The Challenge in the Mountains
At the Leh gate, where visitors pause to take in the stark Himalayan landscape, plastic wrappers and bottles quietly collect in the wind. Every summer, the town’s population multiplies several times over, and the waste system struggles to keep pace. Tourism, students, migrant workers, and army personnel together swell the town’s floating population far beyond its capacity.
According to the Waste Flow Diagram Report for Leh (2024), the town generates around 7–8 tonnes of waste per day in winter, rising to 30–40 tonnes during the summer peak. This seasonal surge leaves an estimated 3,000 tonnes of waste unmanaged annually. Despite expansion from 12 to 21 wards and regular household segregation, collection remains irregular. In many wards, the collection is done only once a week. The limitations of Leh’s Centralised collection system are becoming increasingly clear.
Why Centralised Systems Fall Short in the Mountains
Leh’s geography, consisting of steep gradients, snow-blocked roads, and narrow lanes makes Centralised waste transport costly, slow, and unreliable. The single Material Recovery Facility (MRF) at Skampari operates near capacity for most of the year.
“During peak tourist months, collection trucks can’t reach some areas, and storage piles up quickly,” - Stanzin Rabgais, Executive Officer of MCL.
The situation reveals an underlying issue. Waste management systems designed for plains often don’t fit the mountain context.
Decentralisation: A Scalable and Climate-Resilient Alternative
To address this, Leh has begun experimenting with ward-level composting and decentralised waste processing. One such unit now handles wet waste from nearby households, using sawdust, natural aeration, and solar-powered fans and IoT sensors to maintain ideal composting conditions. The resulting compost, NABL-certified for quality, is supplied to the Horticulture Department for landscaping and greening projects.
This model, supported by LEDeG and BORDA South Asia, currently diverts around 20% of wet waste from landfills, preventing roughly 1,500 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions annually. When scaled alongside complementary dry-waste processing, it could divert over 90% of total waste, avoiding 7,000–8,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent each year. Smaller, solar-powered collection vehicles are also being tested to improve mobility in narrow lanes and snow-prone zones.
“Decentralised systems allow us to manage waste locally, cut transport emissions, and create livelihood opportunities,” says Konchok Tashi of Plannable Co., a Leh-based firm designing climate-resilient, community-driven planning solutions for the Himalayas.
These initiatives also revive Ladakh’s traditional ethos, where kitchen ash, animal dung, and organic scraps were never wasted but reused with care.
Tourism as a Stress Test, Not the Story
Tourism introduces new waste streams such as multilayer packaging, bottled water, and single-use plastics that never existed in Ladakh’s self-sufficient past. Hotels and guesthouses, many with new flush systems, also add to wastewater challenges. But rather than being the story, tourism serves as a stress test, revealing how fragile centralised systems can become under pressure and how decentralisation enhances resilience.
If local hotels, cafés, and homestays adopt segregation and on-site composting, much of this additional load could be managed within the community itself.
Lessons from the Mountains and Beyond
Across India, from Alappuzha in the south, which pioneered a network of community composting units that eliminated the need for a central landfill, to Panchgani in the Western Ghats, where ward-level composting and community-led collection manage nearly all organic waste locally, decentralised systems are proving their worth. Leh’s pilots demonstrate that similar success is possible in high-altitude settings too, provided there is consistent segregation, operational ownership, and municipal support.
Parvat Manthan: Framing the Larger Dialogue
The Parvat Manthan dialogues have repeatedly emphasised that mountain cities need systems that are circular, resource-efficient, and community-managed and not scaled-down versions of those in the plains. Leh’s decentralised approach aligns perfectly with this vision. It reflects how local innovation, supported by technical partners like LEDeG and BORDA South Asia, can strengthen resilience and promote self-reliance in fragile mountain environments.
As Parvat Manthan continues to explore integrated urban services in the Himalayas, Leh’s experience serves as a timely example of how decentralisation can turn constraints like terrain, remoteness, limited resources into strengths.
The Road Ahead
For decentralised systems to truly take root, Leh must scale up pilot initiatives, strengthen community participation, and provide fair wages and safety gear for sanitation workers. Hotels and tourism enterprises should manage their own waste responsibly, while ward committees and citizens can co-manage composting units.
Leh today holds two contrasting titles: India’s highest per capita waste generator and a pioneer in decentralised waste management for mountain towns. Which of these defines its future depends on the choices made now.
As the mountains remind us, sustainability is not built on scale, but on balance, and decentralisation might just be the key to keeping that balance alive.
