Kedarnath's Five-Month Waste Tally Crosses 50 Tonnes, More Than Double Last Season's Total

Kedarnath generated 50.30 metric tonnes of waste between April and August 2026, more than two and a half times the waste collected during the entire pilgrimage season the previous year, according to data provided by the town's Nagar Panchayat.

The information was supplied in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Amit Gupta, an RTI activist based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. According to the reply, the waste generated in the first five months of this year alone exceeds the total recorded in any single year over the preceding three years.

The Nagar Panchayat's figures show that Kedarnath produced 32.58 metric tonnes of waste in 2023, 26.10 metric tonnes in 2024 and 21.40 metric tonnes in 2025. The 50.30 metric tonnes recorded between April and August 2026 is therefore about 54 per cent higher than the whole of 2023, roughly 93 per cent higher than 2024 and about 135 per cent higher than 2025.

The month-wise data reflects the pattern of the pilgrimage season, which begins after the shrine reopens following the winter months. Waste generation stood at 1.7 metric tonnes in April, rose sharply to 16.3 metric tonnes in May, and then stood at 11.5 metric tonnes in June, 10.5 metric tonnes in July and 10.3 metric tonnes in August.

On plastic waste, the reply stated that Kedarnath has generated approximately 20 metric tonnes of plastic so far in 2026. Of this, about 18.5 metric tonnes, or 92.5 per cent, has been processed, while roughly 1.5 metric tonnes remains.

The Nagar Panchayat said the town's landfill capacity is 30,000 square feet, of which 28,000 square feet remains available. It added that four landfills have been constructed in Kedarnath over the past five years.

Mr. Gupta said the reliance on landfills, at a time when waste levels are rising, raises significant concerns for the Himalayan environment, particularly given the large number of pilgrims and tourists who visit the region every year. He said the figures obtained through the RTI request point to growing pressure on Kedarnath's waste management systems.

"The generation of waste in Kedarnath over just five months, far exceeding the volume produced during entire pilgrimage seasons in previous years, poses a grave threat to our environment," he said. "We ourselves are primarily responsible for turning a sacred and ecologically sensitive place like Kedarnath into a dumping ground."

Around 1.5 million pilgrims have visited Kedarnath so far this year, according to the data cited by Mr. Gupta.

Kedarnath is one of the four sites of the Char Dham pilgrimage and lies at an altitude of about 3,580 metres in the Garhwal Himalayas, in the ecologically fragile Mandakini valley. The shrine remains open to pilgrims for roughly six months a year because of heavy snowfall, and the season's visitor numbers place considerable demand on the small settlement's sanitation, transport and waste-handling arrangements.

The town's waste management also faces structural constraints. Waste collected at high altitude must be segregated, stored and carried down for processing or disposal, a task that becomes harder as volumes grow. The Uttarakhand government and local bodies have in recent years introduced segregation drives, bans on certain plastic items in ecologically sensitive zones and awareness campaigns aimed at pilgrims.

The RTI reply shows that most of the plastic collected in Kedarnath this year has been processed, while landfill space remains available. It does not detail how the remaining waste was treated or what proportion of it was segregated.

The figures come amid continuing debate in Uttarakhand over how the state's pilgrimage towns can manage rising visitor numbers without damaging the Himalayan landscape on which both the local economy and the pilgrimage itself depend.