In the month of May, Leh is ranked among the 100 cleanest towns in India and top cleanest town in J&K state under Swachh Survekshan 2017. While on the other hand, the area near Devachan crematorium, Choglamsar is witnessing a similar situation like Bomb guard. 

The absence of any check and cleanliness measures, heaps of garbage, the carcass of the dead animals and Construction & Demolition (C&D) are dumped freely on the barren land and is becoming a free garbage dumping area.

The growing settlement around the area and lack of garbage disposal system and management has led to the crudely disposing of waste material.

The paradox is so many NGO’s; Association and administration are conducting cleaning campaigns every now and then but still, this area is ignored by everyone.

 

In the name of cleanliness, it seems that the administration and the Hill Council are only focusing on those areas that come under urban area. Which again raises a question of what will happen to the areas in and around Leh which are gradually turning into open dumping ground?

Tsering Angchuk, BDO Leh said, “There is an absence of basic facilities such as solid waste management, lack of funds and awareness among the people on waste management.  In these areas, the population is increasing every year which is becoming a major challenge. Therefore, a separate plan and project are coming up for the semi urban area in the coming days. We are planning to collect door to door garbage from different mohallas and to dispose of the garbage a new disposal site has been identified near Spituk. Further awareness program and cleaning campaign are being organised under Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.”

However, the national campaign of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan carried out widely seems to be concentrated only in specific areas. Somehow it seems that all the schemes and movements like Digital India, Make in India, Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and many other get defunct when it comes to implementation in Ladakh.

The area which is 10km away from the city choking with the piling up with garbage is left unnoticed and neglected by everyone. While the garbage generation is only expected to increase, the infrastructure necessary to manage is still not in place. 

When asked Dr. Sonam Dawa, CEC about covering such areas he said, “The area comes under semi-urban for which a project is being prepared as ‘RURBAN’. This will provide basic amenities to the areas where the population has been growing and the area are transforming into urban areas.”

When asked Tsewang Thinles, LBA President, since the land carries a board of LBA, he said, “The land is owned by LBA, the garbage is being dumped by people from different mohalla during the night time. Few years back, a man was hired to look after the area but was not successful. Now, we are planning to put fencing across the land in the days to come.”

The question is, are we really serious about clean Ladakh as we are welcoming every schemes and movement of Government with zero practical implementation on the ground?