The annual Chithirai extravaganza is one of the biggest temple festivals in the State that attracts thousands of visitors from across the country and abroad. The 15-day mega event keeps the district administration, corporation and the police on toes. Conducting it successfully every year is indeed a herculean task. This year the police has turned to technology with face-recognition cameras and drones to keep the festival free of untoward incidents. They have also introduced a new feature 'Track Alagar' in the already existing mobile application 'Madurai Kavalan'. Now, devotees can track the procession of Lord Kallazhagar with just the click of a button on their mobile phones.
“The idea is to deter people from crowding. Anyone who has downloaded the app will be able to see the live updates on the location of the deity and also track the palanquin. That way, if the deity is still at Kadachanendal for instance, people in Surya Nagar need not waste their time by gathering hours before it actually reaches the spot,” suggests Dhinesh Pandian of Geo Meo Informatics, who have developed the feature. “Instead of introducing a separate app, we have included it as an added feature, so that it is useful for both the police and the public.” Depending on the success of the feature, Dhinesh intends to replicate the idea for other festivals as well. “Madurai is a city of festivals and traffic diversions are inevitable on these occasions. Track Alagar will also provide live traffic route updates, thus avoiding snarls on the road, making it easier for the traffic police to manage both vehicular flow and the festival crowd. So far, 8000 people have signed up for the feature on Google Play Store.”
Logo of Namma Alagar online campaign
Another initiative seeded this year, is #NammaAlagar, to garner public discussion around the existing green practices followed in the Chithirai festival and on how to keep the event garbage-free. “As the first step, we have started a Facebook page where we campaign with the hashtag and have conducted an online poll on what people think is causing pollution during the festival – from disposable plastic cups and plates to plastic bags used for poojas and water packets. We plan to invite leaders and practitioners to talk on making the largest people festival in Asia, a zero waste festival. We will promote green practices during the event and engage people in sharing ideas, thoughts and showcasing examples,” says Krishnan N Subramanian of The Yellow Bag.
“I strongly feel our city should not suffer a garbage choke during Chithirai the way Bangalore or other metros suffer during New Year celebrations. Alternately, traditional festivals have lot to teach about conducting a garbage free event. For instance, Chithirai festival is still grounded and nature-friendly in many ways. The traditional thatched roof pandals is one good example,” points out Krishnan. “If you take the Durga Puja in Calcutta, eco-friendly pandals and idols have become a trend and people are shunning PoP.”
However, he rues the recent and silent replacement of banana leaves and thonnais (bowls made of palm leaves) with plastic plates during the Chithirai festival. “Even healthy and traditional thirst-quenchers like buttermilk and panagam are replaced with pet bottles of coke and bovonto, which pile up garbage. At some places, panagam has been replaced with rasna, an artificially flavoured drink,” says Krishnan. “This year, we plan to urge people to use cloth bags by freely distributing the bags in the crowd. In the coming years, we will rope in thought leaders, policy makers, people and media to make #NammaAlagar a model for other cities.”
