COIMBATORE: Vaanagame, ilaveyile, maracherive, neengalellam kaanalin neero? Verum kaatchi pizhai thano? (The sky, tender sun rays, dense woods, are you all a mirage? Simply an illusion?)
Reads a poem by Mahakavi Bharathiyar freshly painted on a wall along the main road of GRD Layout in Subramaniyapuram near RS Puram. And those who saw the street on the nippy morning of Sunday February 27, might have even thought the stretch was indeed a mirage.
Instead of the familiar eyesore of a landfill that it was until a day before, the street had transformed into a beauty spot, decorated with breathtaking murals and this inspiring poem.
What's even more surprising is that all of these were achieved in a single day by a few dedicated hearts from 'Spot Beautification', a joint-initiative of the Coimbatore Corporation, Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC), and city-based waste management startup Cercle X. Formed in February, it dreams of cleaning every polluted street in the city and prevent it getting littered again.
Their strategy is simple: Clean a street and beautify it with murals to such an extent that people become reluctant to dump garbage in the spot. At the GRD Layout street, the effect was immediate - those used to dumping waste on the street for years stopped doing so; some even come to admire the works and take selfies.
"Once in 15 days, we select a polluted street from each corporation zone and beautify it. When there is no place to dump the garbage, people will start segregating waste," said R Raveendran, honorary secretary of RAAC.
Once the volunteers select a spot, they clean it up in a day. The dry waste is pulverised and sent to compost units whereas plastic waste is sent for recycling. At GRD Layout, the first phase of the work was completed on Saturday February 26. "We have been monitoring the place; none dumped waste there," said Vishnu Vardhan, CEO of Cercle X, which initiated the cleaning mission.
The beautified places will be maintained with the help of the corporation and locals. "Since the residents themselves are part of the cleaning mission, they would be more inclined to keep their surroundings clean," he added.
"If a place is unmaintained in residential areas, it can become a landfill. This GRD Layout street is close to the compound wall of a house that has been locked for many years. Over time, it became a landfill," said N Savithri, a resident from the area.
"All of us are happy that this place, littered for years, has become so beautiful. We segregate garbage at home and dispose them in carts that come for door-to-door waste collection," Savithri added.
The volunteers who cleaned the place have also placed slabs for people to sit and rest. As a result, the residents plan to plant saplings there. "If there are a few trees as well, the place would turn into a roadside park. That would be wonderful!" said Muthukumar, an autorickshaw driver.