Known for its clear air and water, Ladakh, the district situated on the top of the Himalayan roof of over 11000 feet above sea level, is gradually turning into an area whose water and air is increasingly under threat of pollution. Large increase in the number of motor vehicles and great rush of tourists are contributing to the dilapidation of ecology in this area. Pollution Control Board, of which there is a small branch in Ladakh, also, has done nothing anticipatory to the control of pollution of air and water in Ladakh. It is a sordid story that the Control Board is incapable of discharging its duty. The Leh office of the Pollution Control Board informs that it has been writing to the head office from time to time but the head office treats these recommendations nothing more than waste paper worth consigning to the dustbin. Concerned authorities are showing utter disregard to the ecology and environments of Ladakh, which has become a cherished destination of foreign tourists. Polythene bags, litter and garbage are strewn right and left and there is no arrangement of keeping the town and its environs clean. No garbage treatment plant exists that would take care of the litter.
Some times back, official circles mooted a proposal for monitoring of water pollution by six new stations at Leh Nullah, Indus River, Pangong Lake, Tsomoriri Lake, Niddar Nullah and Hunder Tokpo. However, air and water quality pollution monitoring stations are not established so far mainly because of the least interest from the State Pollution Control Board. Not to speak of monitoring water and air pollution even the instruments and equipment needed for the purpose are not available to the branch of the Pollution Control Board.
We beseech the Government to take into view the tourist importance of Ladakh and the income, which the district receives from tourist industry. It should have become catalyst to the tourist and other departments to keep the town and its environments so clean as to invite more and more visitors. We are sorry to say that if the pollution of water and air continues as it is of today, very soon, Ladakh will become notorious for its polluted environs and ecology and tourists will stop visiting it. The Government should take this warning seriously.
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