Journey to Gurudwara Hemkund Sahib - Environmental Perspective

Working in an environment magazine is enough to brand one as an activist, and in some ways one does become one, feeling guilty of doing half the things which have become part of modern lifestyle. As I realised on a recent family pilgrimage to Hemkund Sahib, which for me was more of an adventure trek and a vacation obtained after four years in professional life, it is not easy to keep work out of your mind and therefore one is rightly branded an activist. After three years of covering environment, I have developed a “cringe at first sight” relation with plastic waste. And this fact was made use of the most by my own family who would have a good laugh everytime I evinced the emotion.

Hemkund, a glacial lake, is situated in the Nanda Devi Biospehere Reserve in Uttaranchal. The tenth Guru of the Sikhs is known to have meditated near the lake before assuming the human avatar. The pilgrimage includes a 19-kms trek after reaching the base camp at Gobind Ghat. But my problem started from Delhi itself as we left with a 150 people strong ‘religious troupe.’ They distributed ice-creams as soon as we started the wrappers of which everybody threw happily out of the bus even as they sang religious hymns. I managed to procure a polythene (for all my hate for the thing!) in which I collected the wrappers that I took from my parents and aunt and brother.

On the way from Shrinagar to Govind Ghat in the third day of journey from where we were supposed to start the trek, the group decided to stop near the banks of the river Alaknanda and prepare lunch. As some elders cooked, all others went down to the river bank to cool their heels; and also took along their soft drink bottles and tin cans. “Such is nature’s paradox. Even as the sun is lashing down on us, there is ice-cold water that provides relief. You do not get to see this ever in Delhi,” said a young man in the group as he sipped from his can of Pepsi. The next moment brought exactly what I dreaded. The can was flowing with the ‘ice-cold water.’ We went up to the road side for lunch. The site was chosen not just because of proximity to the river but also for a hand-pump that was much needed for cooking and washing. An old ascetic lived in a shack near the hand-pump who I am sure was used to the ‘loud’ Punjabis by now. The food tasted good but not the after-affects. The disposable plates were thrown in a pile near the ascetic’s shack along with the leftover food and other vegetable waste. This I could not collect in my polythene and my brother jeered at my obvious misery.

“Oye Environment! if you think too much, you will not be able to enjoy your vacation,” he said.

That is how my family has come to address me as in the last few years.

While talking about the role of religion in Environment conservation, Shrivatsa Goswami, a Mahant in Vrindavan told us last year that the quality of river water in a region talks a lot about the character of people in that region. If the river is pristine, people are still honest and sincere while its vice-versa in places where the river is dirty. I recalled this as we approached Govind Ghat. Parallel to the river, just a little higher, one could see a stream of vehicles, in all hues and sizes. There were more than a lakh pilgrims at Govind Ghat that day. The hoardings stating the presence of an eco-development committee were re-assuring but only for a short time. The claims that garbage is sent down to the plains for processing was trashed soon when I saw the sweepers off-loading their trolleys on the hill side, straight down into the river. I don’t know how long will the river remain pristine there.

Having reached the Gurudwara before my family, I was waiting outside when the organizer of our group came by. Trying my best not to sound like an ‘activist’ I asked him if it was possible that the pilgrims brought their own steel utensils for the food served on the way. “We tried doing this, but people are not admitting at all. They think it is extra luggage. We even tried carrying it for them but they are not happy even washing them,” said Bubble, as he was called by all of them. I wondered how people managed before “disposable plates” were invented.

Soon, I saw my mother and aunt who proudly showed me their shopping for the next day’s trek: five wooden sticks and five raincoats, costing Rs 10 each and made of polythene. “They are so cheap, one can even throw them after use,” said my aunt. Yeah! I glared at her. The next day, I was to see a lot of them covering bushes as we climbed the mountain.

19 kms of trek might not be an easy feat for all age groups. But more than the strength, I realized it was the religious drive that was edging most people when I looked back at the stream of humanity climbing up. Apart from the mules and piggy backs and ‘Palkis’ carrying those who could afford them, there were also people as old as 80 and kids as young as 4-5 who climbed uncomplainingly, with a prayer on their lips. I made some friends amongst these fellow Moksha seekers who were surprised like a child at every glacier, stream and unusual looking bushes and fruits. I also made a few friends who wondered why can’t there be a road from Govind Ghat to Hemkund. “Afterall, lakhs of people go up every year. The government should think on these lines,” said a professor from Punjab. “Moksha is not so easy, Prof,” I said to myself but dreaded the idea of blasting the mountains for the road.

Well, the trek did not turn out to be as difficult with the Dhabas at every turn selling all sorts of things, from raincoats to Glucon-D to packaged drinking water. Infact, I received a piece of advice as I filled my bottle from a stream on the way. “This water might be polluted, you will fall sick,” said one elderly lady. I recalled the ads of Himalaya and Ganga bottled water that claim the water to be especially “packaged from the mountain streams.” I wondered if that was safer because it was sold for Rs 15 a litre and not free like this stream. Here, I had another tussle with my family as they bought bottles of Limca. “They have sweepers all along the way to take the garbage down and recycle it,” my father said. One such sweeper was lighting a pile of garbage with his ‘beedi’ on my way back. I had become an old-fashioned cynic; I slapped myself on the head.

My mother, whose last trip to Hemkund was 30 years ago, said that things used to be very different back then. “There were not so many shops. Very few people went up because we had to walk on the glacier after the first 4-5 kms of the trek. The Hemkund ‘sarovar’ itself had little water as the rest was frozen and it was a challenge to take even a single dip in the ice-cold water, a ritual around which the pilgrimage is based,” she said. Well, we did not get a chance to walk on the snow but I was amazed to see the blue lake. The water was chilly but felt calming after the long trek.

As the atheist me sat there wondering how the Guru managed to find such a beautiful place to meditate, I heard the statutory announcements from the Gurudwara behind the lake.

“This is the Guru’s abode, all the pilgrims coming up should take care that they do not soil the surroundings. Please do not eat and throw chips packets and bottles around,” said the Granthi.

I wondered if anybody was listening.

Filed under Environment, Recycling, Rivers, Travel |
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