(TAN): Heavy tourist influx following the opening of the Rohtang Tunnel has exposed the three ecologically fragile Lahaul valleys — Chandra, Bagga, and Chenab — to random littering, open defecation, harassment of women, and theft, media reports said.
The strategic Rohtang Tunnel, which provides all-weather connectivity to the people of Lahaul-Spiti, was opened on October 3 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The tunnel is named as Atal Tunnel after the former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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Within hours of the tunnel’s opening, cars from the neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Delhi lined up at Dhundi, outside the north portal of the Rohtang tunnel. On the other hand, Manali suddenly saw a spike in the number of visitors after six months. The 9.02 km tunnel connects Lahaul-Spiti to Manali.
There are no public toilets along the Sissu (North-portal hamlet of the tunnel) to Keylong — the district headquarters, and Udaipur. Nor are there any signs warning against littering or open defecation. So tourists dump empty packets of chips, noodles, empty water, and liquor bottles everywhere.
Potato bags were reportedly stolen from road-side stocks by tourists, something unheard of in the Lahaul valley. A local apple orchard was reportedly ransacked and the entire crop was plucked and taken away by miscreants.
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Cases of harassment of women were also reported. All these unsavory incidents reported over the past 12 days has rattled locals, who are beginning to see the flip-side of mass tourist arrivals across the Rohtang Pass.
“We are in the process of creating proper amenities for the tourists. All facilities like proper eating places and toilets etc. will be built very soon,” state tourism secretary Divesh Kumar said.
