The tourism in alpine areas (high elevation areas above tree line) of Kashmir Himalaya is a welcome step but it should be sustainable not threatening for the existence of these areas. There is some carrying capacity for each area and beyond carrying capacity it is going to be fatal for environment and other resources of these areas. The increase in motor traffic and other drivers of urbanization, indiscriminate use of plastics are the grave problem for these fragile alpine regions of Himalaya.
The modern adventure sports motor biking, snowmobile motoring etc. cause rapid snow melting and also cause disturbance to the wildlife and pose threat to biodiversity. Wherever we visited during this summer in connection with plant surveys and collection we found lot of plastic in the form of bags, bottles, plates, cups etc. scattered everywhere and previously during our surveys in 2007-2015 such type of trash was not present in these ecologically fragile areas. The tourism as well as the forest department should issue guidelines that if a person carry particular amount of non-degradable items with himself then he/she should return with the same amount of these items, and some regulation should be there to maintain excessive rush of people in these areas for the sake of sustainable development.
During our recent survey to one of the alpine areas of Kashmir Himalaya we also saw some environmental conscious people, one of the middle aged ladies with her three daughters came for the purpose of excursion and we became happy when we saw she instructed her three daughters to collect the garbage in big plastic bags and then they carried these bags with themselves for proper disposal on their return to home. So, it is duty of both government and non-government agencies and civil societies to make people aware about the conservation and proper utilization of our national wealth.
The mountains occupy about 22 per cent of earth’s land and these land formations play important role in supplying water, energy and other services to millions of people; in Kashmir vast paddy fields are dependent on water supply from these slowly melting glaciers and provide irrigation water for appropriate time period. But these fragile ecosystems are vulnerable to pollution and other anthropogenic activities. Recognizing the importance of sustainable mountain development, some countries adopted mountain-related targets under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals (6.6, 15.1 and 15.4), and also made a space for concrete efforts to protect mountain ecosystems. The Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions, produced by UN Environment and its partners in 2016, provides an introduction to the pollution issues in the mountains.
Increasing tourism, urban expansion, mining, consumption patterns, and practices of illegal dumping are polluting mountain environments. Furthermore, decomposition rates in the high mountains are much slower than in low-lying environment which is also a cause of concern. These high elevation ecosystems are sensitive and fragile to pollution, especially in the scenario of climate change and intensive tourism pressure. As a conscious society we should keep our environment particularly these high alpines were clean and undisturbed to minimize the natural calamities. The vision of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) towards 2030 is a smart, comprehensive and responsible tourism that will contribute to achieve SDGs.The ONE PLANET – Sustainable Tourism Programme, UNWTO recommended the common goal: decoupling tourismgrowth from the increased use of naturalresources. It is also the framework underwhich plastic pollution in the mountains could be looked at.
Also as it was reported that the pollution in these mountains cause threat to biodiversity and it is not the loss of these plant/animal species only, but there are so many species in these areas which serve human beings ecologically in big way and hold these big mountains intact otherwise there would be landslides day in and day out and in turn serve us economically as well. Huge tourism influx in these areas also resulted extirpation of some economically and medicinally important species; such species are very significant for discovery of new drugs and also food security in future course of time. In order to save the environment and natural resources some countries took positive steps in this direction, e.g., Fort Myers Beach, in Florida, has banned the sale or use of plastic straws throughout the island in a bid to protect turtles nesting on the beaches.
In Italy, the archipelago of IsoleTremiti has banned all plastic plates, cups and utensils, with fines for those who do not comply. Keeping in view the ecological prospective, UN World Tourism Organization is developing a way to measure the sustainability of tourism to create an international standard for tourism statistics. The standard will eventually be able to connect tourism indicators to the Sustainable Development Goals, expanding existing measurements beyond primarily economic indicators. Also the World Travel and Tourism Council has urged travellers to minimize their plastic footprint by doing four simple things: bring your own water bottle and purification system, carry a collapsible tote bag, refuse small bottles of toiletries in hotels and find out where you can recycle your plastic waste.
The tourism department of Jammu and Kashmir should come up with some mechanism to reduce pollution and huge influx in such fragile areas. I think not only government and non-government agencies but civil societies should aware people to desist from damaging these fragile ecosystems.
(Author is Asst Professor, Department of Botany, North Campus; University of Kashmir. Feedback: [email protected])
