What is Clean Himalaya?

Dedicated to maintaining the sanctity and beauty of the Ganges and Himalayas

The Muni-ki-reti, Tapovan, and Lakshmanjula area, about 3 to 4 kilometers from Rishikesh, is considered by many as one of the holiest areas in the world, still radiating a peace and stillness that has arisen from centuries of deep meditation on the Great Reality by saints and sages. With the Ganges River meandering through the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, the beauty is breathtaking.

However, in recent times, the beauty and sanctity of this land has been marred by a combination of three factors: intense development of hotels, shops, homes and ashrams; the advent of plastic bags and other non-degradable packing materials; no organized municipal pick-up of garbage and no municipal dumping ground for garbage in the Lakshmanjula/Tapovan area. Therefore, garbage litters the roadsides, drains, ravines, the Ganges banks, and the hillsides. The end-point for a large percentage of this garbage is the Ganges. In addition, cows ingest the polythene bags containing food and sometimes die.

Deeply concerned with this problem, around the year 2000, a few students of Andrew Cohen at EnlightenNext Rishikesh, informally organized rag pickers to collect plastic bottles and other dry waste from local rest houses in the Tapovan area. Gradually this service grew into a small enterprise under the supervision of one of Andrew’s Indian students, Jitendra Kumar. It was given the very apt name “Clean Himalaya” and now has a staff of six sanitary workers. At present it is covering about 25 % of the area.

Goals of Clean Himalaya:

The goal of Clean Himalaya is to develop a comprehensive waste management program that will help to:

(1) Protect people, roaming animals, and the environment from toxic materials generated from plastic waste, from mosquitoes that thrive in stagnant drain water that is blocked by garbage, and from disease-carrying rodents that thrive in garbage heaps on the roadside and ravines

(2) Reduce global warming through recycling dry waste (polythene bags and other plastics, all grades of paper, glass, batteries) and vermin-composting organic waste

(3) Avoid air pollution through unnecessary burning of waste by developing an eco-friendly way of reusing non-recyclables such as non-degradable packaging material

(4) Develop a comprehensive waste-management program that can serve as a model for Clean Himalaya to expand or for other communities to replicate

The Approach of Clean Himalaya

The approach of Clean Himalaya is multi-faceted and includes:
At Present:

(1) Daily collection of garbage from ashrams, hotels, shops, houses, etc

(2) Separation of recyclable, non-recyclable and organic waste at its workshop.

• Recyclable waste is sold for recycling

• Non-recyclable waste is presently burnt, but in future Clean Himalaya aims to develop an eco-friendly method of either reusing or disposing of non-recyclables

• Organic waste is made available to roaming animals and in future Clean Himalaya aims to vermin-compost it

(3) Free public service, which includes special cleaning projects and cleaning hillsides, roadsides and drains not sufficiently attended to by the Municipality

In The Future:

(1) Placement of dustbins within the community

(2) Education of the public in the importance of keeping the environment clean from a spiritual, environmental, civic, and health perspective through:

• Continuing to offer posters to shops, hotels, ashrams and households when canvassing for new registrants and explaining the concept of Clean Himalaya

• Placement of signboards in the community and of posters in shops and hotels

• Visiting schools to speak with children about the environment and hygiene

• Working with other organizations also interested in environmental education

(3) As much as possible co-ordinate and co-operate with municipal sweepers and municipal and higher governmental authorities responsible for waste management

In order to achieve its aims and objects Clean Himalaya first had to become able to meet its capital expenditures, running costs and the salaries of the project manager and sanitation workers. The present capital expenditures are being met by a World Bank award recently won at the India Development Marketplace 2007. Running costs and salaries are being covered by:

(i) User-fees earned by daily garbage collection from homes, shops, ashrams and hotels

(ii) Income from sale of segregated recyclable waste

(iii) Donation income from supporters