DEHRADUN: Kedarnath generated 50.3 metric tonnes of waste between April and August 2026, more than the amount recorded in any full year from 2023 to 2025, according to information supplied by the Kedarnath Nagar Panchayat under the Right to Information Act.
The figures were obtained by Noida-based RTI activist Amit Gupta. “The waste recorded in just five months of 2026 is about 54 per cent higher than the total for 2023, 93 per cent higher than 2024 and 135 per cent higher than 2025,” Gupta told the TNIE.
The Nagar Panchayat reported 32.58 metric tonnes of waste in 2023, 26.10 tonnes in 2024 and 21.40 tonnes in 2025.
This year’s monthly figures show a sharp rise after April. Waste generation stood at 1.7 tonnes in April and climbed to 16.3 tonnes in May. The civic body recorded 11.5 tonnes in June, 10.5 tonnes in July and 10.3 tonnes in August.
The RTI response also states that nearly 20 tonnes of plastic waste were generated in 2026, of which 18.5 tonnes had been processed. It puts the total area designated for landfill at 30,000 square feet, with 28,000 square feet reported as remaining. According to the response, four landfills have been created in Kedarnath over the past five years.
According to the Uttarakhand Tourism Department’s yatra division office, 1,542,236 pilgrims had visited the Kedarnath shrine this year as of Thursday.
However, figures obtained through a Right to Information request do not show how much waste pilgrims generated. They also do not distinguish waste left by pilgrims from waste produced by local businesses and other sources, making it impossible to determine pilgrims’ contribution.
Gupta said the rise demanded attention in a place that is both a major pilgrimage destination and environmentally sensitive.
“These figures raise a serious question: what does such a sharp increase in waste mean for Kedarnath’s environment?” he said. “We ourselves bear the greatest responsibility if a sacred and fragile place is allowed to become a dumping ground.”
The figures show the scale of the waste collected, but do not specify how much non-plastic waste was processed or disposed of. They also give landfill area in square feet, rather than a remaining waste-handling capacity in tonnes.
