DALHOUSIE: Honking by endless tourist vehicles, a long trail of discarded material, roads littered with discarded pet bottles and potato chip packets etc. and persistent traffic jams on the narrow three kilometre road spiralling from Lakkarmandi to Kalatop wildlife sanctury in Dalhousie not only disturbs the serenity of jungle and its inhabitants but also leaves behind excessive waste.Away from badly-polluted concrete cities, the Kalatop jungle trekking adventure is a ‘must do’ in the itinerary of almost every tourist visiting Dalhousie but instead of advising a three kilometre trek through the Deodar forest, the tour operators encourage tourists to take a taxi ride for additional profit.“I didn’t know about Kalatop adventure track and was guided by my tour operator to visit Kalatop in taxi but upon reaching here I think I committed a mistake and a grave crime towards mother nature,” said a tourist Shankar Luthra while talking to TOI.The forest department charges Rs 250 per vehicle for a trip to Kalatop while it is free to walk on foot.While complaining of rising air pollution and dip in temperature due to emissions from tourist vehicles, a local resident Lobsong suggested that administration should encourage people to walk through the forest. "If a few tourists are unable to walk then E-rickshaw’s should be instroduced which will not create any pollution and instead provide jobs to local," he suggested.Another tourist from Tatanagar, Kanika Manna, whose vehicle was jammed in traffic blockade for nearly twenty minutes said that the forest department takes money from them but didn’t even regulate the flow of traffic."At least they shouldn’t allow the traffic to pass from both ways at a same time, it can be regulated," she said.Justifying levying charge on every vehicle going to Kalatop from Lakkarmandi, divisional forest officer, Chamba, Nishat Mandhotra said, "It is not a public road but a forest road, the primary aim to charge from every vehicle is to restrict the movement of vehicle since the road doesn’t have enough carrying capacity."While stating that so far there wasn’t any proposal to introduce E-rickshaw’s from Lakkarmandi to Kalatop, he suggested that there was a need to carry out a carrying capacity study and implement it suggestions.

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