A questioner from Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, raises concerns about the negative impacts of rising tourism. While tourism has brought economic benefits like job creation and increased per capita income, making the Solan district the second highest in North India after Gurgaon, it has also led to significant downsides for the local population. Tourists, primarily from Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi, visit for activities like drinking, drug use, and loud parties. To cater to them, hotels and homestays play loud music, disregarding permissible limits, and the area has become a popular destination for weddings and off-site parties. This has resulted in environmental and noise pollution. The locals find it difficult to protest as many of their children are employed by these very establishments, making it hard to garner public support against them. Acharya Prashant acknowledges that the conventional solutions, such as approaching local media or political representatives, have their limits, which the questioner is likely already aware of. He points out that the core of the problem is that the local economy has become dependent on this destructive form of tourism, making the locals complicit. He shares a personal experience from Rishikesh where, despite COVID restrictions, a loud party was organized by people from the hotel industry. He notes the irony that it is often domestic tourists from cities like Delhi and Gurgaon who demand non-vegetarian food and a party culture, while many foreign tourists seek a more peaceful, vegetarian experience. The speaker argues that what is termed 'development' is merely commercialization, driven by a desire to emulate the consumerist lifestyle of big cities. The youth in the mountains now see Gurgaon and Chandigarh as their ideal, willing to sacrifice the sanctity of the Ganga and the Himalayas for it. The speaker identifies this as a symptom of a deeper societal illness that has spread from the cities to the mountains, facilitated by media and social media. The very people who should be protectors of the mountains are destroying them for commercial gain. He describes the vulgarity and noise pollution, including obscene songs and abuses, that now plague even sacred places like the Ganga during activities like rafting. This behavior, he notes, is something these tourists would not dare to engage in within their own urban societies. The problem is not just external pollution but also an internal one, encompassing superstitions, violence in the name of religion, and a general lack of respect for nature and sanctity. The only real solution, he posits, is a fundamental change in consciousness, which requires both external education about ecology and the environment, and internal education (Vidya) about the workings of the mind, ego, and desires. Acharya Prashant expresses a sense of despair, feeling that it might already be too late and that these efforts should have begun decades ago. The disease of the cities has thoroughly infected the mountains, with local youth now involved in drug trafficking and the air quality in hill stations deteriorating. He states that the only hope lies in continuing the effort to educate people, with the aim of awakening at least a small percentage of the population who can then lead a broader social change. He concludes by reciting a couplet from Kabir Saheb, emphasizing the need to fight for what is right without cowardice, even when the odds are stacked against you.