This Winter, Don’t Just Travel to the Himalayas, Heal Them by Donating Rs 500 to Clear Trash |
You’ve possibly been scrolling through travel inspo pictures, trying to find the best deals to book your winter escape to the mountains.
It’s probably been on your bucket list for a while.
This winter, why don’t we slightly tweak the goal? Why don’t you, instead, do your bit to help the Himalayas heal?
How? We have a way.
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‘Kachrawala’, the moniker follows Suman Singh as he trudges the undulating Himalayas, picking trash that threatens to mar the landscape. Five years ago, when he started volunteering with Healing Himalayas Foundation, being called kachrawala(garbage cleaner) bothered Suman. Now, he doesn’t mind it. “After all, I am keeping my mountains clean. The title does not matter,” he smiles. In the early days, Suman was joined by four other volunteers focused on this region of the Himalayas. Eventually, the others left.
“Their families did not like that they were picking up trash. They kept telling them that this was not their job to do,” Suman shares. To do such work, a love for the mountains must overshadow any other qualms, Suman deduced. In his current capacity as project manager in the Kinnaur district, Suman is one among the army of 4000 people who are part of this endeavour to clean the mountains. And my conversations with them reveal, they practice what they preach.
But steering a revolution of this scope takes more than will. It takes funds. And that’s where your donation would help.
When Pradeep Sangwan (40), founder of Healing Himalayas Foundation, moved to the mountains in 2009, he was just out of college. “I had been trekking for a while, and each time I left for the city, it felt like the mountains were calling me back,” he says. Pradeep decided to heed the call. “While I was always mindful about nature and wildlife, I hadn’t intentionally thought about a cleaning initiative in the mountains. But the three years that I spent living there, talking to the shepherd community and watching how they loved this place they called ‘home’, made me realise how disconnected urban people were with the........