Haridwar Municipal Corporation has begun a large-scale cleanup after this year’s Kanwar Yatra generated around 7,000 tonnes (t) of waste, with approximately 2,000 t collected in the final two days. Around 48 million (mn) Kanwar pilgrims visited Haridwar during the festival to collect Ganga water before returning to their destinations, civic officials said. The scale of the gathering prompted the civic body to plan an extended sanitisation effort across the city’s main ghats and public spaces.

The Municipal Corporation deployed around 1,000 additional outsourced workers and more than 80 vehicles for collection, transportation and disposal of refuse during the event. Teams focused on major ghats, Kanwar routes, market areas and other crowded locations as the special post-mela sanitisation drive continued for another two days. The civic authority said the additional manpower and equipment sped up removal of accumulations from streets and riverfronts.

For the first time the civic body used drone surveillance to monitor cleanliness along major Kanwar routes and at busy ghats, while sanitisation volunteers were stationed at key points. Solar sensor dustbins were trialled to introduce technology into waste management and green checkpoints were set up to manage inflows. Officials said the combination of technological measures and volunteer deployment enabled more efficient monitoring and targeted clearance operations.

Haridwar Municipal Commissioner Nandan Kumar said the scale of the pilgrimage required extensive arrangements for solid waste management and that the civic body had employed additional teams, vehicles and monitoring tools for the task. He added that post-yatra work would continue until ghats and public spaces were restored and that municipal officials and outsourced staff had worked through challenging conditions. The commissioner praised sanitisation workers, volunteers and drivers for their efforts during the festival.