E-Paper
Eco-sensitive Koksar area: NGT notice to Centre, Himachal over dumping of garbage
Koksar remains extremely cold and completely frozen for more than seven months in a year. Keksay, that means alpine or tall and towering, is situated just 19 km from the Rohtang Pass and 7 km from the North Portal of Atal Tunnel, Rohtang, on the Leh-Manali highway.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notice to Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change, the state government and others over dumping of garbage and littering at Himachal Pradesh’s frozen eco-fragile tourist village Koksar, situated at an altitude of 5,484 m.
Koksar remains extremely cold and completely frozen for more than seven months in a year. Keksay, that means alpine or tall and towering, is situated just 19 km from the Rohtang Pass and 7 km from the North Portal of Atal Tunnel, Rohtang, on the Leh-Manali highway.
Situated amid colossal and high-mountain ranges, Koksar is the coldest place in Lahaul, which has numerous springs and water channels and harbours a rich biodiversity of Tibetan antelope, musk deer, and snow leopards. It has come under scanner for illegal and unchecked waste dumping.
The matter has been posted on April 3 for further proceedings. The NGT has sought responses from the Union ministry of environment and the state government, while it also issued notices to the Central Pollution Control Board, the Himachal Pradesh department of environment, the Himachal Pradesh pollution control board, the deputy commissioner, Lahaul and Spiti and the Koksar village panchayat.
Division bench comprising chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member A Senthil Vel took note of the massive environmental violations arising out of the non-compliance of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, in Koksar, an extremely eco-sensitive area in Lahaul and Spiti on the Leh-Manali highway in Himachal Pradesh.
The petition brought by ‘Friends’, an environmental organisation, contended that despite being an extremely eco-sensitive region, Koksar has been mindlessly converted into a tourist point, over the years, witnessing a massive, uncontrolled volume of tourists, every single day. Almost every visitor/tourist visiting Manali heads to Koksar situated hardly 42 km from there.
The petitioners alleged that the tourists are being allowed entry beyond the taxi stand to Koksar without any checks. Therefore, tourists carry eatables in non-biodegradable bags which leads to littering and waste dumping caused by visitors, tourists to Koksar are polluting the pristine streams and water channels therein and is causing irreparable harm to the extremely fragile ecology of the Koksar area.
Akash Vashishtha, advocate and counsel for the petitioner, submitted that Koksar, for most parts of the year, experiences below-freezing temperatures, much like Siachen, and was extremely rich in alpine biodiversity.
“Uncontrolled and unregulated volume of tourists are made to enter Koksar every single day, because of which massive littering and illegal, unchecked dumping of wastes takes place in Koksar. There is no waste disposal, no segregation, and no processing of wastes, as required by the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016,” Vashishtha told the court.
