From Leh to Pahalgam: Awareness as the essential reform needed to ensure Environmental Conservation

From Leh to Pahalgam: Awareness as the essential reform needed to ensure Environmental Conservation

Current News Service (CNS) 

Leh, Aug 21, CNS: A three member delegation of the Himalayan Welfare Organization (HWO), Pahalgam, executed a 5 day tour of Leh, Nobra, Chanthang, Kargil and Drass Vallies last week, as part of the organization’s ongoing project ‘Green Himalayas’. The team was led by Environmentalist, Mushtaq Ahmad Magrey (Phalgami), president, HWO. Manzoor Magrey, General Secretary, HWO and Muzaffar Ahmad Bhat, vice-president also attended the tour, that was planned to make an assessment of the environmental and ecological situation in these areas and see what lessons can be learnt in terms of environmental management.

The general situation of sanitation was observed to be very satisfactory in Leh town and the Municipal Committee of Leh was found to be doing a commendable job. People of the town are well aware of the dangers of polythene use and consequently no sale or use of polythene bags was observed by the visiting team. The government ahs however, not made any special efforts to arrange for and promote source-segregation of waste, which is not taking place in the town at the moment. Open dumping sites were also found to exist in the region and the state government needs to make due arrangements for garbage collection and disposal from far flung areas like Nobra and Chantang. The general awareness levels in Leh were found to be exemplary with no one even smoking in the open, let alone drive polluting vehicles.

Environmental awareness was generally found to be lacking in Kargil. The HWO team talked to a number of people in the region, interacted with school children and educationalists and met concerned officers. In Drass, loss of vast stretches of pasture land was observed due to electric lines and towers in total disregard of the need for environmental impact assessment.

The HWO also visited Sonamarg town on the way back and appealed to local authorities to ensure proper sanitation in the region, also offering to provide any volunteer support needed. The team has prepared a detailed report of changes that need to be made to existing policies and has emphasized the need for greater citizen-participation and the role of awareness in ensuring sustainable environmental solutions.

Notably, Mushtaq Phalgami, has also been raising the region’s environmental concerns through news-paper articles and interviews and has represented the organization in various conferences and seminars, within the state and outside. Pahalgami and his organization have also been actively using the J&K, Right to information act, 2009 to raise questions challenging illegal encroachment and land grab, illegal tree-felling, Vehicle washing, dumping and other environmentally damaging malpractices since 2008, resulting in many a positive administrative/legal interventions and a general culture of environmental awareness in the region.  

http://cnskashmir.com/2017/08/21/from-leh-to-pahalgam-awareness-as-the-essential-reform-needed-to-ensure-environmental-conservation/