Every year, millions of people make the steep climb to Kedarnath. This year, environmental activist Pradeep Sangwan wants them to carry something back with their memories: a kilogram of waste.
The founder of Healing Himalayas, a non-profit that has spent years cleaning trekking routes across the Indian Himalayas, believes a simple shift in behaviour could transform one of India’s busiest pilgrimage corridors.
Through a campaign called #CarryMeBack, Sangwan is asking every pilgrim travelling to Kedarnath to pick up and bring back at least a kilogram of waste on their return journey.
The maths behind the idea
If one lakh pilgrims carry back one kilogram each, that is 100 tonnes of waste removed from the mountains.
Sangwan shared the vision on social media.
“Forty days of Kedarnath Yatra. Ten lakh registered pilgrims reached, breaking all previous records. Our Carry Me Back Yatra is now picking up. One lakh yatri carrying one kg equals 100 tons removed. That’s our aim.”
The campaign is digitally tracked, allowing volunteers to record participation and measure impact in real-time.
In a region where waste management remains one of the biggest challenges of mass tourism, the idea has struck a chord.
When pilgrimage leaves a trail behind
As visitor numbers rise every year, so does the volume of discarded plastic bottles, food packaging, raincoats, glass containers and other waste generated along the route.
In previous years, photographs from the pilgrimage corridor have shown piles of garbage accumulating near campsites and resting points, highlighting the strain placed on an ecologically sensitive landscape.
For Sangwan, the problem is one he has witnessed first-hand for more than a decade.
“On my visits to the region, I was both irked and saddened to see the piles of garbage disfiguring famous trekking spots,” he told Outlook Traveller in an earlier interview.
If one lakh pilgrims carry back one kilogram each, that is 100 tonnes of waste removed from the mountains. Photograph: (Instagram/@pradeep_sangwan_ (Enhanced using AI))
Rather than wait for a solution, he began carrying waste back himself. Friends and family joined him on clean-up treks.
What started as a personal effort gradually grew into a movement. In 2016, he founded the Healing Himalayas Foundation, which today conducts clean-up drives, waste audits, awareness campaigns and waste-management initiatives across mountain regions.
But even after years of collecting trash, Sangwan realised that clean-ups alone could not solve the problem.
The solution to this problem, he believes, lies in participation.
Turning pilgrims into partners
The campaign turns every traveller into part of the solution.
Sangwan has repeatedly emphasised that participants do not need to carry large quantities of waste. Even a few hundred grams can make a difference when multiplied across lakhs of visitors.
“Yes — 250 grams to 5 kg should be carried back by yatris and pilgrims. That’s the campaign,” he explained online.
The idea turns passive concern into practical action.
At Kedarnath alone, the organisation recently reported handling 25 tonnes of segregated and baled material through its material recovery facility. Photograph: (Instagram/@pradeep_sangwan_ (Enhanced using AI))
A plastic bottle picked up during a trek may seem insignificant. But when thousands of people do the same thing, the cumulative impact becomes substantial.
Within just ten days of the campaign gaining momentum, hundreds of travellers reportedly helped remove more than 1,000 kilograms of waste from the Kedarnath route. The early results offered a glimpse of what collective action could achieve during a pilgrimage season that sees enormous footfall.
Clean-ups are a ‘postmortem’
For Sangwan, however, carrying waste back is only one part of a larger conversation.
Recently, he highlighted the presence of nearly a tonne of discarded glass bottles at Kedarnath and questioned how such material was reaching high-altitude regions in the first place.
“Carry it back if at all it is being consumed,” he urged, adding that his team was auditing brands to better understand waste streams in the area.
He has also repeatedly called for greater attention to waste minimisation at source, segregation systems, infrastructure and scientific disposal.
Within just ten days of the campaign gaining momentum, hundreds of travellers reportedly helped remove more than 1,000 kilograms of waste from the Kedarnath route. Photograph: (Instagram/@pradeep_sangwan_ (Enhanced using AI)
“What we do is postmortem by collecting it,” he noted. “But the question is how do we control it at the foothills?”
According to Sangwan, effective waste management in the mountains rests on four pillars: minimisation, source segregation and infrastructure, public participation, and reverse supply chains that ensure waste is transported and processed responsibly.
The Carry Me Back campaign fits into that larger framework by addressing the participation gap.
What thousands of return journeys can do
Healing Himalayas’ waste audits reveal the scale of material already being recovered and processed.
At Kedarnath alone, the organisation recently reported handling 25 tonnes of segregated and baled material through its material recovery facility. The waste included multilayer plastic, PET bottles, cardboard, cloth, raffia bags, HDPE, paper plates, raincoats and other discarded items.
What is #CarryMeBack?
Lakhs of pilgrims visit Kedarnath every year. If even 10,000 people carry back 2.5 kg each, that’s 25,000 kg of waste returning to the right place
Let’s support the campaign
Share this with anyone visiting Kedarnath.#CarryMeBack. pic.twitter.com/NL7pbzaBe7
— Pradeep Sangwan (@iPradeepSangwan) June 7, 2026
More than 5.5 tonnes of that material, Sangwan noted, came through the Carry Me Back initiative itself.
Yet the campaign’s significance extends beyond the numbers. It reframes a pilgrimage as an act of stewardship.
A kilogram may not sound like much. But in the hands of a lakh pilgrims, it becomes 100 tonnes.
About the campaign
This story is part of The Better India’s #CivicSenseHeroes, a year-long nationwide campaign celebrating citizens who take responsibility for the places and communities we all share. From cleaner streets and safer roads to restored lakes and public spaces, we’re looking for everyday Indians turning civic sense into action. Know someone doing work like this? Nominate your Civic Sense Hero here.
