ISKCON Mayapur in the news about waste management on our property.
Clean Dham, clean your heart: ISKCON Mayapur’s waste management drive.
Timesofindia.indiatimes: KOLKATA. Mayapur being a holy Dham, global headquarter of ISKCON and an important tourist destination of India is visited by lakhs of pilgrims, tourists, devotees from across the world every year. Also a vibrant ISKCON community permanently stays here. This results in accumulation of huge quantities of garbage and waste material which poses a major threat for the environment.
For the ISKCON devotees, the Mayapur Dham, the birth place of Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu is a sacred and revered place and hence the management conceptualised the idea of implementing ‘Zero Waste Mayapur – Clean Dham and Clean Your Heart’ exercise with the aim of gradually bringing down the garbage level to zero, informed Harilila Das, member of the Management team which has initiated the programme.
“Earlier the garbage remained dumped in large volumes leading to the formation of harmful methane gas and leachate, a kind of liquid that percolated through the soil and polluted the ground water. Therefore, it was decided to convert the dumped garbage into something of utility for mankind,” said Das.
Elaborating on the mechanism, Das further added that, “ISCON has developed an Eco centre where latest machinery and technology has been set up near the ISKCON campus and volunteers collect more than 6 tonnes of garbage per day from important centres of Mayapur. From this huge load, toxic waste – discarded tablets, batteries, CFL lamps etc is sorted, arranged in lines and systematically composting is done. Two types of composting are done – bacterial compost and verni compost. By adding bacteria to the waste it produces humus which can be used as organic fertilizer and verni compost produces a liquid which is used to enrich the soil and increase the produce of the crops. This recycled substance is also used by the horticulture department of ISKCON to maintain the beautiful gardens.”
A team of community members and devotees has been formed to create awareness about the campaign and importance of the clean environment.
“To spread awareness within the community and visitors, a team led by a Russian devotee, Pivel Katev, has started organizing ‘Clean the Dham’ drive every week wherein group of devotees take up the broom and get into the act of sweeping and removing the garbage from streets, localities of Mayapur. Today, a group of 20 devotees consisting of women, children and men from various countries like Russia, China, Germany and many more countries enthusiastically cleaned the entire Gournagar area of Mayapur.”
Madhavi, a 5-year-old Russian girl espoused the cause by helping other senior devotees in carrying bags and gathering the garbage. Anton, from Belarus, has been participating in this weekly drive for a month and he derives a great sense of happiness in cleaning as he feels this is the highest service to make Lord Chaitanya happy. The group of devotees also educate the people to discourage the use of plastics.
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