BHUBANESWAR: A group of women eco-changemakers with its efforts helped make a village festival eco-friendly by preventing tonnes of waste, generated during the celebrations, from entering the Chilika ecosystem.
The eco-changemakers working with Humara Bachpan Trust safely disposed of at least 15 quintal waste everyday, during the week-long ‘Pana Yatra’ organised in Deulapada village of Krushnaprasad block in Puri, that otherwise would have ended up going into the nearby Chilika lagoon, harming its ecosystem.
Every Pana Sankranti, the yatra is celebrated in the village by ‘Sri Sri Kamaleswar Deba Pana Yatra Management Committee’ for seven days. Over 35,000 people from different parts of the state participate in the yatra. However, the waste generated during the festival remained a matter of concern as the fair is organised on a ground just 200 metre away from Chilika lake. The trash generated from the festival directly makes way into the lake in the absence of any facility for collection and disposal.
Rising to the occasion, the Humara Bachpan Trust this year launched a campaign titled ‘Eco-friendly Pana Yatra’ and took the responsibility of collecting the waste generated during the festival organised from April 13 to 19 to protect the lagoon from single-use plastic.
A cadre of women as ‘Climate Champions’ were engaged to guide the festival goers against littering and collect waste from the area for its safe disposal. The grassroots eco-changemakers picked every single waste to ensure the festival ground remained clean. The waste then was transported to the nearby composting and treatment facilities for further processing.
An eco-stall was also set up on the ground, where women showcased environment friendly products prepared reusing daily waste and environment friendly materials. The stall was inaugurated by Chilika divisional forest officer Amlan Kumar Nayak. The women eco-changemakers also created awareness and had one-to-one interaction with the locals to reduce use of single use plastic, segregate the waste and dispose of them separately. Humara Bachpan Trust officials said they are also working with Puri Wildlife Division for implementation of the Enhancing Climate Resilience of India’s Coastal Communities (ECRICC) project in Chilika landscape of the district.