Students, residents of Ghoom launch clean-up drive, collect 100kg waste

KOLKATA: The residents of Ghoom near Darjeeling and students of a local school embarked on a clean-up drive of their picturesque town so that thousands of tourists visiting it or crossing it return with good memories of the place.

Close to 225 residents and students of Ghoom Girls’ High School collected over 100 kilograms of waste in a two-day clean-up programme earlier this week.

The waste, which was segregated as cyclable and re-cyclable, consisted mostly of plastics, pet bottles, styrofoam and other wastes.

“Every year, thousands of tourists visit Ghoom or stop by while going to Darjeeling. Some of the areas in the town were very dirty in the absence of a solid waste management plan, which is embarrassing for us as citizens. We decided to make the town as beautiful as the scenery around it,” said Pemema Bhutia, teacher-in-charge of Ghoom Girls’ High School.

At 7,400ft, Ghoom railway station is the second highest in the world to be reached by a steam locomotive. The panoramic view of the Himalayas and the monastery make Ghoom a big attraction with the tourists.

The clean-up group assembled at Ghoom railway station and split up into three groups, heading to Sukhia Road, Monastery Road and Ghoom Station Road.

The Sukhia Road group cleaned the road to Ghoom School; the Monastery Road group cleaned from the bottom of Monastery Road till the stairs leading down to the school and the Ghoom Station Road group cleaned the Ghoom railway station and the Station Road till the Ghoom Boys School gate and back. “We also painted the steps of the monastery. The local municipality helped us dispose the garbage collected by residents,” said Vishnu Shriram, who was visiting his relatives at Ghoom.

Waste has been a major problem in the Hills, which lacks a solid waste management system and even a landfill. Several NGOs have been trying to organise clean-up drives in the Hills.