Agencies hope to reduce manpower, resources spent on cleaning tourist spots

Agencies in charge of the day-to-day functioning of popular tourist spots across the Nilgiris have for long battled to keep their spaces “plastic-free”. With the State-wide ban on single-use plastics set to take effect from next year, there is hope that the huge amount of manpower and resources being expended on cleaning up can be better spent elsewhere.

Northay Kuttan, president of the Pagalkodu Mund Eco-Development Committee (EDC) — that maintains and runs the popular tourist location, Ninth Mile Shooting Medu — said members of the EDC collected around 25-50 bags of plastic each week along a 5-km stretch of road leading to the location and its surroundings.

“We’ve now banned people from taking anything other than water through the entrances, and have also stationed people to ensure plastic items are not strewn across the shooting medu,” said Mr. Kuttan. He added that there were now plans to stop people from taking even water bottles into the area, with the installation of a water ATM.

“We hope that with the ban coming into force next year, the quantum of garbage that gets dumped on the road is reduced,” he added.

In the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, three teams of Eco-Sanitary Watchers pick up garbage strewn by the side of the road by tourists passing through the reserve.

In 2017, the Forest Department started charging ₹5 per person for a visit to the Rangaswamy Peak in Kil Kotagiri, so they could fund the clean-up of the area after the completion of a tribal festival that draws over 4,000 people each year.

District Forest Officer (Nilgiris Division) Sumesh Soman said all EDCs run by local communities with the assistance of the Forest Department manually collect the garbage strewn in popular tourist areas.

“Right now, there is no option but to manually ensure that all tourist spots are kept plastic-free. But there is hope that the blanket-ban on single-use plastics will reduce the time we spend on clean-ups,” said Mr. Soman.

Failed initiatives

The Government Botanical Garden (GBG), the Ooty Lake and Boat House, the Avalanche and the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve have all been battling the dumping of plastic waste.

Recently, the district administration came up with a system to discourage tourists from dumping plastic bottles and other single-use plastic items inside the GBG and the Ooty Lake and Boat House, by charging a fee for every piece of plastic they carry into the two tourist hotspots. The fee charged would be returned once they show the plastic items they carried are brought out with them.

However, the initiative was shelved just a couple of months after it was started due to quarrelsome tourists, who picked arguments with members of women self-help groups, tasked with collecting the fee.