Thanks to the gorgeous snow-capped peaks and stunning panoramic views, Lachen attracts thousands of visitors every year. These visitors bring plastic water bottles with them, which are often dumped at the beautiful destination. This phenomenon has raised two major problems for the quaint town—increasing plastic trash and unwanted littering.

Lachen loves its cleanliness and has come up with a way of keeping it intact—bamboo water bottles. The local community has also introduced a complete ban on plastic bottles. MP Hishey Lachungpa has ordered these bamboo water bottles from the neighbouring state of Assam.

Sikkim took its first steps towards banning plastic water bottles in 1998 itself. It took another revolutionary step in 2016 by putting a ban on the use of packaged drinking water in government offices. The ban was also carried forward to government events. To ensure a proper implementation of the newly-introduced ban, the inbound vehicles are checked at random to make sure no one carries plastic bottles to Lachen.

To begin with, the local authorities are getting 1,000 bamboo water bottles. While that seems like a humble number, we know that it takes a small step to drive a big change. We are hopeful that people will opt for these bamboo water bottles and the number will soon rise. Talking about the littering part of it, the locals are also dealing with wafer and biscuit wrapper trash. What Lachen and the entire state of Sikkim is doing should be seen as a huge motivation and we must pledge to practice and promote responsible tourism.