When Shobana Chandrashekar came back to the Nilgiris after several years abroad, she was horrified at how much garbage there was in Ooty. She roped in her eight-year-old daughter for a summer vacation project and set off. “My daughter made posters about reducing garbage, with a list of dos and don’ts, and we went from door to door in our neighbourhood. Surprisingly, we got a good response.”
Shobana Chandrashekar
Chandrashekar called for a meeting but only 20 or so turned up. Undaunted, she and others like her organised a ‘litter pick’. “This was much before Swachch Bharat,” she laughs. “One fine day, we decided to clean up Gandhi Maidan. We gave a presentation to the Ooty Municipal School and the students also helped.”
Samantha Iyanna
Not too far away from Chandrashekar, in Coonoor, Samantha Iyanna is doing something similar. Just after Diwali in 2013, as she walked past Sims Park, she could not ignore the amount of garbage lying around. “A few like-minded people got together to do something about it,” she says.
Bus stops seemed a good place to start. Chandrashekar and Iyanna, along with their volunteers, swept them, removed layers of posters and painted murals on the walls. In Coonoor, some bikers from Bengaluru chipped in as well. “Those bus shelters are still reasonably clean,” says Iyanna. In Ooty, they found homes for the homeless who lived in the bus shelters.
Chandrashekar is worried about what tourism is doing to the hill station.“Far from contributing to the economy, all it is doing is increasing the mess. The infrastructure is woefully inadequate to cope with the onslaught of tourists. Guiding tourism onto the right path will go a long way in stemming the rot.”
Plastic wastes choke the Kodapamund Channel near mini garden in Udhagamandalam.
There is anguish in her voice when she speaks of water resources in general, and the unbelievably filthy Kodapamund Channel in particular that runs through the town. Samantha is equally despairing about the water situation in Coonoor. “Water bodies and resources are in terrible shape. We did a spot of cleaning around the Ralliah Dam. We were shocked at the number of bottles we fished out.” Samantha says that many rivulets are choked with filth and have to be cleaned on priority. “That is the only way we can solve the water problem.”
Still it is not all bleak, says Chandrashekar. The challenge is enormous but they are not giving up. “We hold waste management workshops, teach people how to compost at home, talk about recycling ...” Chandrashekar talks of one Colony where “there are hundreds of houses. We were sceptical if the inhabitants would be receptive. Just one awareness session about hygiene, children’s health, etc. and they are now segregating waste.” In Coonoor, they planned a clean up every Friday but now stick to a more realistic one Sunday a month. “We reach out to schools and plan to approach younger people.”
“We are a loose group of people who work voluntarily and are not a registered organisation,” says Iyanna and Chandrashekar reiterates that, “We prefer to call ourselves active citizens.”
Iyanna acknowledges that not much could have been achieved without the support of the Coonoor municipality, the sanitary contractor and the sanitary workers. “The RDO of Coonoor, Geetapriya especially, has been very proactive. But the municipality says it is short staffed. They have insufficient vehicles to pick up the garbage,” she says.
But some of the bigger institutions are stepping up. In Coonoor, the Taj came forward to clean up Lamb’s Rock and retailers Vaishali Enterprises sponsored garbage bags made of old tea sacks. In Ooty, a Sanitary Workers Festival was organised for the Municipal Corporation workers and prominent establishments like The Big Shop, Nahar, Motsons and Chandiram came forward to support it. Most hotels now compost in their premises.
But the more affluent inhabitants of the Nilgiris do not seem to be concerned. Iyanna says, “In some areas, all it will cost each household is an extra ₹100-150 a month to get their garbage segregated and collected on time. But they are reluctant to spend even that much.” Chandrashekar adds, “They generate a lot more waste and persuading them to segregate and recycle is a challenge. Many refused to compost saying it attracts rats.”
There should be more stakeholders involved in the clean up initiative, they feel. For example, the Armed Forces who have a huge presence in the Nilgiris, as do the big tea companies. Iyanna says, “These are people who are in a position to make a difference and they must.”
To know more
Ooty: Call 09442644283; email themobprojectooty@gmail.com; visit the Make Ooty Beautiful Facebook page
Coonoor: Call 09894233943; email cleancoonoor@gmail.com; visit the cleancoonoor Facebook page
