Tiger Hill sits perched in the heart of Sinchel Wildlife Sanctuary and is one of the most popular tourist spots in all of Asia. Tourists and locals alike, from far and wide visit the mountain, which also happens to be the abode of Sinchel ko Singha Devi, the guardian deity of the hills.
With the growing number of visitors to both the temple and the mountain, Darjeeling is witnessing a serious waste crisis.
“There are two main sources for the waste stream – the mandir and general visitors. Besides these two, there are a number of villages and small towns around the sanctuary that need to be considered in the long run in addressing the waste crisis,” Roshan Rai, who is a development practitioner at Darjeeling-based NGO DLR Prerna told Youth Ki Awaaz.
The waste generated from the mandir comprises mainly offerings of the Shola Shringar( a set of sixteen embellishments) made to goddesses Durga and Laksmi, during the puja season in March and April.
Earlier handmade from natural items, these items are now made from plastic. On average, 200 devotees visit the mandir on a daily basis, a number that goes up to anywhere between 5000 to 7000 people during the season of sola singar. With such huge numbers of devotees flocking the temple, the plastic offerings pile up in the temple premises, overflowing into the forest area, polluting both the temple and the forest.
“Even when COVID-19 lockdown was relaxed, four sacks full of non-biodegradable waste was generated in two weeks just from the ‘Shola Shringar’ kits offered at the temple,” the president of Sinchel Singha Devi Sthan Committee said.
What’s more, tourists and picnic groups bring packaged food, drinks, and water bottles which are discarded within the sanctuary. Beverages are sold in disposable cups that are plastic coated and thrown around the viewing point. Picnickers also serve food in styrofoam /plastic utensils that are left behind or burnt.
“I understand that Tiger Hill is a tourist place but it is also a place of conservation and it is the responsibility of the locals, tourists, the tourism department, hotel owners, and cab drivers who bring the tourist to Tiger Hill to not just preserve but conserve the place because we don’t owe the place but we borrow it from the future generation,” S. Sherpa, IFS, Darjeeling Wildlife Division told Youth Ki Awaaz.
The extent of the waste crisis was highlighted during The Himalayan Cleanup 2018 at Tiger Hill when around 90 youth volunteers picked up trash that had accumulated over time and collected over 2000 pieces of waste.
The waste and brand audit showed a large percentage of waste to be plastic and 27% multilayered plastic (MLP). The cleanup also first brought to light the plastic offerings piled up at the Senchal Devi Mandir.
“Only when we piled up the waste did I see the graveness of the problem. When we segregated the plastic into different categories we actually realized the multiple angles to this waste crisis,” Yuraj Pradhan, Co-founder, Scavengers Darjeeling, the NGO that organized the drive said.
In response to the waste crisis, several organizations like Scavengers Darjeeling, TIEEDI, DLR Prerna, and WWF- India, a part of the Zero Waste Himalaya Platform, started the Plastic Free Senchal campaign in March last year.
The campaign sought to bring together various stakeholders for solidarity and stewardship in ensuring continuity of the sacredness, beauty, and ecological services of Senchal.
As a first step, the mandir committee has banned plastic offerings instead of encouraging the development of natural and plastic-free offerings through self-help groups. They have also started collaborating with shop owners on the sale of these products.
The Darjeeling Municipality and the Forest Department are important government stakeholders in the endeavour too, providing institutional and policy support for the initiative through banning the plastic Shola Shringar from being sold and declaring Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary as a plastic-free zone.
“The scavengers group was formed only for the cleanup day but when we saw the extent of plastic pollution inside the biodiversity hotspot, it inspired us to continue work towards conserving and restoring Tiger Hill,” Pradhan told Youth Ki Awaaz.