Now Reading: Haridwar scrambles to clear 7,000 tonnes of Kanwar Yatra garbage
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Haridwar scrambles to clear 7,000 tonnes of Kanwar Yatra garbage
Haridwar is racing to clear an estimated 7,000 tonnes of garbage left behind by nearly 48 million (Hindustan Times) or 5 crore (NDTV) Kanwariyas who visited the city during the two-week Kanwar…
The Story in Brief
Haridwar is racing to clear an estimated 7,000 tonnes of garbage left behind by nearly 48 million (Hindustan Times) or 5 crore (NDTV) Kanwariyas who visited the city during the two-week Kanwar Yatra. Municipal officials say heaps of plastic, clothes, Kanwar structures and polythene waste are strewn across ghats, markets and parking areas. The administration has launched a mega cleanliness drive from August 12 to 18, deploying over 1,000 sanitation workers and 80 vehicles. At Gangotri, forest officials collected 57 sacks of waste after an estimated 57,000 pilgrims visited the source of the Ganga, despite it being a plastic-free zone.
Environmentalists warn that if rain washes the waste into the river, bacterial and microplastic contamination could spike. The Akhara Parishad has urged voluntary participation in the cleanup. Discarded clothing alone runs to several tonnes and will be recycled, officials said.
The Indian Opinion
The annual Kanwar Yatra generates a predictable mountain of waste, yet every year the same chorus blames either pilgrims for being callous or the administration for being unprepared. Both sides miss the point: a float of nearly 5 crore people over two weeks will inevitably produce 7,000 tonnes of trash. The real test is whether Haridwar can process this waste within a week without it washing into the Ganga. Watch for the bacterial count at Har-ki-Pauri over the next 10 days, that number will tell us if the cleanup was more than a photo-op.
Sources (2): hindustantimes.com, ndtv.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
