We go to hill stations to get away from the busy city life. We go there to breathe in the fresh mountain air. We go there to get away from the crowd. But what happens when you go there and you encounter a mass of humanity inching away in vehicles honking and emitting smoke?
Tourism is a thriving business in the hill stations of India. But it has also left our hills sore and If you have been to a hill station on a long weekend, you would know the experience was far from a serene one.
Honking Away And Causing Traffic Jams In The Hills
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Mall roads at a hill station are where all the action is. Hotels, eating joints and most often the best view. In Nainital, for example, the Mall road is situated along the Naini Lake, the main attraction of the town. While the location is absolutely picturesque and offers a breathtaking view of the lake, what is not is the horde of cars honking away and bellowing smoke.
A recent visit to Nainital during the long Holi weekend made us witness a massive traffic jam on Mall Road. While there was hardly any space to walk, thanks to the influx of tourists, what was bewildering was the unbelievable number of vehicles adding to the air and noise pollution. Instead of the fresh mountain air, all we could smell was sulphur dioxide. The traffic jam looked as bad as that of Delhi.
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While the influx of tourists cannot be stopped, what can be capped is the number of vehicles entering a town at a particular time. And in any case, vehicles mustn’t be allowed to crowd the mall roads, which are anyway filled with tourists on foot. Shimla’s mall road, for example, doesn’t allow vehicles and has successfully managed to remain pollution-free to a great extent.
Littering The Hills Like Nobody’s Business
One of the biggest problems about tourism in India is littering. We’ll say it simply, if you don’t care about the hills, you don’t deserve them. Packets of chips and peels of fruits being hurled from cars racing up the hills is certainly not a pleasant sight. Instead of the serene landscape, what one witnesses is heaps of garbage all around. Surely, we shouldn’t expect the authorities to keep cleaning the mess we create.
Chicken Tikka, Anyone?
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Why flood our hill stations with food outlets offering every cuisine under the sun? If you wanted to sit in a Dom*noe’s all day, why visit a hill station anyway. The amount of littering and waste generated by the array of joints catering to tourists is ruining the beauty of our hill stations. It doesn’t hurt to try new cuisines once in a while, especially when you are travelling. Not for nothing did the saying ‘When in Rome, do what the Romans do’ become popular.
These outlets have mushroomed in the hill stations because we demand them. We as tourists are rarely curious about the place as much as we are about our hedonistic pleasures. While there is nothing wrong with that, it becomes a problem when we end up doing more harm than benefit. It’s time we stop being selfish tourists and start travelling as curious travelers. Let’s leave some places as pristine as nature created them.
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