On a normal day you will find her working in her garden or sitting in front of her house. A big smile will welcome you and a thousand words of discussion will follow. She takes you to her world of present and past stories. This powerful woman is Elisabeth.

Elisabeth tells Green Trails Fellow Laura her story.

She has been living in Kuling, a small village in Uttarakhand for 16 years. Everybody knows her. Here is how this came about.

Trekking and mountains have been her life. This journey has taken her from Germany, her home country, to all around the world to finally settle down in Kuling. Touching eighty, she is still filled with energy and passion for the mountains. She even climbed to Junargali at the age of seventy seven!

She spends her time looking after Kuling and its villagers, who have adopted her as one of their own.

Elisabeth with her little neighbour friend.

In one of her treks to Roopkund, she realised the problems that remote areas are facing, especially in issues related to health and sanitation. A touching situation got her very involved with a specific family from the village of Kuling. So involved, that she decided to abandon her homeland, Germany, and start a new life here. That was only the beginning.

One has to be strong to decide to live alone in a village so remote in the Himalayas. It becomes all the more tough when you are a woman and a foreigner. For Elisabeth, this has always been a challenge but never a limitation.

One of her main focus areas is children’s education.

She strongly believes good quality education will bring the children a better future. When she recognises that there is a child with exceptional talent, she gets funding from sponsors to ensure that the child has a bright future and receives a good education. Through her initiative, children from Kuling have had the opportunity to study in big cities such as Dehradun. This opens doors to more possibilities for these children. Currently, she takes care of seven children and supports their education.

After several disappointing experiences with local schools, Elisabeth started running a small library. Children from the village go to the library after school hours. The library has a plethora of books in different languages and categories. This exposes them to ideas that they would not otherwise get in school. Local women take care of this space and help the children select books. This not only helps children to develop their skills but also empowers local women.

Green practices are found frequently in foreign countries. In Elisabeth’s home country Germany, policies are so well implemented that it is a habit for her to recycle, to keep the village clean or to grow her own vegetables instead of buying packaged products. With her daily behaviour, she has become an example for the community.

Spreading awareness of water pollution and its consequences is another practice is another area of focus for her in Kulling. She boils water so that it is clean and safe to drink. In the village, there used to be clean water before plastic pollution entered the picture. Now when it rains, the garbage in the mountains collects in the water sources and the water gets contaminated. It becomes dangerous to drink. Elisabeth has been educating the community about the ill effects of drinking this water. She encourages them to collect water from safe sources.

Last but not least, she helps the Indiahikes Green Trails initiative whenever she has a chance to interact with trekkers. Kuling is the closes village to our Roopkund base camp. It is not uncommon for trekkers to stop by on their way back from the trek to have a chat with her. She shares her experience and knowledge, talking to them about how overcrowding and pollution are harming the mountain ecology. With them, she stresses the deep need for change in our attitude towards the mountains and why they need to be responsible trekkers.

Elisabeth shares her stories and environmental concerns with Indiahikes trekkers and Green Trails team.

Some things make Elisabeth angry. After sixteen years of living in Kuling, she hasn’t been able to change the minds of some locals.

She is deeply concerned about the growing piles of plastic waste in the village or surrounding areas in spite of the awareness campaigns that Green Trails takes up.

She is full of ideas to improve the village with our help. Worried about the limited knowledge that villagers have about wasting management, she is now hopeful about the project that Green Trails is developing – targeting five households as a model to achieve zero waste. She wants this project to be successfully implemented in all houses of the village.

Elizabeth is conscious how vulnerable women are in remote areas, but also their importance in spreading good practices. She tries to empower them by supporting her work in their fields and in their houses.

Elisabeth with Indiahikes’ first local Assistant Trek Leader, Kavita.

She believes having the opportunity to be a Trek Leader gives local women confidence to step out of their comfort zone. She hopes it will present them with a new area of occupability along with a way to spread knowledge among the community.

Always critically engaged with all the issues happening around, Elisabeth has become a strong member of the local community.

