of rubbish is a cultural problem, not an economic one.
"People need to be educated about how to keep your places clean," said Rakshit Dikshit, a motorcyclist from Bangalore, travelling the road with two friends.
Authorities say that is happening, and suggest they may soon deploy a new tactic.
"The children are being educated," said Colonel CK Awasthi from the Indian Army's Border Roads Organisation, which is responsible for the region's roadways.
"With the education, [they're] being groomed to be responsible citizens of our great country."
But there's another approach to teaching drivers that he thinks could prove successful.
Also alongside these narrow and notorious mountain roads are a series of witty road safety signs — slogans like "After Whiskey, Driving Risky", or "Better Mr Late, than Late Mr".
Colonel Awasthi is enthusiastic about the prospect of developing new ones to combat the rising rubbish scourge.
"That absolutely could work," he says.
"I think this is an idea which we we must pick up, that would be a nice idea and I think we should follow it up."
Colonel Awasthi wouldn't say if punsters would be invited to submit suggestions.
Topics: recycling-and-waste-management, environment, pollution, india
First posted
