British woman leads mission to clean up waste left by tourists in Himalayas

Born in 1976 in Great Yarmouth, Ms Underhill's life work has predominantly involved rubbish, specifically cleaning it up.

Arriving in India in 2008 as a young traveller, Ms Underhill did not imagine she would never return to the UK.

During her travels across India, she was struck by the overwhelming level of unmanaged waste.

Speaking to The Times of India, Ms Underhill recalled when she was first struck by people’s perception of waste in the country, saying: “On a long train journey north, I asked someone what to do with my trash, and in the blink of an eye he took it from me and flung it out of the window.

“I burst into tears and no one in the compartment could understand why I was so upset.”

Having walked popular trails in India and going to tourist spots, such as the streets of McLeod Ganj, near the Himalayas, Ms Underhill was shocked by the amount of rubbish thrown across the landscape.

Routes to mountains, forests and temples were littered with plastic wrappers, bottles and more, she recalled.

Ms Underhill was unable to ignore the amount of litter that was accumulating in the area and so, she started to clean up rubbish from anywhere she could with her own hands.

Despite her efforts, she said that people would laugh at her.

However, Ms Underhill remained undeterred and purchased cleaning supplies as well.

Soon, people caught on to her actions and others joined her in the tidy-up effort.

Over time, this effort transformed into a community that focused on clearing the hills around McLeod Ganj.

This community, in turn, became a legitimate organisation, called Mountain Cleaners, whose mission was to clean-up some of the most visited pilgrimage trails along the Himalayan belt.

It started out as regular clean-up drives along the Triund trek, which is a popular 9km hike in McLeod Ganj, which had been covered in large amounts of trash.

McLeod Ganj, or McLeodganj, is a suburb of Dharamshala, in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.

It is also known as "Little Lhasa" as the Tibetan government-in-exile is headquartered there, and consequently, a significant population of Tibetans live in the region.

By 2012, her efforts expanded further when she co-founded Waste Warriors, a non-governmental organisation based in Dehradun, near the Himalayan foothills, focusing on scalable and sustainable waste management solutions.

Working closely with residents, schools and communities, Ms Underhill began educating people about proper disposal and recycling practices.

Each year, her team collected tens of thousands of kilograms of waste across Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in northern India.

Her efforts quickly gained recognition, as her work addressed a pressing environmental need.

She received numerous awards for her contributions, including the Green Hero Award and the Amazing Indians Award.

Her journey was marked by significant hardships, particularly when the Pandemic hit, all of which she and her team confronted with determination.

Waste Warriors has continued its work across northern India, managing landfill clean-ups and educating local communities.

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