Awareness walk, cleanliness campaign held at Shandur

CHITRAL: Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF), in order to sensitize the community through awareness, launched a cleanliness campaign at Shandur during the annual festival there.

A temporary tent village is set out at the venue by the participants but there is no proper waste disposal mechanism and most of the trash is thrown away in the vicinity of the makeshift camps, which ends up spreading into the open pastures, streams and lake.

This practice has severe repercussions to environment and has direct effect on pristine wild flora and fauna of this plateau.

In a press release, the SLF said its team led by chief of logistics and HR (retired Col Mushtaq Ahmed Khan), Regional Program Manager (Shafiq Ullah Khan), Social Organizer) arranged the drive the local communities of Sorlaspur and Balim.

The volunteers and SLF team held a walk to highlight the importance of hygiene environment in the camping area. The SLF team addressed the participants of the festival in various languages, including Urdu, Khowar and Pashto, to make them understand the significance of keeping the environment clean and green.

The SLF team also met the director general TCKP Mohammad Ali Syed to share their feedback on future solid waste management and eco-tourism at Shandur festival. They proposed an idea of holistic approach through participation of local communities, NGOs, district administration to effectively implement solid waste management plan and dispose of the waste with minimum impacts on the ecosystem.