Tourist travel to various places wanting to soak in the beauty of the place, be it historical, architectural, religious or natural beauty. But not many stop to think when one of the reasons why a place looses its sheen is due to their own folly of leaving behind garbage or causing some kind of harm to structures and so on.

The Uttarakhnad State Government is now going to protect its eco sensitive zones to retain its original beauty by restricting the number of tourist. There are many glaciers, National Parks and sensitive areas of surpasing beauty in the Himalayan range in Uttarakhnad. In order to protect these places from destruction due to lack of sensitivity on tourists part, tourist numbers will now be restricted to such places. Gangotri glacier, Gaumukh glacier and Valley of Flowers National Park in the Garhwal district are popular tourist places. In 2008 the government had restricted the tourist numbers to these places to 150 per day. Now the government plans to further tighten the loop by restricting it to only 100 tourists per day. The Gaumukh glacier is already being completely restricted to tourist, with a fencing being built by Gangotri National Park authorities just 500 meters before Gamukh, to restrict tourists from trekking beyond this point. Gaumukh glacier, is the origin of the Ganga river in Uttarkashi district

Thousands of pilgrims, who visit the hill state during the Kumbh at Haridwar, Chardham and Kanwar and other religious congregations, travel to these religious places leaving behind heaps of non-degradable waste, including plastic, which are hazardous to environment. Such littering is poison to ecology. Sign boards are put up to educate the tourists against such behaviours, but they continue to be ignored. This kind of unregulated tourism is a big problem for the state authorities who are trying their best to protect all tourist destinations from this plastic and paper degradation.

Along with irresponsible tourist behaviour, local authorities at all places especially those close to glaciers have to bear the brunt of climatic changes. According to a report of the Dehradun-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, the glaciers are melting at a rate of 17-23 metres per year.

The Uttarakhand State Government is placing restriction at many popular tourist destinations across the state. Hemkund Sahib is a popular pilgrimage place for the Sikhs. It is close to Valley of Flowers National Park, a World Heritage Site famous for its varied species of colourful flowers and types of fauna. The visiting pilgrims leave behind a lot of waste at this place. As a result the government had restricted the entry of tourists to the 14-km long area of the Nandadevi Biosephere Reserve few years ago.

To counter act against this blatant destruction of the fragile ecological biodiversity in the state, and provide the tourist all possible opportunities and services to enjoy nature’s beautiful sights, the Uttarakhand State Government is promoting its campaign “Leave only footprints and take only memories,” through tourist brochures and media campaigners. This will help to spread awareness among the tourist to respect nature’s sensitivity and contribute in its protection rather than destruction.