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Mawlynnong, India, transformed by tourism, bans visitors on Sundays
- nelox 4mo agoAh the age old story of something being loved to death.
- rayiner 4mo ago> In a country known for its lack of sanitation, this is no small feat. But in Mawlynnong, children are taught to tidy up from a young age, with many taking to the streets each morning before school to sweep the town of dead leaves and empty rubbish bins. Villagers see to the disposal of biodegradables and take pride in public landscaping. Culture is real.
- hn_throwaway_99 4mo agoThis is kind of fascinating to me because the few times I visited India I was completely gobsmacked by the insane levels of trash and pollution such that I never wanted to return. Like Gurugram reminded me of some type of ecological disaster dystopia out of Blade Runner. So I was particularly glad to see this story was about an Indian village and not one of the usual "amazingly clean Asian city" suspects, e.g. Singapore or somewhere in Japan.
- geodel 4mo agoYes, on one hand its fascinating, on other its about impossible before end of universe that it would be possible to apply India wide. Right on with Gurugram observation. The latest government way to fix all issue is to change name of the place to something from "glorious Indian past". In terms of actually responding to eco-disaster I don't think people are there yet to see error and mend their ways. I do not expect this to change at least for next couple of decades.
- Rendello 4mo agoI've read that Japan had some crazy pollution and littering until regulations and campaigns in the 70s. Alright, I'll admit, I saw it on a Youtube short [1]. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the change on the Internet (at least not the English Internet), but this Japanese guy's anecdotes seem to corroborate it [2]. It makes sense, a lot of countries started taking pollution and littering more seriously around the 70s. It looks like that's when Japan started regulating it seriously [3]: > from 24 November to 18 December 1970, 14 pollution control bills were passed into law [...] overnight, Japan was transformed from a country with meagre environmental regulations, to one of the strictest in the OECD. 1. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PP60G-lMiDA https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PP60G-lMiDA 2. https://tour-hiro.com/blog/culture/5721/ https://tour-hiro.com/blog/culture/5721/ 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_Diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_Diet
- profsummergig 4mo agoThere are no consequences for bad behavior in India if you are powerful enough (e.g. a police constable is a very very powerful person who can be filmed taking a bribe or filmed thrashing some innocent person and nothing happens to them.) When they are able/willing to enforce consequences for bad behavior, most of India's civic problems will evaporate.
- alephnerd 4mo ago> Like Gurugram reminded me of some type of ecological disaster dystopia out of Blade Runner That's because of zoning. Much of Gurgaon isn't zoned as a municipality but as villages or agricultural land, which means there is no unified municipal government in vast swathes of the city. This is the same issue with Bangalore. Other large Indian cities (eg. Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, etc) are nowhere near as bad > So I was particularly glad to see this story was about an Indian village My ancestral family is from village and small towns, and counterintuitively (edit: for people who do not know India) they tend to be much cleaner because they have more formally defined municipal and local governments. Of course, this depends state to state, like everything else in India. Edit: quick explaination of local government in India Local government in India is heavily dependent on whether your block is zoned as "rural", "urban", "agricultural", or "industrial". In the first generation of megacities like Bangalore and Delhi NCR, zoning never actually got updated because a lot of urbanization happened before zoning caught up, and changing zoning could impact your tax burden, as agricultural income isn't taxed in India. So if you are a landlord (eg.) running a backpacker hostel in Delhi, if your land was rezoned from agricultural to urban it would also be reassessed from a tax burden perspective so landlords have an incentive to fight rezoning tooth and nail. Additionally, a lot of areas that are colloquially called (eg.) Bangalore aren't actually within the borders of the city of Bangalore but historically unzoned or miszoned land. In smaller towns and the newer generation of megacities (eg. Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune) zoning was more tightly enforced and local governments are more aligned becuase they are much more homogenous. This is something the PM Office is now starting to address [0], but will also depend on local and state governments. Some states like Kerala, HP, TN, Punjab, and Gujarat have been more proactive about fixing zoning, but others like Delhi and Karnataka have been less inclined. [0] - https://eacpm.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/EAC-PM-Working-Paper-Indias-Hidden-Urbanisation-Its-Policy-Implications-120326.pdf https://eacpm.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/EAC-PM-Worki...
