Dharamshala Municipal Corporation areas to be rid of garbage
Ghazala Abdullah | TNR
McLeod Ganj
For the seven days leading up to India’s Independence Day, an all-out determination to DO something good for the environment, is evident in all the wards of the Dharamshala Municipal Corporation.
Sites where trash is illegally dumped, nullahs that are choked with rubbish, areas that a crying out for trees, have been identified, and are now targeted by a massive community effort.
First-hand experience
I was fortunate to experience this earnest activity first-hand while waiting at the gates of the Dalai Lama’s temple this morning for the gas truck.
My first inkling that something was afoot was when a group of Tibetan matrons with plastic bags and gloves appeared out of the mist, stooping to pick up garbage outside of the temple premises.
I watched as first the Tibetan Welfare Office representatives, and then the Municipal Corporation Mayor Omkar Nehria arrived.
‘Many hands make for light work’
Abandoning the empty gas bottle to my daughters, I hurried to grab an empty sack and some gloves to participate in this impromptu clean-up.
‘Many hands make for light work’ as the saying goes, and after more than an hour in which Tibetan monks, Bhagsu residents, Tibetan youths, and others, inspired by the clean-up activity, had worked extremely hard – the results were visible. In that short time the circumambulation path around His Holiness’s
residence, Temple Road, the taxi stand, the garbage dump opposite the Hindu temple, and many more places were almost miraculously free of all trash.
Ugly eyesores vanish
The ugly eyesore of plastic bottles, disposable lighters, plastic cement bags, glass alcohol bottles, ‘gutka’ and empty cigarette packets, chewing gum, and sweet wrappers, chip packets, more miscellaneous plastic items, and other assorted (and thoughtlessly discarded) garbage – was gone!
Activity to continue for next five days
Omkar Nehria told this correspondent that more sapling planting, garbage collecting, and unblocking of streams would continue for the next five days in all the wards of the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation areas.
