chadar trek panoramaWhat is Chadar trek?
Chadar is more than a 1000-year-old trail over a frozen river used by ancient traders of the Zanskar region to reach the city of Leh in winter. Chadar, which literally means ‘Layer’, refers to the veil of snow and ice that forms over the river. This is the only way in and out of the Zanskar Valley to Leh when all other routes are closed due to massive snowfall in winter. It’s a walk through time, a travel through history, fighting every moment with the biting cold temperature and solving the puzzle of the continuously shifting ice. A must do the trek for those seeking adventure in the extreme winter.
We, RockyFeet, hereby want to bring into your notice, a few major concerns on the environment of fringes of Zanskar River in use during ‘The Chadar Trek’. In recent time, Chadar trek is very popular among adventure travelers; which is creating a footfall of 4000 or even more during a short duration of max 60 days, JAN- FEB. This year is not going be an exception, for sure, after looking at its beginning. The most positive aspect of this growth in tourism in Ladakh and Zanskar is the employment of locals during winter. We wish with warm hearts, for continuation & sustainability of this growth in tourism. But the sustainability of this growth is not possible without taking care of the environment, where we are organizing tourism. In a more direct way to say incase of Chadar trek are the trail and the campsites.Problem Introduction
3 major observations we made as threats during our journey of Chadar, which are going to create problems for future of Chadar tourism & ecosystem. We trekked from SingreYoma to Neyrak, using 4 major campsites- SingreYoma, SingreKoma, Tibcave & Neyrak. The complete trail and all 4 major campsites are severely littered with non-biodegradable waste. On the trail, we observed majorly plastic rappers of small energy packs like candy, chocolates, date packs etc. At campsites, there is a few more addition of used tin food can, glass bottle, Warmee pouch, bigger food plastic wrappers, and much more. These pullulated sites are just waiting to contaminate the river with increasing water level once summer approaches. In this case, the scenario is serious. Sad to say, all campsites offers an exposed view of human sanitary waste left by the previous camp. Sometimes those are exposed to rocks or inside the little depth of sand soil. With increasing number of tourist and no designated area to pitch toilet tent, the problem is an exponential curve. We believe a good amount of travelers with better hygiene sense will go away from Chadar in future only for this issue. A practice used by local, was essential to protect themselves from cold during earlier days of Chadar survival walk, is now developing threat. Porters and guides are creating campfire on daily basis at every campsite. With increasing demand now they are approaching deep inside the valley to collect wood and in the case of unavailability cut down the trees. We believe no explanation is required to make understand the seriousness of the incident like deforestation in Zanskar or Ladakh. Singre Koma campsite, Chadar trekOur Concern
Tibe cave, Chadar TrekProposed RockyFeet Solutions without creating ban on tourism:
2017, onwards LAHDC started collecting an environmental fee of 2000 INR per trekker, Indian National & 2200 INR per foreign National. Also, as some part of the area comes under the wildlife protected area of Hemis National Park, trekkers need to pay 40 INR per head to Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Protection Department. Apart from this monetary regulation to avail permit for the trek, no such environmental regulations, and implementation of regulations have been observed throughout the trek. Wildlife fee Chadar Trek Environmental fee Chadar Trek Current State of Regulation
RockyFeet as a non-profit organization, promise to extend the hand to implement any proposed solution as per best of our capability. Also, we will be glad to involve in discussion or provide green consultancy to anyone and everyone who are concerned on the same. We love Ladakh; let’s work together for a greener future. Campsite & trail cleaning by RockyFeet trekkers These 3 points concerns & 7 points solution has been handed over to Cheif executive councilor & Chief Executive Officer of LAHDC, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Leh-Ladakh and Chief Conservator of Forests (Eco- Tourism), Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Protection Department Further follow-up and discussion on proposal & implementation of the proposal will be conducted throughout 2017 & till we improve the scenario of the Chadar. Chadar Trek environmental proposal to LADHC Chadar Trek environmental proposal to LADHC Chadar Trek environmental proposal to J&K environmentalA hand of support:
Action taken
Gallery