darjeeling the darjeeling municipality has urged residents and tourists to stop using singleuse plastics and styrofoam products in the town the municipality has also urged the tourists not to carry plastic bags and pet bottles to tiger hill the sunrise point where tourists leave behind thousands of kgs of plastic waste every monthon monday environmentalists ngos and community leaders and 32 councillors of the municipality discussed several ideas in a workshop to make darjeeling and tiger hill plasticfree the plastic menace is spiralling out of control in darjeeling it is impacting the ecodiversity of the hills and also posing a major problem to the safety of people said sagar tamang vicechairperson of the municipalitylakhs of tourists visit the hills every year and leave back thousands of tonnes of trash as most edibles are either packed or delivered in plastic packs in the absence of any mechanism to bring the garbage back to the plains it finds its way to sewer lines rivers and streams triggering landslides nonbiodegradable plastic waste absorbs heat resulting in rise in temperature and melting of glacierswe will constitute a monitoring team to ensure that the rules are not violated as off now we are not thinking on slapping fines but want to first create awareness said pratibha rai the darjeeling municipality chairperson the municipality has also urged retailers who use single use plastics and pet bottles to clear stock within 15 daysbut residents of darjeeling did not seem too impressed given the fact the municipality had banned the use of plastic 10 years ago but it was never implemented there are no strong laws and penalties for the violators darjeeling is choking due to rampant use of plastic said prashant thapa a resident of darjeeling