“Swachcha Padyatra, ‘Maa’ Ni Saachi Bhakti”

Ambaji is an important temple town with millions of devotees visiting the Ambaji temple every year. It is one of the 51 Shaktipeeths. During Bhadarvi Poonam (in September), more than 17 to 20 lakhs of pedestrian pilgrims and tourists attend this Bhadarvi Fair of Ambaji every year.

Pilgrims from all regions in Gujarat visit Ambaji chanting their way ‘Bol mari Ambe, jai jai Ambe.’ The route towards Ambaji town is decorated with festoons, flags and colourful lights. On the way, all the roads leading to Ambaji from different regions are found with walking pilgrims, singing and dancing with chants of Amba mata.

On the way to Ambaji (Palanpur), Mehsana district also receives lakhs of devotees. Many social and voluntary organizations and individuals put up pandals, tents and kiosks along the roads for the devotees. They make adequate arrangement of free medical facilities for devotees. They also offer food, beverage and fruit juice to the pilgrims. On such occasions, during the past years, the district has witnessed tonnes of plastic waste scattered along the road to Ambaji.

The plastic waste is a permanent hindrance to the green and clean environment. Plastic does not decompose easily, can chocks animal digestive system if engulfed while grazing and pollutes the air when burnt. In addition to these, plastic waste covers the soil resulting in low water seepage during rains. All these factors, mobilized the District Watershed Development Unit, Mehsana employees decided to make efforts towards its solution. In this regard, Project Director, Mehsana, Shri Kirit N. Parekh started an environment sanitation and awareness drive. The drive was named “Swachcha Padyatra, ‘Maa’ Ni Saachi Bhakti” (meaning, neat and clean pilgrimage is the true worship to the Goddess).

As a helping hand, all seva camps were sent a requesting letter from DWDU, Mehsana. In this regard personal continuous contacts by staff were also made to these seva camps.

The 40km roadside way from Kheralu to Satlasana was covered under this drive. The selection of the aforesaid area was also important since it covers a total of 4 IWMP (Integrated Watershed Management Programme) clusters of Mehsana district, namely IWMP-1, 11, 12 and 14. The campaign continued from 12th September to 19th September, 2013. More than 40 members/employees of the DWDU, Mehsana took an active role in the drive. T-Shirts and Caps (depicting “DWDU, Mehsana”) were distributed to the employees as a tool to IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activity. In addition to this, banners and posters were also prepared.

On 12th September (Saptami), banners of four different size (6×3sq.ft, 5×3sq.ft, 4×3sq.ft and 3 × 2sq.ft.) were put up on the higher grounds. The banners depicted an appeal to throw the plastic waste to the bins. Numerous (approx. 170) low cost cartons were used as bins. All along the way of 40km, banners and carton dustbins were kept at an approximate interval of 200-300m. Posters were put up on the cartons too. As per the strategy the cartons were put near the camps and shops where drinking facility (in polythene pouches) was available. Pilgrims were requested to throw the plastic waste to carton dustbins.

The next day 13th September (Asthami), for easy management, teams were formed and spread at an interval of 2km each. In the later half, rain drenched and storm blew the cartons away, making it extremely difficult for the team to stand up to the task. Later, the black polythene bags were put to use. This helped to collect waste in rains too.

14th September (Navami), noticing the fair response of the pilgrims, announcements were made from the camps to throw the plastic waste in the dustbins only. Slowly-slowly pilgrims started following our requests and our staff got a positive response from pilgrims as well as seva camps. The same strategy was followed for the next few days.

Later, the polythene bags were ringed at the top with the Ipomea twigs. These were then tied to the nearby solid structure using ropes. These type of polythene bags played a crucial role in effective management of plastic waste.

16th September (Bharvi), staff witnessed something unexpected. The bins which were unattended were taken off by the pedestrian pilgrims as a shed to protect themselves from rain. This made the staff’s task more difficult. A regular approach was made by the staff in night too to check the process goes smooth and steady.

As the days started passing, the task became more and more difficult to manage. There was a continuous flow of pilgrims. The staff worked in a prompt manner for effective management. In spite of all the best efforts, lots of other waste remained unmanaged. Vans travelling kilometres for distributing water pouches to pilgrims were less manageable.

The last day of the festive, 19th September (Poonam), the whole DWDU staff worked together for the effective sanitation of the area. All means (polythene bags, cartons, iron-rods with one end pointed) were used to pick up the plastic waste. All such waste was collected at a single place. The hard work and dedication of the staff cleared the environment from 1645kg of plastic waste. Almost 6 camel driven cart were fully loaded! Imagine such a huge plastic waste flooded on road! A clear picturesque difference can be seen among the areas where the DWDU staff has worked and where not! Later the whole plastic waste was sold to Bharat Tradus, Palanpur.

The drive was intended to aware people against plastic waste and help in its proper disposal. The staff offered manual labour to this virtuous cause or more precisely to environment. It was more of a learning experience. The staff faced several hurdles during its drive, environmental and human both, for which staff was not prepared. Although, some quick and bold decisions made the drive a successful one. The extent of its success can be accountant to the fact that some social volunteers, local people from project area and police officials supported our drive.

The Bhadarvi Poonam festive has its own importance. It clearly depicts the devotional spirit of the pilgrims. On the same hand, a festive which receives lakhs of devotees, a single plastic dropped from each hand is questionable. DWDU, Mehsana has joined hands against such plastic waste and will continue to do so in coming years, with greater enthusiasm!

Jai Ambe…