Having overcome the attitudes with which people react to an outsider, a female foreigner trying to make a difference in the lives of people living in the small village of Kuling, she has inspired us here at Green Trails. She has shown us that a person who persists long enough with their agenda can make a difference.

Scroll down and send in your wishes for Elisabeth in the comments section. We will make sure it reaches her.

Have a green idea in your mind that could help the environment out? Comment below or write to our Green Trails Head – Lakshmi at lakshmi@indiahikes.com.

1. If you want to serve as a Green Trails Intern: Read this article by our Green Trails Head – Lakshmi.

2. If you want to work with us: Head over to our careers page. We have lots of positions open. We also have lots of applications coming in. So the sooner you apply, the better.

3. If you ended up here by chance and were actually looking for treks to do: Then head over to our upcoming treks page. You’ll find all our Himalayan treks there.

4. If you want to see the 13 best treks of India: Then get our guide here.

How a Solo Female Traveller From Germany Found Home and Peace in Kuling: The Story of Local Hero Elisabeth

After a series of dialogue and persistent efforts from our Green Trails crusader Mohit, the Commissioner of Haldwani has granted us permission to use use the landfill for disposing off non recyclable waste. This permission allows us to dump non-recyclable waste collected from our treks as well as from villages around in the trenching ground for free.

The regular practice so far has been to transport the waste from Lohajung to Dehradun. With this new permission in place, not only does the cost of transportation come down but it also acts as a partial waste management system for villages around Lohajung and for the Roopkund trek.

The villagers have already been giving their waste to indiahikes. Mohit is now working on finalising terms with the Taxi Union to transport all the waste to Haldwani. 

In Mohit’s absence the village Pradhan continued to collect sacks of garbage on his won. At last count, he had collected over 25 sacks. 

For us, this is the first sign of a welcome change in Lohajung. It reveals that villagers are starting to become far more proactive participants of the solution to the waste management problem than ever.

Waste collection log this month in Lohajung: 

Meanwhile in Sankri, our Green Trails interns Shantanu and Shashwat organized an extensive clean-up with the school children.  They targeted the main market road and dump spots on the way to the school.  Around 200 children participated enthusiastically in the clean-up.

School children assembled before the eco club clean up drive in Sankri

The interns followed up the clean up drive with a poster making event. The theme was ‘environmental pollution’. The event saw over 30 children unleashing their creativity.

Participants of the poster making event at Sankti

Shantanu says, “We told them about the theme and a few slogans. We also gave them free reign to draw anything they felt like, related to the slogans. It was fun helping them and giving them any guidance. The children gave it their all in making these posters. From the posters, I could see that they are aware of the problem and want to be a part of the solution.”

The Indiahikes staff at Sankri conducted a clean up drive in the surrounding villages last week. They collected over 405 kg of empty liquor bottles strewn across the slopes. We sent this waste down to Purola.

Would you like to buy an upcycled pillow?

Green Trails interns Shantanu and Shaktisuman are now trying to put the plastic waste found in Sankri to a different use. They have started making pillows with this waste.

These pillows will be put up on sale in the coming weeks for anyone to buy. We hope to use the funds generated through the sale to incentivize villagers to segregate waste at source and give it to us in a clean state. If you are going to Kedarkantha, you can take a look at these pillows and buy them at the end of your trek if you wish.

Students participating in the workshop at Sari

Meanwhile, at Sari, our trek leader Rajkumar conducted a workshop for around 60 students from classes 6-8 in the local school. Indiahikes has been engaging with this school for Green Trails activities for a long time now.

Along with basic English, Rajkumar also taught them about the different kinds of waste found in their surroundings. He was pleasantly surprised by the knowledge that these children already possessed. This workshop will continue for a few more days.

Our Green Trails team is always game for new ideas and ways to tackle the growing waste crisis in the mountains. If you have any ideas to contribute, please email Lakshmi, our Green Trails Head on lakshmi@indiahikes.com.

