Jammu & Kashmir has welcomed record number of tourists this year. But at a price. Unprecedented and unregulated tourist footfall to Kashmir's high-altitude trekking sites has posed a major threat to ecologically fragile high-altitude alpine lakes, in particular the trek trails of the Kashmir Great Lakes in central Kashmir.
The Tourism Department in Kashmir has been alarmed by unusual littering of plastic and polythene trash along the 72-km trek trail to the famous lakes - Vishansar lake, Krishansar lake, Gadsar lake, Harmukh peak and Gangabal twin lakes. In a cleanliness drive launched between September 23 and 27, volunteers collected heaps of garbage, "having potential to increase ground temperature in the long run" in the Harmukh mountain range of Himalayas.
A record two million tourists have visited Kashmir this year, up from 13 lakh tourists who visited the Valley in 2013.
