This Winter, Don’t Just Travel to the Himalayas, Heal Them by Donating Rs 500 to Clear Trash

You’ve possibly been scrolling through travel inspo pictures, trying to find the best deals to book your winter escape to the mountains.

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It’s probably been on your bucket list for a while. 

This winter, why don’t we slightly tweak the goal? Why don’t you, instead, do your bit to help the Himalayas heal? 

How? We have a way. 

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‘Kachrawala’, the moniker follows Suman Singh as he trudges the undulating Himalayas, picking trash that threatens to mar the landscape. Five years ago, when he started volunteering with Healing Himalayas Foundation, being called kachrawala(garbage cleaner) bothered Suman. Now, he doesn’t mind it. “After all, I am keeping my mountains clean. The title does not matter,” he smiles. In the early days, Suman was joined by four other volunteers focused on this region of the Himalayas. Eventually, the others left. 

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“Their families did not like that they were picking up trash. They kept telling them that this was not their job to do,” Suman shares. To do such work, a love for the mountains must overshadow any other qualms, Suman deduced. In his current capacity as project manager in the Kinnaur district, Suman is one among the army of 4000 people who are part of this endeavour to clean the mountains. And my conversations with them reveal, they practice what they preach. 

But steering a revolution of this scope takes more than will. It takes funds. And that’s where your donation would help. 

Heal the Himalayas; donate Rs 500

When Pradeep Sangwan (40), founder of Healing Himalayas Foundation, moved to the mountains in 2009, he was just out of college. “I had been trekking for a while, and each time I left for the city, it felt like the mountains were calling me back,” he says. Pradeep decided to heed the call. “While I was always mindful about nature and wildlife, I hadn’t intentionally thought about a cleaning initiative in the mountains. But the three years that I spent living there, talking to the shepherd community and watching how they loved this place they called ‘home’, made me realise how disconnected urban people were with the mountains,” he adds. 

It snapped awake a devotion in him. Pradeep wanted to restore the Himalayas to their former glory. And that intent born in 2016 has scaled into impact in the form of 1,000 clean-up drives that have resulted in 2000+ tonnes of waste being removed, and nine Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) being established in remote regions. 

This winter, The Better India is joining hands with Healing Himalayas Foundation to amplify their waste-management efforts in Kinnaur. The funds we generate will be diverted towards supporting the district’s Material Recovery Facility.  

Each center is equipped with shredding, baling, and compressing machinery, along with pick-up vehicles for efficient waste collection. The funds will also be channeled to support efficient waste collection with staff-supported vehicle operations, waste segregation, dedicated supervision, safety support, and improved data tracking. The goal is to improve waste handling efficiency and significantly increase the material recovery rate across the region.

As Pradeep shares, the mounds of garbage piling up across the white slopes of the Himalayas are a symptom of a mindset problem — gaps in the source segregation of trash. While mitigating the rising piles of garbage is one way to tackle the challenge, he puts the spotlight on the network of solutions they have devised that could help fortify the mindset shift. 

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This includes community awareness and engagement by conducting door-to-door awareness campaigns to educate rural communities on proper waste disposal and management, and creating employment opportunities for local communities through waste management, tourism, and recycling initiatives.

They also partner with local administrations and stakeholders to promote responsible tourism practices that preserve the region’s natural ecology.

Restore your relationship with the Himalayas this winter

Suman grew up in the village of Dubling in Kinnaur. His childhood memories are coloured with stories of taking his family’s goats to graze along the mountains. It started with him seeing a plastic bag one day. Then more. The mound kept growing. Soon, the pristine whites of the mountains were traded for a kaleidoscope of multicoloured waste. Suman presumed the problem was limited to the hillsides. But then, even the waterfall where he’d head to with his friends mirrored the same dystopian fate. 

“Sometimes people would collect trash, but then they would burn it. That would cause pollution and affect the mountains too. Even trash was a problem. Even its disposal was a problem,” he shares. So when he came across a gentleman, Pradeep, who spoke hopefully about a contingency plan that could tackle this issue, Suman decided to work with him. 

“If there was a way to dispose of trash without it causing fumes in the mountains, then I wanted to be part of an initiative that was doing this,” Suman reasons. And that’s how his and many other volunteers’ journeys started. 

According to The Himalayan Cleanup report (2024), which is based on brand audits conducted from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh since 2018, the highest mountain range in the world is in jeopardy. The findings of the report suggest that over 75 percent of plastic waste collected was not recyclable. 

So, where is all this trash coming from? 

The answer might lie in the Himachal Pradesh state government’s ‘Economic Survey' report for FY 2024-25, which suggested that a total of 180.41 lakh Indian tourists and 0.83 lakh foreigners visited the state in 2024. 

Healing Himalayas Foundation, through its work, is attempting to open a dialogue between the problems that plague the peaks and the solutions that can help overcome them. 

This winter, help us amplify their impact. As Pradeep learnt from the time that he spent with the shepherds, attempting to keep the Himalayas clean is a heavy task. “Do you not get tired?” he once asked them. “Karte raho, karte raho, dheere dheere khatam hona hi hai(Just keep going, and eventually you have to see results),” he was told. Today, he embodies that same philosophy in his work. 

But with your help, we can achieve a milestone. Donate here to help heal the Himalayas this winter. 

How much trash your contribution can help clear in just six months

The scale of waste choking the Himalayas feels overwhelming but your contribution can directly change that. Healing Himalayas Foundation has shared clear data showing exactly how much waste can be collected, segregated, and diverted away from landfills with your support.

Across six months, a fully supported Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Kinnaur can prevent nearly 45,000–48,000 kg of waste from polluting mountain slopes, riverbeds, and village commons. This includes plastic packaging, glass, metal cans, multilayered waste, and other materials that are typically dumped or burned in the open.

Your donation helps ensure that this waste doesn’t end up in a landfill, but instead reaches a recycling centre where it can be processed safely. Every rupee directly strengthens the system, from paying on-ground staff and fuel for pick-up vehicles to powering segregation equipment and ensuring safe handling of recyclables.

Here’s what your individual contribution translates into on the ground:

• Rs 250 helps sort and process 25 kg of waste
  ≈ one full week of waste from a small dhaba or homestay
  
  

• Rs 500supports the responsible handling of 50 kg of waste
  ≈ one large collection bag filled with mixed tourist waste from a winter trail
  
  

• Rs 1,000 helps manage 100 kg of waste
  ≈ the amount generated by a small mountain village cluster over two days
  
  

When you look at it this way, the impact of one contribution becomes clear.
Rs 500 from you = 50 kg of trash saved from the Himalayas

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Multiply that by hundreds of supporters, and we collectively heal the mountains, one bag, one trail, one village at a time.

This winter, your support doesn’t just fund waste collection; it strengthens a circular system that keeps the Himalayas clean long after the season ends.

All pictures courtesy Healing Himalayas Foundation

Sources

'Plastic pollution crisis deepens in Himalayan region as 71% of waste is not recyclable: Report': by Vivek Mishra, Published on 9 May 2025. 

The Himalayan Cleanup Reports.

Government of Himachal Pradesh Economic Survey 2024-2025.