Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
When I visited Chandanwari Pahalgam just before few days of 2017 annual Amarnath Ji yatra I was totally disappointed with the bad sanitation situation there. This was the time when actual rush of pilgrims was yet to be witnessed. While boarding in a car at Pahalgam with some environmentally conscious friends, I was under this impression that Chandanwari would be a pristine valley surrounded by mountains, green pine trees and vast meadows. This was my maiden visit to Chandanwari. When we entered the actual place where Amarnath Yatris camp before trekking towards the Holy Cave, I was terrified to see the condition of the area. Temporary toilets had been installed, but the way they were positioned, I am sure all the human excreta would have got leaked during the entire yatra period. The garbage collected during previous yatras had been dumped in the open. The local security units, shopkeepers, poneywalas and Langarwalswere least bothered about safe disposal of waste. I wrote about all this in few local dailies and uploaded the photos on social media as well. The issue was taken seriously by the Coordinator Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell Tasaduq Hussain Mufti who had several rounds of meetings with Governor N N Vohra after visiting Chandanwari and Sheeshnag himself several times.
Yatra 2017 via Chandanwadi :
Governor happens to be the Chairperson of Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board as well. I along with few environmentally conscious citizens , lawyers , environmental experts and some hoteliers from Pahalgam met with Governor Vohra at least twice before commencement of 2017 annual Amarnath Ji Yatra. First meeting was attended by Mr Tasaduq Hussain as well. Governor Vohra was himself very much worried about the issue of sanitation during yatra period. He was not only concerned about poor sanitation during Yatra but we could make out that he was disheartened by the overall environmental degradation in Jammu & Kashmir especially in Srinagar, Sonmarg and other environmentally fragile tourist places. Mr Vohra sought some suggestions and a presentation was given to him by a renowned landscape architect Akashay Koul. Mr Vohra wanted a plan from the group and there was a follow up meeting around June end this year only a week or ten days before the commencement of 2017 annual yatra. Mohammad Tasleem who is a waste management expert and has done a remarkable work in treatment of tons of garbage at Pahalgam through Bio-Remediation process during 2015 gave a beautiful presentation to his the Governor. Principal Secretary to Governor Umang Narula was also present during the meeting. Mr Tasleem suggested that SASB should install several Auto Composters and Magnetic Disintegrators at different locations of the yatra at Pahalgam Chandanwadi and Sonmarg Baltal side. In addition to it the group suggested that segregation of waste in langars , tents, shops and restaurants should be made mandatory. Auto-composters would help in treatment of organic waste like leftover food , and other green waste and Magnetic Disintegrator can treat the Non Bio degradable waste…..
Team at Chandanwadi :
On June 27th Director Urban Local Bodies RiyazWani and CEO Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA) Mushatq Simnani asked Mohammad Tasleem and his team of experts to visit Chandanwadi. The group was assisted by a team of workers from Municipal Committee Pahalgam. The group led by Mohammad Tasleem, Shahid Nazir and Bilal Bhat started the work at Chandanwadi by sensitizing the 34 sanitation workers of MC Pahalgam. They were made aware about types of waste, segregation of waste and its treatment through manual composting . Pertinent to mention that these team of waste management experts were not hired by SASB , but they provided their services without charging anything from the authorities. Shrine Board (SASB) provided two garbage bins of 50 litres size to each langar. The langar owners were told to put bio degradable waste (food waste) in a separate bin and plastic waste (non biodegradable) waste in the 2nd bin.
” For a week we had some challenge as segregation of waste was not being followed , but after 1st week , we started getting positive results as we could get 80 % segregated waste from the langars which was around 1 metric ton on daily basis. The waste was brought to an open space of around one kanal provided by Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA). Then this waste was further cleared of plastic items (secondary segregation) and was converted into heaps for making compost out of it through windrow composting process” said Shahid Nazir.
For the whole group collection of horse dung , wrappers , pet bottles and cardboard was a big challenge but this was also made possible by the kind cooperation of Executive Officer MC Pahalgam Sarfaraz Ahmad . Cardboard and Pet-bottles were separated which can be sold to kabadiwalas and rest of the waste material was carried in jute sacks and other bags to the dumping site where it would be processed further by the MC Pahalgam and PDA.
“PDA is purchasing a magnetic disintegrator by end of August and all the non biodegradable waste collected at Chandanwari would be disintegrated in this machine and converted into ash which is not at all harmful ” says Mohammad Tasleem.
Conclusion:
Due to the collective efforts of Shri AmarnathJi Shrine Board (SASB) , Chief Ministers Grievance Cell , Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA) , Municipal Committee Pahalgam which works under Directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and solid waste managers lead by Mohammad Tasleem, Shahid Nazir and Bilal Bhat, 10 metric tons of organic compost has been created from the food and other organic waste which earlier used to be dumped unscientifically either in water bodies or buried inside the pits.
“During making of the compost a patented herbal product Bio Clean was used to withhold the pungent smell and this was even authenticated by the team of experts from State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) who visited the site during yatra time. They were very much satisfied mainly because of the fact that bad smell was fully controlled by us through our patented product” says Bilal Bhat.
If a small experiment can show better results , why cannot such experiments be practically implemented by SASB ? If some auto-composting machines ,magnetic disintegrators or other similar machines would be installed during yatra period. I am sure next year similar activities would be held around Baltal route as well.The activity was not only confined to Chandanwari , but local sources say that most of the trash was collected from Chandanwari to Holy cave and packed in bags and brought down for further processing.
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