Solid waste management in Manali

Manali is a popular hill resort of India located in state of Himachal Pradesh in north-western Himalayan region of the country. It attracts about a million tourists annually. As a result the town has a large number of hotels and floating population of the town touches a peak of about 35,000 against a fixed population of about 5000 residents during peak season. Proper solid waste management has been a burning issue at Manali for sometime as the descretion of landscape was beginning to be noticed by large number of tourist visiting the place. Collection of waste has been a major constraint due to difficult hilly terrain. Disposal options are also limited as the land for disposal is hard to come by. Manali is a favourite summer resort for a large number of important decision makers and prominent citizens of India, including the Prime Minister, clean Manali has therefore been an issue for consideration at national level. Government of Himachal Pradesh under a funded scheme invited the author to study the situation and formulate a solid waste management project strategy for Manali. The work therefore was undertaken in 1999 to study existing situation and develop a properly formulated action plan.