Official sources said that the bio-waste treatment plants will be set up on both- Baltal and Pahalgam routes of the shrine cave.

While one bio-waste treatment plant would come up at Baltal base camp of the Amarnath yatra, the other will come up at Nunwan near Pahalgam base camp of the yatra.

Apart from setting up these two bio-waste treatment plants, the Shrine Board will soon be initiating several other measures in order make the Amarnath yatra completely pollutio-free, sources stated.

Sources stated that decisions to this effect, were taken at a meeting of the Shrine Board a couple of days back, held in Srinagar.

The meeting was held by a three-member environmental committee of the Shrine Board, which had been recently constituted by J&K Governor N N Vohra, who is the chairman of the Shrine Board.

The three-member committee includes eminent environmentalist Sunita Narayan, noted scholar Ved Ghai and Chief Executive Officer of the shrine board B B Vyas.

The bio-waste treatment plants would be set up in help with the Guru Dev International, an internationally-reputed firm that deals with bio-waste treatment plants, apart from several state government agencies including the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Board and J&K Tourism Department.

Both the plants would be set up before the commencement of the Amarnath yatra, this summer, said B B Vyas, CEO of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

Expertise of a few other environmental experts is also being sought by the Shrine Board in making the yatra pollution-free and environment-friendly, sources said.

J&K Pollution Control Board chairman C M Seth, who also attended the meeting, said that polybags and other plastic materials, thrown enroute to the Shrine Cave will be collected and recycled at the two base camps of the yatra, at Baltal and Pahalgam.

Besides, Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department has been asked to come out with do's and don'ts on maintaining the environment enroute to the yatra.

The department has been asked to prepare a brochure on the do's and do'ts and publicise these through hoardings, which will be installed encoute to the shrine cave right from Jammu to the shrine cave.

Besides, these hoardings will also be installed at Jammu Railway Station and airports in Jammu and Srinagar. The do's and don'ts will be for Amarnath yatris, who will be appealed to follow these in order to help in making their yatra environment-friendly by not harming forests and wildlife.