- hn_throwaway_99 4mo agoSeems like quite the stretch just to blame it on zoning. Gurugram was particularly bad but the other places around New Delhi I visited weren't much better.
- thesmtsolver2 4mo agoMost western cities were trays filled till a few decades. Some like SF and Seattle still have zones that resemble a war zone. Have you been to Skid row in LA? Yeah, culture is real.
- alephnerd 4mo ago> Culture is real Mawlynnong is barely 3,000 feet from Bangladesh, and the nearest town to it in Bangladesh (Jaflong - roughly 5 to 10 miles away) is much dirtier [0] despite also being inhabited by the same ethnic group (Khasi) as well. The main difference is, Meghalaya has much stronger local government whereas it's much weaker in Sylhet. Given that both Jaflong and Mawlynnong are inhabited by ethnic brethren of the same culture, the cultural argument clearly doesn't hold in comparison to the state capacity argument. [0] - https://maps.app.goo.gl/knutXG7jePr4UhFm8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/knutXG7jePr4UhFm8
- selimthegrim 4mo agoYou might have done the impossible and actually gotten rayiner to concede a point.
- rayiner 4mo agoI’ll readily concede dirtyness can be beaten out of a culture. Indeed, elsewhere in this thread I posted the quote from Lee Kuan Yew describing how his was a problem that he solved in Singapore.
- rayiner 4mo agoI’m not attributing the difference to aspects of culture common to ethnic groups. I’m pointing out that the article itself attributes the benefit to acculturation: > But in Mawlynnong, children are taught to tidy up from a young age, with many taking to the streets each morning before school to sweep the town of dead leaves and empty rubbish bins. Villagers see to the disposal of biodegradables and take pride in public landscaping. Socializing children to have certain values and habits is exactly how you create culture.
- porridgeraisin 4mo agoBut this particular instance isn't much related to that. In my school too, we did all that, and extending to beach cleanups. It's not like the same effect was there. Besides, most garbage in most Indian cities/towns is not consumer litter in the first place. Side note: this is why 'guarded' areas such as metro stations are spotless.
- doublerabbit 4mo ago> Do not spit" signs > Some tourists have complained about the ban, saying it should have been implemented on a weekday instead These should not be a thing. What is it that makes folk feel so entitled? "Lack of litter bins"; isn't an excuse. I've seen folk stand next to a litter bin, light up and then throw the cigarettes end to the ground. You're literally standing next to a litter bin! It should be common sense not to spit nor to litter. Spitting is the worse and I see it all the time here in the UK.
- fhdkweig 4mo agoIt really bothers me when they spit on days where it is below freezing. It becomes a slip hazard on sidewalks.
- tekla 4mo agoIts so mindboggling. Littering wssnt even an option in my head as a child. Always carry your trash until you can properly dispose. What the hell is wrong with people?
- sysworld 4mo agoSame here. I find it hard to understand people who litter.
- fy20 4mo agoWhat I really don't understand is throwing litter from cars. You literally cannot find somewhere in your car to keep the litter until you get home?
- Eueudhsbsj32 4mo agoI was recently traveling on a local bus near the Amazon and an indigenous family sitting in front of me were eating a local snack. When they finished, they opened the window and threw out the plastic wrappers. At first I couldn't understand how someone who lives so close to nature could do something like that. But then I realized that when the parents were kids, those snacks were probably wrapped in banana leaves, not plastic, so discarding the leaves on the ground would have been perfectly natural thing to do.
- kristopolous 4mo agoCleaner than Japan? That's something...
- fhdkweig 4mo agocleaner than Singapore or Thailand would really be something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum_sales_ban_in_Singapore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum_sales_ban_in_Singa...
