Waste Warriors Corbett

The state of Uttarakhand has been grappling with a garbage crisis caused by steadily increasing amounts of improperly managed municipal solid waste in the region's fragile topography and sensitive ecosystem. Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR), Uttarakhand’s world-renowned wildlife reserve and tourism destination, is now under severe threat from indiscriminate waste dumping and burning. Booming numbers of tourists each year have created new streams of waste previously nonexistent, especially in less accessible forested areas. Without a proper means of disposal, solid waste will remain scattered here for decades. Litter and dump sites pollute land, water, and air and threaten the lives of animals, both domestic and wild, who mistakenly consume them. From 10 hotels spread out in 5 villages around CTR in 2000, the tourism industry grew to over 250 hotels by 2015. From zero waste in farm or forest land, discarded plastic is visible along the periphery of CTR, as no systems for solid or liquid waste management were initiated by authorities. With no historical precedence for such an issue, local communities have no experience in managing such waste, as in the past, whatever dry waste was produced was burnt and wet waste fed to the domestic animals or buried for compost.

Waste Warriors Corbett currently targets 37 villages on the eastern periphery of Corbett Tiger Reserve by

(1) Developing decentralized solid waste management systems through trained women self-help groups and waste workers for door-to-door waste collection, segregation, and upcycled handicrafts

(2) Raising awareness amongst school children and adults through workshops and by developing simple learning materials for segregation and composting

(3) Organizing volunteer-driven clean-ups in heavily littered forested areas

(4) Initiating public space transformations through dustbin installations, anti-littering signboards, and murals

(5) Advocating for sustainable solid waste management policies by partnering with local government authorities such as the forest department and the pollution control board.

Over 5 years spread across 100 kilometers in the Corbett landscape, Waste Warriors Corbett has positively impacted the living standards of rural Corbett communities, increased livelihood opportunities, raised public awareness, and diverted tons of recyclables from open dumping sites. Our waste collection initiatives from 48 locations, including 37 villages that have 2900 households and shops, have reached over 374 tons. We have conducted hundreds of children’s day activities reaching nearly 9000 children in 76 schools, of which 67 schools have proper SWM systems, with dry waste being collected from 43 schools by our trained workers. We have set up 44 signboards, 8 waste collection centers, and 185 composting enclosures, and transformed 9 spaces. We have organized 17 awareness workshops attended by 248 adults, as well as 17 meetings/training for our 3 women self-help groups with 16 members, who now collect from 12 villages with 358 users contributing user fees. Our efforts have reduced waste burning and dumping in forest lands, and streams, and have also boosted dustbins usage and waste segregation by adults and children in the villages and schools we have engaged with. There is certainly a lot of work to do and our dedicated team is ready for it.