India’s Himalayan hill station Shimla is teeming with tourists as the temperature soars on the rugged plains.
A whopping 30,000 vehicles entered the city in Himachal Pradesh in the past 48 hours, according to police data.
Shimla, the summer capital of British India, is situated at 2,276 metres, and is swathed by lush fir and oak trees, and picturesque valleys.
With average daily temperatures hovering between 32 to 34 degrees celsius in the northern plains, tourists are thronging to the city in huge numbers, causing large traffic snarls.
India is bracing itself for a scorching summer and dry spells, with the federal weather department predicting more heatwaves than usual in the north-west.
Hotels are running out of capacity and police have deployed extra officers to maintain law and order in the city.
“We have deputed extra police force to regulate the traffic in Shimla, in some areas traffic has been staggered,” Sanjeev Gandhi, superintendent of police, said.
Himachal Pradesh is a popular tourist destination that draws visitors from around the world who contribute about 7.5 per cent to India's GDP.
While the tourism industry suffered immensely during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the tourist inflow dropped by 81 per cent in 2020, the hill station received more than five million tourists last year.
But the massive surge of tourists to the hills has also led to pollution.
Plastic, rubbish and liquor bottles are strewn across the parks, forests and hills, causing locals to demand a cap on the number of tourists.
For many years, locals have been pleading with the government to launch awareness drives to raise awareness of environmental damage among tourists and to monitor their activities using surveillance cameras.
