Pilgrimages are booming. Time to make them less destructive

The Hindu God Shiva "is" God of Destruction. Hide. :D

Its funny how pilgrimages are actually an environmental issue. Well, with theses numbers (100 million!), this is a geographic subject as well. As for the environment, I'm sure there's a sentiment of "I'm only here for x amount of time. No biggie if I pee in this river a few times." However, with numbers like 100 million, and as the article points out, this becomes an issue. I like how the local newspaper put advertisements about the issue. Maybe they could also use other forms of communication to spred the word. Grapevines (word of mouth), the internet, billboards (assuming this wouldn't ruin the religious atmosphere) are just a few ideas. The article somes up this situation very well in their last sentence by comparing pilgrimage to mass tourism. It is clearly something that needs to be taken very seriously.

This pilgrimage is an amazing thing. When so many people believe in one thing and make a huge effort to follow that calling, and millions of people are called to the same place. This is just an incredible showmanship of human kind. Although the environmental destruction is not a good thing. The U.S. has the same issues, when we started making national forest to preserve. We started to destroy them. The main reoccurring theme for this destruction (which I could easily write a paper on but will not go into detail here) is OVER POPULATION. When thousands of tourists came to see the national parks they were destroyed more and more, both by construction to accommodate the masses and by the masses. I am not sure what to do about a religious gathering though. You can not just simple say "hey how about half of you come in December and half in August." The train seems to be a good idea, other than inform these people of their impact.

Destruction in the name of God.Heaven help us.