- jazzpush2 4mo agoReading the title generates imagery of a city in Japan being overrun by foreigners. The actual content is about a self-proclaimed 'Asia's cleanest village' in India, banning Sunday visits from other domestic Indians. Probably wouldn't be a popular story if this was revealed in the title.
- scythe 4mo agoOn the contrary, my first thought upon reading the title was "I hope it's not just Japan again". No disrespect to Japan, but articles about Japanese tidiness are a dime a dozen.
- tom_ 4mo agoThe article is on the BBC site, so Asia means India/Pakistan/Bangladesh/etc. Japan is Japan.
- tom_ 4mo agoThe new editorialised title is an improvement, given that most of HN's readership is probably not in the UK, especially not at time of writing: 0130 BST on a Tuesday.
- angry_octet 4mo agoIt should be clear that this is about the stress that visiting Indians bring. And their trash. But it also highlights how you need to restrict access to move up the value chain. Hordes of bus tourists who eat elsewhere or bring take away contribute little economically, you can sell some trinkets. People with a hotel booking are also likely to eat locally. Venice faces a similar situation with cruise ships and Airbnbs raising the price of housing. They should be capping cruise ship numbers, and a weekend break would be good too.
- nsvd2 4mo agoSurely a tax would be a better incentive mechanism than a hard cap.
- angry_octet 4mo agoThey already have a levy on cruise ships, but it doesn't really increase the amenity for the citizens. If you can bid for places in the cap you have a dual effect, limiting congestion and encouraging longer stays, and selecting for higher value ships. You could tweak it in many ways, like additional levy that can be recouped by spending on food in local restaurants (vs shipboard all-inclusive meals).
- Dylan16807 4mo ago> But it also highlights how you need to restrict access to move up the value chain. Hordes of bus tourists who eat elsewhere or bring take away contribute little economically, you can sell some trinkets. People with a hotel booking are also likely to eat locally. I don't think this fits the story at all. They just want a day off. The rest of the week is unrestricted.
- angry_octet 4mo agoThat is a sensitive messaging campaign, and no doubt true as well. But the effect is that rich people who want to visit on the weekend will book a local hotel stay rather than day trip, and as a bonus they will not have to deal with crowds.
- skeledrew 4mo ago> But in Mawlynnong, children are taught to tidy up from a young age This needs to be a thing everywhere. Education works to resolve most - if not all - social issues.
- irjustin 4mo agoI know statements like this mean well, but man it's so frustrating. It's the same thing as telling a person with depression to "just be happy". If it were so simple this would've been solved nation wide by Modi's 2014 address. Where does this education come from? Leaders, but leaders are product of their social environment. To create this change means to go against the norm meaning someone or a few have to break the trend. Then that belief has to take hold in others and THEN the real test begins. It has to be generational, the new generation, by yes, education, needs it to be truth as opposed to a new way. The old guard must die. Only then will you "solve all social issues by education". Don't even get me started on scale. It works on a village or small country, but more? or a 2nd issue?
- quadrifoliate 4mo agoYou hit the nail on the head. It's not that simple. I was born and raised in India and I have seen hordes of supposedly "educated" Indian people with degrees littering and making a nuisance of themselves; and seen a lot of Indians who didn't have a formal education be much more conscientious about cleanliness and such because their family raised them that way. It's some combination of moral education, culture, science, and psychology. Even religion can play a role, especially in India where it's so important for a majority of the people.
- satvikpendem 4mo agoDegrees doesn't mean someone was brought up with cleanliness as a value, that's not what they mean by "educated." It's education of taking care of your general area and environment, not general schooling.
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- zuzululu 4mo ago[flagged]
- Sleaker 4mo agoHuh? South-asia is more than just india. Just like all of the other cardinal directions that refer to different geographical regions within asia. Why can't it be a part of Asia?
- bhelkey 4mo agoWhat continent is India in? What continent is Australia in?
- laughing_man 4mo agoIndia is literally part of Asia. How else would you describe it?
- AlotOfReading 4mo agoI prefer the maximalist perspective: France is West Asia.
