Wherever there is a temple or a shrine of any god, flowers surely make their immense presence. These flowers make the ritual look very eleg...
Wherever there is a temple or a shrine of any god, flowers surely make their immense presence. These flowers make the ritual look very elegant and sacred. But what happens to these flowers as soon as they are brown and withered? They are just dumped into the nearby bins or even in the nearby lakes and ponds. To reuse their scent and recycle their aura, Lucknow Municipal Corporation has a great idea.
According to the initiative by the Lucknow Municipal Corp, these flowers across the city will be used to make Incense Sticks or widely known as 'Agarbathis'. This new measure is not only intended to clean the area, utilise the otherwise waste material, but also provide for employment to many people.
Partnering with local social-based enterprises and NGOs the flowers are collected in heaps from all the religious places in the city, no matter the religion. Municipal Commissioner Indramani Tripathi says, "The plan is to make incense sticks and bio-compost from the collected floral waste".
The collected floral waste is taken to a special space provided especially for the processing. An enterprise at the Kanha Upvanis set aside for the sole purpose. Experts from the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP-CSIR) are also referred and present there to shine their scientific light on the project.
An expert from the CIMAP, Dr RK Srivastav had visited the enterprise, says, " With the existing infrastructure, we have started the process of vermicompost. The project of making incense will begin by next week following basic training of workers".
An NGO participating in the project had done a survey in order to estimate the total floral waste from 30 major temples and shrines. The resulting number zeroed down to about '2 tonnes'. This weight can give a great source of raw material for the project.
"Fresh flowers will be used for making incense sticks while rest will be used for making compost", says a founder. "We will provide dustbins for the collection of fresh flowers at the temples and request them to ensure that all fresh flowers offered at the temple are put in it", says the Commissioner.
According to the initiative by the Lucknow Municipal Corp, these flowers across the city will be used to make Incense Sticks or widely known as 'Agarbathis'. This new measure is not only intended to clean the area, utilise the otherwise waste material, but also provide for employment to many people.
Partnering with local social-based enterprises and NGOs the flowers are collected in heaps from all the religious places in the city, no matter the religion. Municipal Commissioner Indramani Tripathi says, "The plan is to make incense sticks and bio-compost from the collected floral waste".
The collected floral waste is taken to a special space provided especially for the processing. An enterprise at the Kanha Upvanis set aside for the sole purpose. Experts from the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP-CSIR) are also referred and present there to shine their scientific light on the project.
An expert from the CIMAP, Dr RK Srivastav had visited the enterprise, says, " With the existing infrastructure, we have started the process of vermicompost. The project of making incense will begin by next week following basic training of workers".
An NGO participating in the project had done a survey in order to estimate the total floral waste from 30 major temples and shrines. The resulting number zeroed down to about '2 tonnes'. This weight can give a great source of raw material for the project.
"Fresh flowers will be used for making incense sticks while rest will be used for making compost", says a founder. "We will provide dustbins for the collection of fresh flowers at the temples and request them to ensure that all fresh flowers offered at the temple are put in it", says the Commissioner.
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