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As a result, the forest staff
along with members of OSAI (Mahesh Prasanna, Ramesh, Kathir, Elan Chezhiyan, Sakthi Rajan , Umesh
and NSS students of Kumaraguru College of Engineering)set up checking points at the foothills of the mountain at the
Poondy temple for monitoring from 20th February to 21st February, 2012.
Plastic Free Vellingiris |
வெள்ளிங்கிரி மலையில் பிளாஸ்டிக்,பாலிதீன்,சிகரேட ்,சுபாரி ,மது , போதை பொருட்கள் கொண்டு செல்ல தடை!!!
The Vellingiri Mountains, a part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, is situated at the western border of Coimbatore District and comes under the Bolampatty range in Coimbatore Forest Division. On the top of the Vellingiri Mountains, a Shiva temple - Velliangiri Andavar is situated. Devotees from Coimbatore, neighboring districts and states come to this temple especially during the month of April for the auspicious Chithra Pournami.
An average of 4 lakh pilgrims climbs the mountain every year.
Due to the huge influx of the pilgrims, polythene and other non environment
friendly materials were a threat to the reserved forest along with the threat
of accidental forest fires set up by matches and cigarettes from the public. If
each pilgrim carries three polythene cover with them more than 10 lakh such
covers would be dumped in the up hills which cannot be cleaned easily. Hence,
considering the eco sensitivity of the region and the flora and fauna diversity
resent here, the District Forest Officer,Mr.V.Thirunavukarasu,IFS, and Mr.
Parthiban, Range Officer, Boluvampatty, decided to curb this influx of non
eco friendly materials into the reserve forest this year.
As a result, the forest staff
along with members of OSAI (Mahesh Prasanna, Ramesh, Kathir, Elan Chezhiyan, Sakthi Rajan , Umesh
and NSS students of Kumaraguru College of Engineering)set up checking points at the foothills of the mountain at the
Poondy temple for monitoring from 20th February to 21st February, 2012.
Devotees were advised not to
carry non eco friendly items into the reserved forest and items like polythene
covers, plastic, cigarettes, tobacco products, supari packets etc were not
allowed into the reserved forest and were collected at the entry itself. Also
pamphlets were given to the devotees mentioning the same and banners for put up
for the public to understand. Even biscuit packets and other packed food items
were allowed only after the removal of plastic covers.
Cloth bags and water bottles were sold by forest department at
very minimal price as replacements for polythene covers and water packets.
Devotees were requested to bring back water bottles, other belongings along
with them when returning. Understanding that the devotees will be arriving
round the clock, the above operation continued 24 hours a day, with a mix of
forest department staff and volunteers taking turns in the monitoring
operation.
This initiation got good support and cooperation from the
pilgrims also. In future the Vellingiri Hills which is a catchment area of our
Siruvani water will be protected from non eco friendly materials during the
festival season.
A separate operation is also considered to clean the trek route
in the reserve forest from non eco friendly items, if any, once the pilgrimage
season comes to an end.
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