(Madan Menon Thottasseri)
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It is really appreciable that the Chief Priest of Sabarimala had put forth green-mantras , a ‘Go Green doctrine’ to be followed by devotees of deity Ayyapan while setting out for the pilgrimage to the sacred sabarimala ‘Ambalam’.
His call for pilgrims can be taken note of by the Kerala government, local bodies and various Devasthanams in the state. There may be certain pollution control measures in force put into practice by the state govt. and all Devaswam Boards at vulnerable locations en-route to Pamba river from Inter-state boarders and path-ways towards Sannidhanam through the mountainous terrain. They have to intensify the pollution control measures on a war footing at all such locations through-out Kerala.
Now a days, all most all calendar months are pilgrims’ season and the presence of heavy flow of pilgrims from other states can be seen at all important temples in Kerala well. Majority of pilgrims stay in temple premises, Railway stations, Bus terminus etc. leaving behind lot of plastics, bottles and garbage. Throwing bottles and plastics in the forests have to be prevented by all means. Public announcements and awareness campaign by distribution of leaflets in vernaculars can be tried for the same.
The magnitude of the pollution will be unimaginable while four crores pilgrims visiting sabarimala in a year! There are big crowds consisting of zealous pilgrims from different states, moving from one temple to another in groups to complete pilgrimage within a limited time frame and return to their native places. To prompt them for complying with rules of civic sense for control of pollution and enabling easy removal of garbage etc.will be a challenging task to the local bodies. Agencies can be deployed for garbage collections in all districts through which pilgrims travel.
The tragic death of the Cow, bestowed as the diety Siva’s ‘vahanam’ at the famous Eattumanur temple by consuming plastic, happened six months’ago as reported, should be taken note of seriously by all temple authorities to ensure that such in incidence never happens in the future. It is not a disgrace for Kerala when a temple animal is put to a situation to consume plastic materials and may be the people at helms of affairs never bothered to provide sufficient grass, hay and cattle feeds ?
The Chief Priests call is relevant at this time when the entire world is discussing on the pollutions, emissions, global warming etc. and waiting for the ‘Climate Change’ Summit to be held on December 07, 2009 at Copenhagen, Denmark.
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