Shimla, June 19 -- A foreign traveller visiting Himachal has expressed her concerns over large scale littering in a viral video, raising questions on civic sense and danger to the ecologically fragile Himalayan state. In the video, the female traveller points to heaps of garbage at several locations and appeals to people to keep the hill town clean. "I have just one request--please stop doing this. I am in Shimla, and while travelling here I saw garbage in many places. You call this place the land of the gods, so how can you litter these areas?" she says. She also urges people to keep trash inside their vehicles and avoid throwing it outside. "Why can't you keep your trash inside the car you are travelling in? When you find a bin at a hotel, home or anywhere else, put it there," she says. "How can you do this to your religion and your country?" she asks. Roughly 30,000 vehicles are entering the state capital every day, said officials. Expressing concern, environmentalist and founder of NGO Healing Himalayas, Pradeep Sangwan, said the issue requires urgent policy intervention alongside community participation. The NGO has been working on waste management in the mountains for over a decade. Sangwan said, "From a policy perspective, Himachal and other Himalayan destinations need to identify tourist destinations according to footfall. Locations such as Atal Tunnel should have policies based on the number of visitors they receive. Local administrations must assess how much garbage is being generated and develop infrastructure accordingly." Over the past ten years, we have established eight material recovery facilities at environmentally sensitive locations, including Atal Tunnel and Chitkul, he said, adding collectively, these facilities now collect around nine tonnes of waste every day across Himachal. "If these facilities did not exist, this waste would either be dumped into rivers such as the Beas and Sutlej or burned," he said. Echoing the concerns, a tourist from Lucknow said,"There is a need for authorities to take strict action. Heaps of garbage littered all over harms not just the scenic beauty but also leads to larger damage to environment. If we do not act now, things will get irreparable," said Neeta Sharma. The Himachal Pradesh high court has recently criticised the Manali municipal council for transporting unsegregated wet waste over 300 kilometers to Ambala, Haryana, noting that moving untreated waste pollutes the entire national highway. The order came during the hearing of three collective matters pertaining to the unscientific disposal of legacy and solid waste at Rangri - which is around 3km from Manali. The court has set July 8 as next date of hearing and directed the executive officer, Manali municipal council, along with an authorised representative of the private company to remain present. Apart from this, the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (HPSPCB) in March this year had filed a complaint against the member secretary of the Special Area Development Authority (SADA), Manikaran-cum-Town and Country Planner Ghanshyam Sharma, and Gaurav Malik of Lakshaya Total Solutions, a private garbage processing company, for failing to clear the waste from the areas of Kasol and Manikaran despite repeated reminders.The action came in the backdrop of proceedings initiated by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had taken suo motu cognisance of reports showing heaps of garbage dumped at Kasol in the Manikaran area of Kullu district in May 2025. Recently, HC had also taken suo-moto cognisance of reports regarding the unscientific disposal of solid waste in Dharamsala and had asked the. The division bench comprising of chief justice GS Sandhawalia and justice Bipin C Negi has directed the deputy commissioner, Kangra, along with the pollution control board officer and municipal corporation, Dharmashala, to give a report on July 2....