Make world-famous ski resort of Gulmarg litte-free

Srinagar: In a novel way to make world-famous ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir litter-free, the authorities have decided to provide “cane baskets and eco-friendly carry bags” to tourists visiting the tourist place.

Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, who represents Gulmarg in the Assembly, today kicked off “litter-free Gulmarg, Drung campaign” at Tangmarg, officials said here today.
Under this campaign, free eco-friendly bags and cane baskets would be made available to the tourists visiting Gulmarg and drung.
The campaign has been launched by an NGO namely Socio-Economic Research Bureau, J&K in collaboration with department of Tourism and Municipal Committee, Tangmarg.
The slogan of the NGO is ”the Eco- Tourist destination can be made litter-free by your small step of disposing of the garbage in these cane baskets and thus helping us to preserve its pristine beauty for generations to come”.
Mr Mir formally launched this campaign at Tangmarg by distributing cane baskets and eco-friendly carry bags among tourists going to Gulmarg which would be collected back after their departure from the tourists spot.
Under the scheme, the free cane baskets and eco-friendly carry bags would be provided to tourists through their drivers against a deposit Rs 50(Fifty) on the entery point (Toll Post) at Tangmarg and which would refunded back after handing over the bag and cane basket full of litter to the volunteers of Municipal Committee Tangmrg and NGO.
For successful launching of this eco-friendly campaign, the NGO had handed over 300 cane baskets and 35,000 people-friendly paper bags to the Municipal Committee Tangmarg for its distribution among the tourists and drivers.
The Minister also launched the official website of Tourist Village Drung after inaugurating the one-day workshop on Eco-Tourism at Tangmarg townhall.
Addressing the occasion, the Minister said steps are afoot to develop Drung as a new tourist destination as the spot has huge potential of rock climbing, camping, skiing, fishing, trekking, pilgrimage and heritage tourism.
The spot has already been declared as Tourist village, he said.