Indiahikes Gets Permission To Use Haldwani Landfill For Non-Recyclable Waste

Although littering is one of the most prominent and obvious problems that we witness during the trek, there are more problems that needs addressing.  Our Green Trails initiative looks at efficient human waste and food waste management, greener alternatives, non-degradable waste reduction, complete waste cycle and creating awareness amongst locals and visitors. Indiahikes has consistently worked towards addressing these problems and in reducing carbon footprint along the slopes.  

Solid waste management: Indiahikes has, with the help of the trekkers, collected over 750 sacks of non-biodegradable garbage and has redirected them to different landfills/waste management organizations over the past three years. With our continued efforts, we have set the bar for the clean up campaigns during treks.  And our clean-up activities don’t stop with the slope.  We regularly organize clean-up campaigns in the local villages along the slope.  Not only do we organize clean-up campaigns but we also work along with the locals in setting up regular exit routes for the wastes collected.  We take it further and consistently engage in discussion with the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) and Chief Conservator of Forests (CCFs) towards working on sustainable trekking.  

Let me share a recent success story. Indiahikes, along with the locals set up a model village at Jaubhari, the base camp for Sandakphu, with segregation units for the whole village.  The collected recyclable wastes are diverted to kababdi walas (scrap merchants) while the non-recyclable wastes are diverted to the landfill in Siliguri. With an example at hand, the villagers and the government officials at Sandakphu have now come together to set up a waste management system for the whole trek route.

Efficient human waste management:  Using toilet pits is the current norm for toilets that are followed by most trekking organizations in India.  These pits are not only detrimental to the green cover but also threaten the hygiene if improperly maintained.  To address this, we have introduced wet Indian toilets and drums lined with cocopeat.  The wastes generated are collected in a single big compost pit, thereby generating valuable nutrient rich manure out of human waste.  And we haven’t stopped. We are still experimenting on efficient toilet systems that can cause minimal impact on the environment and at the same time can re-utilize the potential of the human waste.   

Efficient food waste management:  Food waste and kitchen scraps that remain after being diverted as food for local cattle is disposed in a compost pit at each campsite.  We are slowly working on introducing biodigester units that will produce fuel and manure from the organic waste generated. We are making incremental progress towards reducing our packaging wastes by either buying it in bulk and using local fresh produce.  We also regularly experiment on introducing local food in the menu, which serves not only as a means to reduce packaging waste but also as a means to experience the local culture.

Green alternatives introduction: Vim bars, toothpastes, hand washes, etc. leaches into the ground and degrades the soil.  There are natural alternatives that are readily available.  Towards this, ash is slowly replacing Vim bars at all slopes and we are further moving towards introducing eco friendly soaps, etc.  New ideas such as creating cloth bags out of old clothes and rags, making eco friendly soaps using ash and oil, rain water harvesting are some of the new initiatives that are currently on our focus list.

If you have any more ideas that can contribute to reduce the carbon footprints on the slopes, please do suggest them to us. You can write to me on lakshmi@indiahikes.in.

Indiahikes has been working hard to keep the mountains clean and to bring down the carbon footprint to zero in the Himalayas. Here's a peek into their work.

How is Indiahikes leaving mountains in a better condition?

We conducted a massive Green Sweep on the Hampta Pass trek. But we were not prepared for the amount of litter we saw. And that taught us an important lesson.  

To give you a perspective, when Hampta Pass opened in the beginning of June, it was a pristine trail. The snow had just melted, giving way to sprawling meadows, flowers, rockbeds, and streams.

But as the season progressed, more and more trekking groups started getting on the trail. Alarmingly, parts of the trail started becoming dumping grounds for waste. At Indiahikes, we call these ‘Litter Hotspots’.

During the peak season between mid-June and mid-July, close to 400 trekkers went on the Hampta Pass trail every day. Every day. 

Many camped off the trail, without sustainable campsite and toilet practices. As a result, zones around these campsites became hotspots for litter. Over time, these hotspots started growing in volume, and in number. 

