Coimbatore : In a blatant act that belittles the untiring efforts by volunteers of various NGOs and the Coimbatore Forest staff, shop keepers who have been offered contracts to run small-time refreshment stalls on the Vellingiri pilgrimage route have reportedly been found polluting the hills by throwing all their wastes around.
Coimbatore : In a blatant act that belittles the untiring efforts by volunteers of various NGOs and the Coimbatore Forest staff, shop keepers who have been offered contracts to run small-time refreshment stalls on the Vellingiri pilgrimage route have reportedly been found polluting the hills by throwing all their wastes around.
According to some of the pilgrims who trekked the seven hills on Chitra Pournami, the shop owners allegedly do not dump the wastes properly. They claim that food items and plastic wastes are dumped mercilessly by the shop owners in the bushes nearby. About 10 shops have been set up on lease on the 5.5 km long Vellingiri pilgrimage route and are largely run by tribals. They sell water bottles and refreshments for the pilgrims throughout the day.
While the pilgrims are strictly checked at the foothills, shop areas often go unnoticed by the officials. "There are stalls put up at the foothills, where volunteers and forest staff are on vigil round the clock. "They remove any plastic item, including water bottles from us to avoid littering of plastics enroute to the ecologically sensitive reserve forest," opine the pilgrims.
The Vellingiri area is prone to movement of wild animals including elephants, tigers, leopards, deer, birds and other smaller mammals. Taking this into consideration, strict vigil is maintained to not allow any plastic materials inside the forest terrain. On Chitra Pournami alone, about two tons of plastic wastes were collected from the pilgrims in the stalls below. Despite this being only half of what was collected last year, volunteers are surprised to see banned plastic covers still in use. However, pilgrims who returned from the trek are complaining that when such vigil is maintained below at the foothills, shops on the route blatantly disregard the rule of not littering. "There are no proper dustbins near the shops and people just litter as they wish. It is an irony to see volunteers working so hard downhill, when no such responsibility is maintained above here,” said a pilgrim. Meanwhile, forest officials have heeded the complaints by the pilgrims and assured that proper action would be taken in this regard.
According to some of the pilgrims who trekked the seven hills on Chitra Pournami, the shop owners allegedly do not dump the wastes properly. They claim that food items and plastic wastes are dumped mercilessly by the shop owners in the bushes nearby. About 10 shops have been set up on lease on the 5.5 km long Vellingiri pilgrimage route and are largely run by tribals. They sell water bottles and refreshments for the pilgrims throughout the day.
While the pilgrims are strictly checked at the foothills, shop areas often go unnoticed by the officials. "There are stalls put up at the foothills, where volunteers and forest staff are on vigil round the clock. "They remove any plastic item, including water bottles from us to avoid littering of plastics enroute to the ecologically sensitive reserve forest," opine the pilgrims.
The Vellingiri area is prone to movement of wild animals including elephants, tigers, leopards, deer, birds and other smaller mammals. Taking this into consideration, strict vigil is maintained to not allow any plastic materials inside the forest terrain. On Chitra Pournami alone, about two tons of plastic wastes were collected from the pilgrims in the stalls below. Despite this being only half of what was collected last year, volunteers are surprised to see banned plastic covers still in use. However, pilgrims who returned from the trek are complaining that when such vigil is maintained below at the foothills, shops on the route blatantly disregard the rule of not littering. "There are no proper dustbins near the shops and people just litter as they wish. It is an irony to see volunteers working so hard downhill, when no such responsibility is maintained above here,” said a pilgrim. Meanwhile, forest officials have heeded the complaints by the pilgrims and assured that proper action would be taken in this regard.