Singalila Cleaning Expedition 2019

The Himalayan Club, Kolkata section organized a cleaning expedition in the Singalila Range of Darjeeling Dist. In association with Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling during a period from 21st May to 29th May, 2019. The entire programme was supported by the Department of Forest, Govt. of West Bengal and also the District Magistrate, Darjeeling.

OBJECTIVE:

The trekking route in Singalila range, that runs between Manebhanjang to Sandakphu & to Phalut is the most popular trekking destination and is a heavily tourist infested zone in Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Unfortunately, because of the huge no. of trekkers and tourists, lack of environment awareness and absence of regularly operating cleaning machinery, garbage accumulation in this region is a genuine threat to this pristine reserve forest.
Our main objective was to physically pick up all sorts of waste product from road side and collect them separately in separate designated garbage bags and carry them down for disposal. Along with this cleaning we also gave our wholehearted effort to spread the concept of environment awareness to local homestays & shops and the trekkers and tourists we met en-route by giving leaflets, sticking posters, plackards etc.

TEAM:

1. Dr. Kallol Das (Leader) 6. Mr. Subhadeep Das
2. Mr. Sanjay Moitra 7. Ms. Anwesha Ghosh
3. Mr. Prasanta Sinha 8. Ms. Prantika Dutta
4. Mr. RanobirRoychowdhury 9. Ms. Banani Roy
5. Mr. Tapas Deb

DAY WISE ACTIVITIES :

21.05.2019: Kolkata – Siliguri
The nine member team from The Himalayan Club, Kolkata Section started their journey from Kolkata on 21st May 2019 by night bus to Siliguri, as our scheduled train was declared cancelled in last moment.
The SINGALILA CLEANING EXPEDITION was flagged off by Sri Manik Banerjee and Sri Niloy Chakraborty at 5 pm at Esplanade, Kolkata.
In this team of nine, five senior members were scheduled to be engaged in cleaning operation.
Four new young members were going for trekking in the route of Sandakphu with an added benefit of getting oriented & tuned in this type of ecofriendly field activities.
The responsibility of spreading the message of environment awareness through posters, placards and leaflets was also given to them, which they carried out with all enthusiasm.
22.05.2019: Siliguri-Manebhanjang
The bus arrived at Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus, Siliguri at 7am & we boarded a chartered jeep towards HMI, Darjeeling. The Principal of HMI, Gr. Captain Jai Kishen welcomed the team heartily, encouraged all the team members for this noble mission. At the premises of HMI, he handed over the flag of The Himalayan Club and Indian Tri-color to the Expedition Team and conveyed his best wishes to the success of a venture like this.
We started from HMI at about 2 pm and reached Maneybhanjang at 4 pm. We were greeted by the forest dept. of WB and got our night shelter at the forest rest house by active help and cooperation of Mr. Dhurba Bardewa, the Beat Officer of Tonglu range. It was a cozy night that kept us busy in re-arranging our luggage and finalizing our plan of movement for next few days in the trekking route.

23.05.2019: Manebhanjang-Tumling/Tonglu
In the morning we met the personnel in the security check post of the Singalila Reserve Forest, explained our moto of Cleaning program and fixed a poster in the office with their permission. They were very happy to know about our mission, accepted the bunch of leaflets full of information and Do’s & Don’ts for distribution to the trekking party and all tourists. They gave us permission to enter and work in this Singalila range area with full support.
After the official formalities, the team started their trekking and simultaneous cleaning the garbage along the route, while myself and Sanjay went to arrange porters from the local porter and guide agency. We hired three porters to accompany us during this whole trip who also took active part in picking up the garbage from road side. We were carrying two different types of synthetic gunny bags,
One is heavy duty, green color big size bags for glass bottles and the other is standard white color bags for plastics, cans etc. So the segregation of waste was done at source to facilitate proper disposal later.
We saw several loaded bags kept aside by our team members moving ahead. Just below Chitre we found huge quantity of rubbish scattered all around a small patch of green field and cleaned them all.
Our activities were interrupted by intermittent drizzling which however could not stop our mission.
Thus between Maneybhanjang and Meghma 4 bags were collected and kept at three different points to be picked up during our return journey. From Meghma, six members and three porters proceeded towards Tumling and three of us went to Tonglu to spend our first night of action.

24.05.2019: Tumling/Tonglu-Gairibas-Kalpokhri
Both the teams joined at Tumling early in the morning and the cleaning operation at Tumling Bustee, (now studded with many star resorts and homestays), started with full energy. As expected, this popular tourist spot accumulated huge amount of all sorts of rubbish at different places that filled as many as 22 bags. We were overwhelmed by active help of the hotel owners that added to our small effort. Despite the popularity and consequent littering of this area, there is probably no regular garbage cleaning mechanism from the local administration. We fixed up awareness posters and generously distributed the leaflets to fellow trekkers and tourist.
After breakfast we started our trek to Gairibas via Joubari and collected 3 bags of rubbish in and around Gairibas, which were kept aside to be carried down later on. We further proceeded to Kalpokhri and got our night shelter at Pandim Lodge.
25.05.2019: Kalpokhri – Bekay bhanjang-Sandakphu
By this time, as we engaged ourselves in serious cleaning operations, our four young trekker members have been perfectly oriented and involved in the mission we took over. Being properly dressed with mask and gloves they were actively engaged in physically picking up bottles and plastics from roadside. They divided in small groups of two to three heads and spreaded up and down and filled up more and more garbage bags. Here also we received earnest and active support from the local people who extended their helping hands along with the members. Thus here we managed to fill as many as 19 bags, kept aside at Kalpokhri and proceeded towards Sandakphu at about 10am. I was amazed when the owner of the Pandim Lodge borrowed two empty bags from us to collect garbage from their area and submit to us on our return journey. Despite very steep gradient our energetic team reached Sandakphu by 1.00pm. Here we checked in GTA Trekker’s hut, had some lunch & went out for a stroll, of course geared up with empty bags and personal accessories, gloves & mask. Looking around we found Sandakphu to be the highest dumping ground in West Bengal, where we filled up 18 bags of rubbish. All the team members became so tuned in last three day’s exercise in the role of Cleaner, that they probably felt a bit frustrated when it was found that the amount of garbage is more than what we could transport down to Manebhanjang. We called it a day when the blasting chilly wind forced all of us into the trekkers’ hut.