- grg0 4mo agoIndia?
- zuzululu 4mo agoso is Israel and Australia but you dont call them Asians do you
- laughing_man 4mo agoAustralia is its own continent, at least as we reckon them in the US. So, no, that's not Asia. I suppose Israel is technically part of Asia, but of course we always refer to that area as the Middle East. But India... that's either South Asia or just Asia.
- socceroos 4mo ago[flagged]
- HDBaseT 4mo agoBy no means correlated.
- N_Lens 4mo agoI'm sorry but your comment has no effect on the force of that person's confirmation bias.
- autoexec 4mo agoWikipedia says that Budapest is home to one of the most populous Christian communities in Central Europe and it's considered to be one the most dirty places on Earth. Rome is often called Europe's dirtiest cities. Also Christian. Either Christ failed there, or religion has nothing to do with it.
- arjie 4mo agoOne of the most dirty places on Earth. Surely this cannot be true. I’ve been to ten dirtier cities in India alone than that, let alone the rest of South and South East Asia. I suppose in some sense every city is one of the most dirty places on Earth even if you rank 500 on some list but it cannot be useful to think of it like this.
- autoexec 4mo agoI guess it depends on who you ask. https://bbj.hu/budapest/travel/tourism/budapest-tops-list-of-worlds-dirtiest-cities-in-new-survey/ https://bbj.hu/budapest/travel/tourism/budapest-tops-list-of... https://sg.news.yahoo.com/world-dirtiest-cities-including-one-173011194.html https://sg.news.yahoo.com/world-dirtiest-cities-including-on... https://dailynewshungary.com/budapest-dirtiest-city-tourists-waste-crisis/ https://dailynewshungary.com/budapest-dirtiest-city-tourists... tourists feel it. It may be that the absolute worst places are the ones nobody goes to and writes home about.
- atourgates 4mo agoMore accurately, "bans day trippers on Sundays." > Visitors who book guesthouse rooms in Mawlynnong through Saturday and Sunday are exempt from the Sunday ban.
- fouc 4mo agobans only 1 day? man, I'd expand that to include mondays and tuesdays
- quadrifoliate 4mo agoAs someone born and brought up in India, I'm a little conflicted about this. Of course it is true that a lot of Indians have no civic sense, and will spit, litter, and generally make a noisy nuisance of themselves in this quiet village. On the surface it seems to be a great story about that nuisance being kicked out one day of the week. At the same time, this is part of...India. It seems questionable legally, and also morally, to just kick out people from the rest of the country and even the state on a a specific day. Your village benefits to some degree from their taxes. How would it be if the villagers were locked into their village for that day and not allowed to travel outside? Is the solution to a lack of civic sense really just to make more and more of these clean enclaves? Will they finally end up expanding and covering more of the country? I would honestly feel better about this if the entire state of Meghalaya had some kind of cleanliness drive and a tourist tax. I don't have any easy solutions. If I did, they would have occurred to someone in India and it would be a lot cleaner by now.
- thewhitetulip 4mo ago> Visitors who book guesthouse rooms in Mawlynnong through Saturday and Sunday are exempt from the Sunday ban Did you read the article?
- quadrifoliate 4mo agoI did, a requirement to book a guesthouse room through the weekend does not make the moral/legal issues any better. Imagine that some town in the US did this; and shut down otherwise public roads to anyone who is not a resident or a guest of a hotel in the town for the weekend, citing visitor nuisance as the reason. Would you feel better about it because "well you can just book a hotel for the weekend"?
- alephnerd 4mo agoArticle 13 allows customary law to be applied following judicial review. It's the same precedent most Himachalis use to keep tourists contained to a handful of tourist traps while keeping the rest of the state clean. Other border states and Northeastern states do the same thing. Semi-urban areas like Mawlynnong are governed by Panchayats - not municipal councils - and overtourism can become a kiss of death.
- KennyBlanken 4mo agoThe village is heavily Christian. This is about forcing their religious views on everyone else in the village. The bit about tourists is just a smokescreen.