When tourists enter the Kanchenjunga area, they should follow the guidelines for rubbish and fuel use. They should not demand hot showers they do not really need, because heating water consumes precious firewood.
During the trekking season, wood use in some settlements along the routes more than doubles. In a fragile mountain environment, this pressure cannot continue without consequences.
Every campsite we have inspected in recent years shows some pollution or damage. Trekking groups or their support staff leave rubbish, toilet pits remain uncovered, and drainage channels are cut wherever convenient.
The most damaged camps lie in fragile alpine and sub-alpine zones, often beside water that cannot safely absorb soap, shampoo or human waste.
Waste is thrown down too casually. Tourists are not always the people leaving it; support staff are often responsible. But visitors can influence what happens by asking their agency how rubbish is managed and by expecting the whole group to behave responsibly.
Tourists can also set an example for local residents. When they explain why they avoid litter, conserve water and limit firewood use, environmental care becomes a shared conversation rather than an instruction delivered only by conservation organisations.
A responsible visitor should care about the footprint of the cook, porter and agency as much as about the rubbish in their own backpack.
Hot showers may feel like a small comfort after a difficult trek, but their environmental cost is high when every litre must be heated with wood collected locally. Visitors should ask what the landscape can sustain rather than expect the same facilities available at home.
Agencies also need better systems for toilet pits, drainage and carrying non-biodegradable waste out of the conservation area. Beautiful campsites cannot remain beautiful if every group leaves a little damage behind.
Trekkers bring short term and seasonal benefits, but the mountains, forests and streams carry thes scars ot their behaviour long after the groups have gone.