The Kanwar Yatra was celebrated with great enthusiasm. Everywhere, chants of faith and praise for Bholenath were heard. However, in some places, the Yatra also became noisy. The administration in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, was on constant alert due to the Kanwar Yatra. Officials may have thought they would be able to breathe a sigh of relief once the Kanwar Yatra ended, but the opposite happened. Now, the entire Haridwar administration is engaged in a clean-up campaign, the reason being garbage.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the pilgrims returned with Ganga water. But tons of garbage was scattered across the parking lots, camps, and even the Ganga ghats (where people bathe). Old clothes, shoes, polythene bags, food items, and torn bags were left behind on the Ganga ghats. Wet clothes, rotten food, and a foul smell were everywhere. Following this, Haridwar Municipal Corporation employees launched a clean-up drive and collected 7,000 metric tons of garbage from the Ganga ghats in 24 hours. More than 1,000 employees spent the entire night removing the garbage from the Ganga ghats.
Disgusting behaviour from Kanwar Yatris.
7,000 metric tonnes of garbage, undergarments, bottles filled with Urine across Ganga ghat
pic.twitter.com/UFf29Cb9J2— Che_ಕೃಷ್ಣ❤️ (@ChekrishnaCk) August 13, 2026
Haridwar Municipal Commissioner Nandan Kumar said that the Kanwar Yatra used to be quiet and filled with devotion. In recent years, the journey has become quite popular and noisy. People arrive in the city in trucks equipped with large speakers. This year, nearly 10 million devotees arrived in Haridwar in the last two days of the yatra alone, bringing the total number of pilgrims to 48 million.
He said that while the Kanwar Yatra is now over, nearly 7,000 tons of garbage accumulated over two weeks. During this pilgrimage, devotees from across North India come to the city to collect water from the Ganges and then carry it back to their villages without stopping. The city administration, which typically handles about 250 tons of garbage, is now busy clearing piles of clothes, plastic bottles, and other waste.
He further said that the pilgrims left behind so much garbage that large machinery had to be deployed to collect it. More than 89 large trucks were loaded with the garbage and taken out of Haridwar. Subhash Ghat, Nai Ghat, Alaknanda Ghat, and Vishnu Ghat have also been cleaned to 95 percent.
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