26.05.2019: Sandakphu – Manebhanjang . Trekking team moved to Moley
This chilly but clear morning awarded us with a glimpse of The Kanchenjunga Massif, the first ever appearance during this period which was indeed very exciting to our new trekkers. The fortune did not last long as the dense fog and cloud overcasted the northern and north western sky hiding this beauty.
We managed to hire a pick-up van at Sandakphu to load the garbage bags, collected here and gradually downwards to Manebhanjang, while the trekking team proceeded towards Moley with the Clean Himalaya Mission along the remaining part of their trek route.
Myself and Sanjay started to load the pickup vans from Sandakphu & down to Gairias via Kalpokhri. The truck became full, by the time we reached Tumling, where huge no. of garbage bags were left by us to be collected in return journey. Here we were lucky to get another empty pickup van, which was following us down the entire route. After a little bargain the driver agreed to take the load of remaining garbage bags from Tumling and along the route upto Manebhanjang. Finally two truck full loads of Singalila Waste reached Manebhanjang at about 2 pm and were dumped at the “Segregation Point”, as instructed by the Beat Officer, Mr. Dhurba.
The total number of bags collected by our team were 68, with a break up as given below:
Manebhanjang to Chitre : 02 nos. Bags containing Glass Bottles : 42 nos.
Chitre : 02 nos. Bags containing Plastic Bottles : 26 nos.
Tumling : 22 nos.
Gairibas : 03 nos.
Kalpokhri : 21 nos.
Sandakphu : 18 nos.
Total : 68 nos.

I am indebted to all our porters and the drivers of the pickup vans who helped us by manually unloading and dumping these huge luggage of 68 garbage bags to the designated “Segregation Room”.
After successful completion of our cleaning operation we were bit relaxed and spent that night at the Forest Bungalow at Manebhanjang.

27.05.2019: Manebhanjang to Sri Khola
Today we two moved up to Sri Khola by local transport where our trekking team are scheduled to reach by trekking from Moley. It was a long day for them and our whole team gathered again at the trekkers hut at Sri Khola by late afternoon.

28.05.2019: At Sri Khola- local campaigning about proper waste disposal in the mountains
Sri Khola is a very popular tourist place now and our full team engaged in discussion with the tourist there, about how to dispose the garbage in mountain. We distributed the informative leaflets and fixed the posters in the Huts and homestays all around.
The concept of increasing number of tourist in remote places of The Himalaya with increasing employment of local people and generation of more Govt. revenue at the cost of the persisting damage of the pristine natural beauty of Singalila Range does not match with the concept of forest conservation and ecological balance until a proper waste disposal mechanism is instituted and run regularly by the administration.

29.05.2019: Sri Khola to Darjeeling
Today our full team moved from Sri khola to Darjeeling where we were received heartily by Gr. Captain Jai Kishen. This was a festive day here at HMI; celebration of 105th Birth Anniversary of Late Tenzing Norgay, graduation ceremony of the basic mountaineering course and also the prize distribution of the first Mountain Biking race, organized by HMI. We enjoyed the vibrant atmosphere at HMI at spent our night at student Hostel.

30.05.2019: Darjeeling to NJP: Overnight train to Kolkata
We had our breakfast at HMI, started from Darjeeling by chartered jeep and arrived at New Jalpaiguri Station. Boarded our train at night for Kolkata.

Conclusion:
Thus our Singalila Cleaning Expedition was successfully concluded by collecting 68 nos. of garbage bags weighing about 2.5 to 3 tonnes from the entire trekking route between Manebhanjang to Sandakphu and dumping them at the segregation point at Manebhanjang. We also generously distributed the leaflets, placards and posters containing message of waste disposal and pollution control in The Himalaya among not only to the local people, homestays and hotel owners but also to the trekkers and tourist, we came across enroute.
We are indebted to Gr. Captain Jai Kishen, Principal of HMI, for his wholehearted association with our expedition.
I also express my sincere gratitude to Ms. Joyshee Dasgupta, District Magistrate, Darjeeling District, Mr. Arjun Chhetri, Range Officer, Singalila Range, Mr. Bhurba Bardewa, Beat Officer, Tonglu Range, for their active help and support without which, our noble mission would not be successful.
In order to conserve the unique natural beauty & ecosystem of the Himalaya, this type of cleaning operations from voluntary organisations like The Himalayan Club, are more needed on regular basis but without public awareness in the locality & among the tourists & trekkers, the area can not be kept clean.
Moreover, there should be active involvement of local administration for proper waste disposal from the mountains and some stringent rules (and penalty for violation) for the visitors and shop owners should be framed to keep Himalaya clean.

Organized by
The Himalayan Club, Kolkata section
Jointly with Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling