One of its own kind the Healing Himalayas Organization which was founded by Mr. Pradeep Sangwan who belongs to an Army background In 2015, when Pradeep Sangwan, a seasonal trekker could no longer witness the plight of trekking routes in Srikhand Mahadev and Kheerganga in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, he formed an organisation, ‘Healing Himalayas Foundation’ along with his fellow trekkers decided to address the problem of garbage in a rather unique way. Which was a power kick off as many volunteers joined to show huge interest in cleaning up the most famous and known trekking areas of which were getting converted into a pile of garbage dumping area; a serious threat to Himalayas and ecosystem. The Healing Himalayas Foundation is active in the Kullu state of Himachal Pradesh, they are leading the cleanliness drives and driving campaigns on popular trekking trails and pilgrim centers. The mission is to dissolve the problem of waste management by collecting tons of non-biodegradable items discarded by the trekkers or pilgrims and disposing it properly at the base town/city where it can also be recycled.

Camping and trail cleaning at Shrikhand Mahadev @17,000 + ft

The Initiative of Healing Himalayas was also appreciated by local media and is spreading across the social media. Bollywood stars are also taking part promoting raising awareness.  The future roadmaps of Healing Himalayas include installing of permanent dustbins and toilets under Swach Bharat Abhiyan. The students have keenly contributed to up-cycling the waste plastic bottles generated in the nearby cottages. The school now has a small vertical garden all created by the students. This organization also encourages the artist volunteer in the group who are converting garbage into beautiful memory by creating colorful lamps out of the used glass bottles.

There were many projects that started with a positive and energetic push and was well executed by the teams along with the help of local village people. At this point, the team had a clear vision of helping the orphans. On Diwali evening the team spent their time with the kids, coloring, playing and Rangoli making. The team donated water purifiers, ORS solutions, soap kits, nappies and wipes along with color books and toys for the children under 8 years of age. Their first cleaning pilot project was Mansari Village where they took care of the solid waste management along with following their base parameters which include: Installing dustbins at the common places, Distribution of Jute bags to each house in the village and briefed them in the gathering to not to burn the garbage in the open or throwing it away.

Further, this was followed by fortnight cleaning drive by the MAHILA MANDAL to empty those bags and cleaning the streets. Later cutting the cannabis was also included in the project. The team is spreading the awareness covering most of the small villages and installing new signboards to keep the trek areas clean. They also started with the project of how to reduce the carbon footprints in the village which will include recycling and up-cycling.

Thousands of devotees and trekkers go through the trekking route to Bijli Mahadev temple in Kullu Himachal Pradesh to view the enchanting place, which offers everyone the whole 360-degree wide view of Kullu Valley. This beautiful trek was again turned into the dump yard by the tourists. But this time our Indian army soldiers extended their hands to help the team to get the place like before. Even though they have the most challenging job in our country, yet they decided to devote their time to cleanliness.

The whole Idea of the Healing Himalayas is to get the Himalayas clean and restore the ecosystem back to serene. Its high time that we should be using our common sense and next time when we go out to any mountain, hill station, we make sure to keep the place cleaner and put the garbage into the right place. An organization like these will keep rising and will continue doing things for the betterment of the society for the mother nature and most important of all for self-satisfaction.

Submitted by: Bhavyansh00@gmail.com