Four mountaineers with the purpose to create awareness on environmental issues and to carry out cleanliness expedition at Mount Yunam, situated in lahaul-Spiti, Himachal Pradesh left the capital city on Tuesday. The team after completing the expedition will return on September 25. The team is being supported by CCl through its CSR programme. CCl CMD, Gopal Singh flagged off Rock and Rope Adventure Mountaineering Team in presence of CCl staffs and officials.
Addressing the gathering, CMD Gopal Singh said that this expedition is commendable and source of inspiration for people. Singh added that CCl has always supported talents and initiatives for overall holistic development of society.
The group members of Rock and Rope Adventure Sports had carried out similar voyage earlier also. “We have received a monetary assistance of Rs. one lakh from CCl. last year too the group was supported by CCl. In 2015, the group members successfully carried down 80 litre non biodegradable garbage from cliffs. This year, we have set the target of carrying down 500 litre non biodegradable waste,” said, Ravi Raj of Rock and Rope Adventure Sports who is leading the team in expedition.
last year this mountaineering team with support of CCl had collected garbage from Mount Gagstan and became a part of PM Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
Notably, due to the growing trekking expedition, mountaineers often breach the set environmental guidelines of Indian Mountaineering Foundation. The main climbing routes are littered with discarded tents and food packets including plastic bottles and sweet wrappers on the rocky plateau that is base camp, as a result glaciers are being severely affected said Raj.
With the message ‘Save Himalaya, Save Water, Save life’ and with the goal ‘leave No Trace Behind’, the trekkers have started their journey. “Presently, Himalayan Glaciers fulfills the requirement of approximately 4.2 billion people and is being affected by the trekking activity carried out there. The initiative taken up by the team will ensure both promotion of adventure sports and will also create awareness among the trekkers,” added Ravi.
This year, approximately, Rs 3.5 lakh is spent on trekking activity. However, all the team members have arranged the money on their own as no government assistance is provided to them.
“Even after approaching the Department of Sports to provide aid to the sports person associated with adventure sports, we have not received any satisfactory answer from the department. Department officials claim that they will only provide assistance to regular sports as adventure sports is not in their list,”Ravi added.