Dehra Dun, Nov 23: Impatience is back, so are Inulas, Legnlarice, Anemone and Plentia. For the first time in 20 years, the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve is seeing these exotic species of flowers that it had considered extinct in full bloom. Thanks to a forest officer who, through community participation, has cleared the world heritage site of more than 44 tonnes of plastic and other waste. Also gone are more than 400 shops and shacks housing dhabas, which littered the buffer zone of the reserve with garbage. The 19 km between Govindghat and the famous Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib, near the Valley of Flowers, is again smelling of flowers.
This week, Jyotsna Sitling, a 40-year-old Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer and Director of the Reserve, saw her labour finally come to an end, when 14 trucks carrying the garbage reached Dehra Dun on way to Delhi for recycling.
She began the campaign more than a year ago, urging local men and women to clean the buffer zone that was littered with plastic. A total of 44 tonnes of garbage was collected in 14,000 bags. The garbage was then transported from Hemkund Sahib, more than 14,000 feet high, on horse back to Govindghat, and then loaded onto the 14 trucks.
The eco-development committee (EDC) of locals formed by her hired people to collect garbage for a salary of Rs 1,000 per month, with additional incentive of Rs 5 per bag of garbage. As ‘Operation Clean Up’ gathered momentum, they soon ran short of bags. ‘‘Sacks worth Rs 1.5 lakh were bought to store the garbage, which kept on accumulating,’’ says R K Banerji, Divisional Forest Officer, Joshimath, the man who personally supervised the operation.
‘‘Another big problem,’’ says Sitling, ‘‘was the removal of huge quantity of mule dung, which is highly acidic, unlike the dung of other animals.’’
The Reserve Director also successfully persuaded comprising 76 families, to have only 76 shops instead of the more than 400 shacks that existed. While the EDC spent Rs 6.81 lakh on garbage collection and disposal, it earned Rs 9.81 lakh by imposing various levies, on shops, mules etc.
The man from Delhi who has bought the garbage for recycling is more than happy.