CHENNAI: ‘Come Ayyappa devotees! Let us make Sabarimala a pollution-free pilgrimage centre.’ With this as the motto, an activist-duo from Chennai has embarked on a mission to walk to Sabarimala all the way from Kasi, roughly covering about 3,000 kilometres on foot.Talking to City Express, Anantha Padmanabhan, founder of the Eco Pilgrimage Trust, said that the number of devotees visiting Sabarimala was increasing and so was the plastic waste and other pollutants. The devotees take up to 18 items meant to be offered during pooja in Sabarimala and all these items are packed in plastic bags and carried in their Irumudi (a religious baggage). With a surge in the number of devotees visiting the holy shrine, the chances of all these items reaching the pooja are meagre. “The devotees can always opt for butter-paper as an alternative as that will not affect the environment and which will help bring the plastic pollution in Sabarimala down,” Padmanabhan said. In order to make the seven-kilometre forest stretch, extending from Pamba to Sabarimala, free from litter, the devotees can carry a side bag in which they can keep their used biscuit covers and food waste. The waste can then be disposed of in the townships on the way before the forest range starts, as well as the area after the forest, which is fondly known as ‘Ayyappan Poongavanam’. “If every devotee visiting the shrine carried a steel tumbler in the side bag, we can reduce up to a minimum of 3.5 crore plastic tumblers that are used each season,” Padmanabhan observed and added, “We founded the Trust in 2009 when we came across a cow that had died after consuming plastic waste in Ettumanoor near Sabarimala.” As much as 17 kg of plastic waste was extracted from the carcass of the animal during post-mortem.“Taking the issue seriously, we floated the Trust to create awareness among the devotees visiting the holy shrine during the season,” said K E Sreejit, Chief Priest, Ayyappa Temple, Shastri Nagar, Adyar, and co-founder of the Trust.Padmanabhan has chosen to start from Kasi with the intention of meeting devotees en route Sabarimala, via Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. He is being accompanied by another youngster, Sriram. The team will begin its pilgrimage from Kasi on October 17.
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