Prayer on lips, plastic on route: Each Amarnath pilgrim litters 100 items

Indore: Every pilgrim visiting the Amarnath cave carries faith in their heart but also leaves behind up to 1 kg of waste during the average three-day pilgrimage, littering nearly 75 to 100 waste items, including plastic bottles, disposable cups and plates, food wrappers, tetra packs and worn-out slippers, according to estimates by an Indore-based agency managing waste along the shrine route.

The environmental footprint becomes stark when multiplied by the pilgrimage’s year-on-year increase. Nearly five lakh devotees undertook the yatra last year, generating close to 400 tonnes of waste across the two-month pilgrimage season. It required thousands of horses and sanitation workers to bring the garbage down from the mountains.

With this year’s Amarnath Yatra scheduled from July 3 to Aug 28, waste managers are planning a campaign to encourage pilgrims to carry reusable plates, bowls, glasses, spoons, water bottles and cloth bags to reduce the volume of disposable waste generated along the route. The initiative is being coordinated by Indore-based Swaaha Resource Management, which has been managing waste collection and processing along the route since 2022.

“If pilgrims return to the old practice of carrying their own steel utensils and water bottles, it can make a significant difference. Earlier, devotees would travel with reusable plates, bowls and glasses during pilgrimages, generating far less waste than we see today,” said Sameer Sharma, chief executive officer and co-founder of Swaaha Resource Management.

According to the agency, around 60% of the waste generated during the yatra comprises food waste, discarded clothes and mule dung while the remaining 40% consists of plastic bottles, cold drink tetra packs, cigarette packets, gutka pouches, metal cans, footwear, rubber and other non-biodegradable material collected from camps, trekking routes and mountain slopes.

Data maintained by Swaaha shows that waste generation touched around 550 tonnes in 2022, stood at about 470 tonnes in 2023, rose to nearly 520 tonnes in 2024 and remained close to 400 tonnes in 2025 despite sustained waste reduction efforts.

Moving hundreds of tonnes of waste out of the Himalayas is a massive logistical exercise. Last year, nearly 4,200 horses were deployed to transport waste from high-altitude collection points to processing facilities lower down the route, with each horse carrying up to 50 kg of waste. The operation was supported by more than 3,000 personnel engaged in collection, segregation, transportation and processing activities throughout the pilgrimage.

“Collection, segregation and disposal of waste at Amarnath is challenging because of the terrain, weather conditions and the large number of pilgrims. The goal is to ensure devotees leave behind prayers and memories rather than mountains of litter in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem,” Sharma said.

To reduce the volume of waste generated at source, the company plans to intensify information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns through social media outreach and awareness drives before and during the pilgrimage. Pilgrims will be encouraged not to litter the sacred route and to carry reusable alternatives instead of relying on disposable products.

As part of this year’s initiative, Swaaha also plans to facilitate water ATMs along the pilgrimage stretch to encourage devotees to refill reusable bottles rather than purchase packaged drinking water, one of the largest contributors to plastic waste on the route.

Waste collected from camps, mountain slopes, trenches and trekking routes is transported to 15 solid waste management facilities established along the pilgrimage corridor. Of these, nine facilities located in high-altitude areas operate through pedal-powered systems because electricity is unavailable, while six facilities connected to the grid undertake waste processing and composting operations.

Waste collected during the pilgrimage is segregated into multiple streams, with biodegradable material processed into compost and distributed to local cultivators in collaboration with the horticulture department of Jammu and Kashmir, while recyclable material is segregated and channelled into authorised recycling streams.

“We work on the principle that every waste stream has value. Waste generated during the yatra is either recycled, upcycled or converted into compost. The objective is to ensure that nothing ends up in a landfill despite the challenging conditions in which we operate,” Sharma said.