Old town, Leh: Waste Management and Ecology
In this paper a research review is conducted considering the waste generated in the Old town area which lies in Leh, the capital city of Ladakh. If we trace back from 60’s era, Ladakh was a region where waste generation was negligible but as the time passes and improvement in infrastructure like road networks, army/military area development, increased influx of tourism, change in economy patter of Ladakhi families, lifestyle and way of living along with rapid growth of consumer goods, it experience changes for which the region was not prepared for. Due to this rapid urbanization mass production of waste started which started causing environmental misbalance. These waste are of various categories like, solid, toxic, chemical. Bio etc. Since waste was never considered as issue, less importance was given to it and thus when generation of waste increases, Leh lack in its management. Most of the waste was dumped in the area which was outside the habitable land mainly valley. Thus in the paper an attempt has been made to identify waste typology and how it can be reuse or renewed which can help in preservation of the existing ecology and environment. Also various measures and method adopted by the local authorities will be studied.