Even though trekkers in every Indiahikes team cleaned the trail, collected the litter in EcoBags, segregated it, and brought it back to the base, the impact was limited. Indiahikes trekkers only accounted for 25 out of the 400 trekkers going on the trek each day.

Among the rest, there were surely a few others who, if they did not clean others' litter, at least did not add to the litter on the trail. Unfortunately, these numbers are still painfully small.

So by the time we entered the middle of September, our team in Manali knew something more intensive had to be done. 

We decided to conduct a massive Green Sweep to attack the hotspots

A Green Sweep is when all trekkers simultaneously clean specified areas - like campsites - before proceeding forward. Here the team decided to do this to the entire Hampta pass trail! Our team planned to do it over two days - September 14-15, 2022.

We quickly put together a team of 13 Green crusaders. These were our trek leaders and assistant trek leaders who were at Manali, winding up operations at the end of the Hampta season.

They decided to do this out of care for the environment and as a parting gift to the mountains.

Executing such a massive Green Sweep required careful thought and quite a lot of resources because our team anticipated bringing down over 400 kg of litter. 

Collecting so much litter and bringing it down from the mountains is a Herculean task. First, it has to be done on a high altitude trek, where weather is unpredictable. It requires extensive resources to bring back so much litter. To top it, the waste we are looking for is out of plain sight. 

So cleaning up the hotspots required our Green Trail Crusaders to hunt for the waste first and then collect it. That required effort and time. But we had only two days in hand. 

“We decided to focus on some of the prime hotspots. These included Jobri, Chikha and Chhota Balu ka Ghera. To clean these hotspots, we planned to trek till Balu ka Ghera in one day and return with all the litter the next day,” shares Dushyant Sharma, slope manager and leader of the Green Sweep at Indiahikes.

While our team had anticipated litter, what they witnessed shook them up.

The hotspots were teeming with empty liquor bottles and used wet wipes

The hotspot at Jobri where all the trash was dumped behind a rock, away from the trail. Photo by Trek Leader Shrirang Pujari

It was not easy to pick up such waste. To understand the difficulty you have to understand the terrain and the weather. 

Hampta Pass is a Moderate | Level 3 trek. The trail till Balu ka Ghera is not easy. You cover 11 km in one go. While doing that, you climb from 8,965 ft to 12,220 ft. 

“But the most difficult part was not the trail, it was finding the litter,” says Dushyant. Usually trekkers who leave litter behind, hide it under rocks, or bury it underground.

To bring out this litter, our team crouched under rocks, stepped into ice-cold streams, shoveled out layers of soil, and picked up shattered glass bottles. They put their hands into mud, slush, sometimes even human waste, to fish out wet-wipes and sanitary napkins. 

“Many trekkers had burnt waste in campfires. And the remains had solidified in the high altitude. Such waste had to be cracked open, broken. This took a lot of effort,” Dushyant says. 

So even though the team started trekking at 8.15 am they reached Balu ka Ghera only by late evening. Extremely tired and exhausted. 

If this was not enough, it rained heavily as well. "We were close to Jwara when it started raining. And it was raining so heavily that we had to stop and somehow take shelter under rocks. This slowed us down," shares Dushyant.

The waste our team witnessed reflected the disastrous impact of mindless trekking practices and beliefs. If not cleaned, this waste would lie in the remote mountains, contaminating the fragile ecosystem for years to come. 

“Many trekkers believe wet wipes are paper, so they are biodegradable. But they’re not. Even the ones certified as biodegradable wet wipes do not degrade in the harsh conditions of the high altitude,” Dushyant shares.

The Indiahikes team collected 545 kg of litter

I want to put things in context here. The biggest waste contributors on trails are chips packets, biscuit wrappers, toffee wrappers and paper waste. Each of these hardly weighs 3-4 grams. When such is the case, to have removed 545 kg of waste is backbreaking work. 

A major chunk of this waste was packed in sacks and loaded on the mules. A lot of it was carried by our team on their backs, sometimes on their shoulders, in addition to their own backpacks. 

