The Darjeeling dilemma: A personal account of waste management in a Himalayan city

I sat in the balcony of my lovely hotel room, sipping a sought-after second flush tea, and gazed out the window at the misty hills of Darjeeling. It was a serene autumn morning, with the sun nowhere to be seen and the town completely engulfed by the monsoon clouds. But as I sat there, my mind turned to the problem that had been plaguing me since the day of my arrival — the ‘chute’.

The municipal garbage dump, also known as the chute, is a unique challenge for waste management professionals. The site is dynamic, with a glacier-like flow and seasonal movements that pose difficulties in quantifying waste and providing tailored solutions.

Recently, I was blessed with an opportunity to visit Darjeeling in official capacity, with a team of professionals working in the water and waste sectors. The aim was to study and understand the city’s dynamics through these lenses.

During the visit, it was evident that cities all across the Indian Himalayan Range need to be made resilient, to address the challenges posed by unprecedented increase in urbanisation and tourist influx. I make this statement after traversing through the nooks and crannies of Darjeeling, speaking with a lot of passionate people and absorbing it all through my perspective as an urbanist.

Our team of researchers witnessed the impact the current waste scenario has on the town’s residents and the environment. The streets of Darjeeling were relatively clean, thanks to the tireless efforts of the team of 325 ‘Nirmal Bandhus’ and ‘Nirmal Sathis’, municipal volunteers who work diligently to manually collect  waste, door-to-door from households, as the narrow alleyways and steep staircases don't allow garbage vehicles to enter.

The municipality has implemented a user charge of Rs 50 for solid waste collection per household per month. But residents are struggling to practice segregation due to inadequate facilities and infrastructure. Additionally, the conservancy department of the municipality manages to capture large amounts of commercial waste, with its limited resources.

By digging a little deeper into the statistics, we found that Darjeeling generates an average of 35 tonnes of waste per day, equivalent to 22 truck loads — a staggering figure that seemed to grow with each passing year.

And it wasn’t just the quantity of waste that was the matter of concern — it was also the quality. It is a dynamic waste site, with a constant flow of unsegregated waste pouring in from households and businesses across the town.

The chute, which was supposed to be a temporary solution, has become a permanent fixture on the outskirts of the town. It is a dumping ground for all sorts of garbage, from food waste to hazardous materials and everything in between. For eight hours every day, this trash is systematically pushed down the mountain with help of a backhoe loader. 

But it is not just the environmental impact that is worrisome. By local testimonials and news articles, it was clear that every winter of the past 15 years, the chute caught fire, releasing toxic smoke into the air that nearby residents were forced to inhale. And with each passing year, the incidents seemed to become more frequent. There have even been tragic instances in the recent past of people falling into the chute and getting hurt and even losing lives.

The tourists who come to visit Darjeeling are not just drawn in by the town’s natural beauty; they are also attracted by its reputation as a haven for those seeking relaxation and rejuvenation. But what would they think if they saw Darjeeling’s bane — the chute — and the havoc it is causing downstream, choking rivers with plastic waste?

The discussion on this peculiar problem among our group of urban planners, environmentalists, engineers and a geographer quickly turned towards the multifaceted impact of this type of dumping. The lack of proper waste management infrastructure was not only an environmental issue — it relates deeply with the social fabric, long-term public health concern, economy and disaster.

Enforcing waste management regulations in mountainous areas is difficult because these rules do not account for the socio-ecological distinctiveness of the Himalayas. Consequently, there is a necessity for policies and resource distribution that are sensitive to mountain environments. The lack of detailed contextual information and data-supported evidence in the technical and planning guidelines for the hilly region is worrisome.

But it is not all doom and gloom. There are solutions to this crisis, and they involve much more in addition to increasing funding for the problem. It is about implementing sustainable solutions and creating a system that recognises the value of Darjeeling’s unique ecosystem and works to protect it.

The first step is to acknowledge the scale of the problem. Darjeeling’s waste management crisis is not just a local issue; it is prevalent throughout the Himalayas. A contextual approach needs to be developed for Himalayan cities for Municipal Solid Waste Management. We need to recognise that waste management is not just about collecting trash; it is about protecting our environment and our health.

The next phase involves creating a detailed strategy to tackle the underlying issues. This includes funding education and awareness initiatives to inform residents about the significance of segregation and recycling. It also involves building sustainable infrastructure focused on waste reduction and minimisation, and enforcing these practices for tourists as well.

The third step is to engage with local communities and involve them in the solution. This involves enabling residents to take charge of their waste management system and providing them with the necessary tools for success. It acknowledges that the residents of Darjeeling are not merely victims of this crisis but also its solution.

In order to do so, we should do three specific things. First, we must spur community engagement:

• Enable critical thinking 

• Enable ability to engage 

Second, we should build capacity among the community:

• Capacity to plan 

• Capacity to build 

• Capacity to operate / implement 

Third, we need to build a community monitoring system. It could be a daily monitored dashboard of waste infrastructures by community members. If done in harmony, the three action points together can shift the power balance, enabling communities to receive more human-centric and enhanced waste service delivery.

A parallel, informal component of the solid waste value chain has emerged in Darjeeling. Scrap dealers and garbage truck drivers recover valuable materials from the trucks before dumping the trash in the chute.

This informal economy generates significant revenue, with each scrap dealer collecting around 3-5 truckloads of sellable material in a month. Increasing their efficiency will help in resource recovery, which will reduce significant load of non-biodegradable waste on the chute and create means of livelihoods and source of earning for people involved.

Darjeeling’s waste management crisis is a ticking time bomb that threatens to destroy this unique ecosystem. It is a crisis that requires immediate attention, sustainable solutions and a commitment to protecting our environment. We cannot afford to wait any longer; we need to act now.

Harshvardhan Nigam is a senior programme officer, National Institute of Urban Affairs. Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.