MARTYN AIM

INDIA: TROUBLE IN PARADISE

HIMACHAL PRADESH LIES AT THE FOOTHILLS OF THE INDIAN HIMALAYAS - ATTRACTING FOREIGN TREKKERS AND SPIRITUAL SEEKERS. DESPITE THE HIPPIE ENCLAVE, INDIANS MAKE UP THE MAJORITY OF TOURISTS. THIS HIMALAYAN SHANGRI-LA IS IN DANGER OF BEING LOVED TO DEATH, SPOILED BY THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF INTENSIVE TOURISM.

The tourist town of Manali in the Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh attracts thousands of foreign hikers and hedonists every year - drawn by the promise of cheap high quality marijuana in an idyllic setting. Many never leave.
   
In a hilltop village largely untouched by tourism a local woman enjoys a clear day before the oncoming monsoon. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
Tourist drive up the mountain road from the town of Manali to Rotung Pass at 13,000 ft. in the Himalayas. The majority of the thousands of yearly visitors are Indian nationals from other states who escape the heat of the southern monsoons. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
     
  
A convoy of Indian Army trucks climb the mountain road to Rotung Pass (13,000 ft.) which separates the Beas Valley from that of the Chenab. Himachal Pradesh borders Kashmir to the north making it of considerable strategic importance for India. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
Logging methods and the clearing of hillsides for future resort developments threatens the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India, causing degradation and landslides and threatening local farmers and herder's livelihoods. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
Sheep herders stop for rest in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
     
  
Sheep herder stops for rest at his camp in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
A dump in the tourism town of Manali. Intensive tourism pushes an already inadequate infrastructure to breaking point. Yearly flash floods wash the contents of the dump into the Beas River below. The dump is then ready to be filled up for another year. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
A man dumps garbage down the hillside to the Beas River below in Manali. Intensive tourism pushes an already inadequate infrastructure to breaking point. Yearly flash floods wash the contents of the dump off the hillside into the river below. The dump is then ready to be filled up for another year. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
     
  
Tourists arrive at the Rotung Pass camp. The Himachal Pradesh state region of the Himalayas is in danger of being spoiled by the environmental impacts of tourism. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
Indian tourists head off on a pony trek while foreign tourists enjoy a motorcycle tour at Rotung Pass, 13,000 ft. in the Indian Himalaya. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
An Indian tourist walks between foreign motorcyclists at the Rotung Pass. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
     
  
Men pose for a picture at a family lunch at Rotung Pass. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
A shopkeeper approaches one of the many rubbish pits at Rotung Pass in the Indian Himalayas to dump another bag of packaging discarded by tourists. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)
   
A tourist bus traces a mountain road through the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh. (Credit Image: © Martyn Aim)