Every time you venture into the wilderness, you scar it, you wound it, you change it from what it was before you went it. If nothing else other than just walking through, you are leaving your bootmarks on the trail. If the undergrowth is heavy, you might even end up making a train where none existed before. As you make your way through the jungle, you might have to hack your way through because of the dense vegetation. During overnight sojourns being ‘closer to Nature’ you will end up urinating and defecating, not only adding to the worms and germs, but possibly introducing new ones into the environment. When you have to make a shelter you are destroying the pristine nature of Nature as it existed before you decided to spend the night. You made a campfire and the scars of that fire will remain long after you are gone.
But Nature is also quite forgiving. Many of the scars you leave behind will heal as Nature heals itself. Nature will reclaim its natural state unless you leave behind irreversible scars. A chopped tree will never grow back. The water you contaminated will remain contaminated for a long time. The small forest fire you started will take years to heal and bring back the lost glory of the very place whose wonder you had gone to savour.
Do not leave your campsite in a state that is worse than what you find it in. In fact, try and ensure that you leave it in a better state, a more natural state than what you found when you got there. Try and reduce the footprints you leave behind to a minimum. That is the ethic that every person venturing into the outdoors should swear by and live by.
You visit a place because of the serenity, tranquility, peace and quiet it gives you. If you find it littered with trash your experienced will be less than satisfactory. Remember this fact for the people who are coming after you. They too would like to spend time at a place devoid of trash.
If you have packed it in, pack it out. Make a garbage bag an essential part of your kit. Incinerating or land filling is not a good idea. Always bring back your trash and dispose it off appropriately. And not just your own trash. As you are walking down the trail, pick up any trash you find so that you leave the place cleaner than the way you found it.
Try and not visit places that have a high volume of ‘tourists’. If you have to go there, go at a time when the volume is low. Ideally find someplace else so that the area has a chance to regrow back to its original self.
With people increasingly venturing into the wilderness, some places have painted markers pointing directions. This kind of defeats the purpose of being in virgin territory. The sheer act of paint marking is vagrancy in the wilderness, however noble the reason.
When you have to cook or boil water ... and you have to ... try and do it on a camp stove. That will be far less harmful to the environment and will leave minimal scars compared to making a wood fire out of debris. If you have to make a debris fire, make it from stuff lying on the ground or from obviously dead branches hanging from trees off the ground. Put out the fire completely and scatter the ashes once you are sure the fire is entirely out.
If you are hiking in a group, do not walk in single file if no trail exists. By walking in single file, one behind the other, you will end up making a trail. Split up and walk sideways if necessary. However, if you are walking on a trail, make sure you continue to walk on that trail, thus avoiding making a new trail where none existed.
When you have to set up camp do so on durable ground. Avoid camping on green grass, dead grass is better. Camp on gravel. Find rocks and boulders around which you can construct your shelter. As it is said, campsites are found, not made. Do not make a new campsite in the wilderness if you can avoid it.
There are areas in the wilderness where you might come across something interesting ... either historical or natural. Do not take anything away. People like mementos and it is tempting to pick up a fossil and dump it in your pack. Just remember the thrill you experienced when you cam across it. Do not deprive the next person of the same enjoyment!
We Indians like to party and where there is a party, we like to sing and dance. Do that back at home. Avoid loud noises and blaring music (this happens so much with us!!!). You came to the outdoors to enjoy its beauty, do not spoil it by bringing in your version of ‘civilisation’ into it. Enjoy the sounds of the outdoors.
Sure, go ahead and take as many photographs as you want to remind you of your journey. Remember to take only photographs out of the wilderness and nothing else. Let the outdoors not even remember that you stepped onto her bosom. Leave her cleaner and more pristine than the way you found her. You will always have the photographs as a reminder of the time when you cohabited with Mother Nature. That is why you went there, and that is the way you should leave. Let the person venturing in after you enjoy the same pleasures that you did. You owe it to them and to Mother Nature.
Remember to leave behind only footprints and to bring back only memories.
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