It is the need of the hour for all of us to do our part in being more responsible when it comes to reducing each of our carbon footprints on this planet.
From the onset Anthill Adventures will strive to practice certain ethics that will reduce the impact on the pristine and fragile habitats of the Himalayas. Just how will we go we go about achieving this is the question that pops to mind right? Luckily for us there are a lot of resources that can help us put all theoretical knowledge about eco camping and trekking into practical practice. One such resource is to tap into the invaluable principles of Leave No Trace or LNT. These are seven principles, if followed, will yield close to zero impact on the trails and camping spots frequented on treks.
All of these principles are equally important and compliment each other but one of them really stands out; ‘Dispose of waste properly’. Through the history of trekking in the Himalayas if there is one thing that has destroyed the mountain sides more than anything else if is that people leave behind a lot of waste and return to their homes, leaving the campsites and trails strewn with plastic candy wrappers, bottles, bags and other non-biodegradable waste. How can we prevent this from happening? The first step is to plan what we are packing in for the trek. We urge all clients to minimise plastic containers and bags as well as eatables wrapped in plastic. Just by being conscious of what we carry up we automatically reduce the amount of waste produced. Simple isn’t it? The waste that we do produce during the treks will be packed in garbage bags and brought back with is to be disposed in designated dump sites.
The idea of Leave No Trace at the end of the day is to try and remove as much evidence of our stay on the camp sites and to leave the trail clean. Try and leave it as if we were never there! Practising ‘Negative Trace’ is a great way of showing that you genuinely care for the mountains ecosystem. Picking up trash that other people have left or dropped by accident will ensure clean trails and campsites. Even though this may be tedious and take effort is really satisfying to see that a patch of forest has been left void of rubbish. We would urge our clients to help with this whenever possible. The more the merrier!
Last but not the least, Anthill Adventures will be taking small groups of people up for treks. The group size will not exceed 12 people on any trek. Smaller number of people automatically leads to reduced impact on the environment as compared to larger groups.