Each of these sacks weighed around 8-9 kg with waste jutting out at odd angles.

Nevertheless, all the waste collected was brought down at our Indiahikes Manali basecamp. But there was more ground to cover. 

After bringing down the waste, our team spent hours segregating it. Then the segregated waste was loaded in a truck and taken to the dumping ground. 

Not many trekkers know this but due to lack of space, there is just one dumping ground in the region — in Rangri. This is a Waste to Energy Plant managed by NextGen Chemicals. If you ever visit this location, you’ll notice mountains of waste being dumped here every day to be processed.

“All waste collected from Kullu, Bhuntar, Manikaran, Jibhi, and the surrounding areas, comes here,” shares Prem Kumar Sharma, the owner of NextGen Chemicals. 

Can you imagine the amount of waste that’s getting accumulated here? 

This season, from just three treks — Beas Kund, Bhrigu Lake, and Hampta Pass — we collected and deposited a staggering 1710 kg of waste at the Waste to Energy Plant at Rangri. Out of that 545 kg was collected from this recent Green Sweep.  

The Green Sweep left a deep impression on our team

The team members involved in the Green Sweep were deeply moved by the experience. 

“When you put your hand into the litter, collecting used sanitary pads resting on human waste, litter that’s rotting, with algae growing on it, covered with slush, it shakes you,” shares Dushyant, “We had a deep realisation, especially from team members who have joined Indiahikes very recently. They saw first hand very deeply how  litter was scarring our pristine mountains.” 

“Such an experience is very powerful for new trek leaders. They understand their responsibilities not only towards themselves but also towards the society. In future they are able to become better trek leaders, sensitised and conscious trekkers,” says Arjun Majumdar, Founder-CEO, Indiahikes.

One such person on the trek was Trek Leader Rahul Paul.  

“I went through a lot of mixed emotions in these two days. I have understood and realised how our own actions and the way we lead our life can have a huge impact on others. Considering sustainability, I don't want to restrict my sustainable practices only when I am in the mountains. Rather, I want to lead a holistic sustainable lifestyle wherever I am,” shared Rahul. 

Being a part of such an experience is life-changing. Yet, it is not the solution to the problem that’s staring us in the face. 

This Green Sweep showed a harsh reality. Popular treks are becoming a dumping ground in the mountains where the pile of waste is growing higher. 

But the lesson it taught us was that Green Sweep by one organisation is not a solution. 

Arjun Majumdar, CEO-Founder of Indiahikes offers his solutions:

“Indiahikes can only do this much. Even after the Green Sweep, the litter left in the mountains is enough for multiple Green Sweeps. The Government, especially the forest department must step in to manage the waste. The number of trekkers on popular trails must be restricted to around 150-200 trekkers per day in peak season. 

The forest department must use the fee collected from trekkers to man every campsite with ranger guards 24/7 for the duration of the season. Watchful rangers can help reduce the waste dumped in a very big way.  

In addition, volunteers can be roped in by the forest department to participate in awareness building as well as in conducting green sweeps — much like how tiger census is done.”

Taking the thought forward, Lakshmi Selvakumaran, Head of Experience at Indiahikes says, 

“Everyone wants to go on treks. People think it is normal to bring alcohol and packaged food on the trek. They feel it is OK to carry wet wipes. More importantly, they feel it is OK to leave them behind. They feel that someone else will clean their mess. The trek cannot survive if fundamentally this is how we behave on the trek,” says Lakshmi Selvakumaran, Head of Experience at Indiahikes.

Considering that trekking is a wonderful sport and impacts people deeply, restricting it is really not the answer. But for any lasting change, collaborative efforts of all stake holders are required.

On this note, I'd like to ask you -- as a trekker, what do you think is the right solution?

We conducted a massive Green Sweep on Hampta Pass trek.

Shocking Litter at Hampta Pass

Hampta Pass, Green Trails, Clean Up Drive, Waste to Energy Plant, Rangri, Indiahikes, 

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