“Developing clean and garbage free surroundings at tourists places for the purposes of maintaining the continuing rise in tourist footfall at key tourist places is the duty of ot only tourism department and Government controlled civic bodies but also of local populations”.
Eid is an occasion of festivity and this is the time locals visit tourist places who unfortunately throw waste in open spaces in parks and gardens. While dustbins are seen installed in parks and gardens at all the tourist places across Kashmir, the local visitors are seen carelessly throw plastic bottles and wrappers in open spaces instead of using dustbins installed for their convenience. Knowing that littering has been banned by the Government at public places the local visitors instead of furthering the causes of waste disposal management don’t give up the habits of littering not at one or the other tourist place on the eve of Eid Ul Fitr and Eid Ul Adha. Developing clean and garbage free surroundings at tourists places for the purposes of maintaining the continuing rise in tourist footfall at key tourist places is the duty of ot only tourism department and Government controlled civic bodies but also of local populations for whom the tourist activities are the sources of livelihood opportunities. Not only developing clean and garbage free surroundings at tourist places for the convenience of the tourist but educating tourists about the waste management practices, and disposing of waste is also the duty of local populations . While Kashmir is known for its clean environment and clean water, the uncivilised patterns of local populations threaten equally both the environment at tourist places and as well as the preservation of water bodies.
“Since the trend of using open spaces for garbage dumping at key tourist places on the eve of religious festivals like Eid Ul Fitr and Eid Ul Adha is more rampant among youth the public awareness campaigns in schools and colleges could reduce the trend of using open spaces for garbage dumping among the youth in Kashmir in Kashmir Valley.”
Public awareness as such is the only way to bring about a change in the civic sense of the locals in Kashmir. Public awareness to develop better civic sense among the locals would probably reduce their tendencies of using open spaces for garbage dumping at tourist places in Kashmir valley. Since the trend of using open spaces for garbage dumping at key tourist places on the eve of religious festivals like Eid Ul Fitr and Eid Ul Adha is more rampant among youth the public awareness campaigns in schools and colleges could reduce the trend of using open spaces for garbage dumping among the youth in Kashmir in Kashmir Valley. The onus of launching such public awareness campaigns lies not only on the tourism department and the civic bodies of top tourist destinations of Kashmir Valley but also on the heads of schools and colleges across Jammu & Kashmir. Otherwise also the motivational and awareness campaigns are must for developing civic sense among the youth in Kashmir valley like other parts of the country.
