Volume 2 Issue 2 2016

In the previous article, I introduced you to the Japanese bio-toilet technology, as one of the sanitation options for mountains. This article will focus on an Indian technology that converts human waste into biogas. The biogas can be used for cooking, lighting lamps, warming bodies in winter and other purposes. A camping cooperative can use this technology to safely recycle human waste. They can use the byproducts for brightening the

BIANIC is an acronym for believing in achieving new innovative concept (s). The camping cooperatives need affordable and environment friendly sanitation options for mountains. This article reviews one of such options available in the market, Bianics Toilet. What is a Bianics toilet? This bio toilet disposes human excrements using no or very less water. The environment friendly toilet uses Japanese technology. Dr. Toyohiro Watanabe, an agriculture professor at Tsuru University,

Properly composted pee and poop could provide safe humus for the kitchen garden of the campsites and keep the wilderness clean. As our ancestors did in the Himalayas for centuries. Live like natives of the Himalayas to enjoy the beauty and challenge for many more centuries. For example, Lahaul and Spiti, cold desert areas, have thin vegetation cover. The natives therefore cannot maintain a large number of animals. This reduces production of

Jammu Kashmir (Ladakh), Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim, the Indian Himalayan states, have implemented the concept of home stays to increase stay options, especially in remote rural areas. The home stays no doubt have created extra income channels for locals. However, the home stays have some limitations that we may slowly realize over a period of time and then we may mull over alternatives. But I have experienced some of these

Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim, three of the Indian Himalayan states, laid down rules to standardize the homestay services. Some of the rules are common while others are state-specific. For example, homestays are principally located in rural areas of Himachal Pradesh. Its eastern neighbor allows homestays in both rural and urban areas. However, standards for urban homestays in Uttarakhand are different than that for the rural units. Sikkim also permits