In a bid to make tourist spots in the State free from plastic wastes, the Tourism Department has directed villages and organisations managing the tourist spots in the State to declare them as ‘Plastic Free Zone’.
According to sources, Director of Tourism Cyril V. Diengdoh has written a letter to villages and organisations managing the tourist spots to take steps to prohibit the sale and use of single-use plastics in the tourist spots.
The villages and organisations managing the tourist spots have also been asked to install sign boards indicating ‘Plastic Free Zone’ in the vicinity of the tourist spots.
It may be mentioned that most tourist spots in the State are being affected by the menace of plastic garbage.
For example, the road from Mawkdok to Sohra is littered by plastic wastes dumped by tourists and local visitors. Even newly found tourist sites like waterfalls, picnic spots and trekking sites in the area have not been spared of plastics.
Plastic wastes like potato chip packets, food packets and empty plastic water bottles are littered in and around many tourist spots in the State due to lack of stringent action by the community and organisation managing the spots to clamp down on littering.
Further, there have been calls from many quarters to authorities to ensure that tourist vehicles should have their own waste bags where tourists can dump their wastes including food packets and water bottles.
