A bunch of city youths, who managed to collect half a truckload of waste from flood-hit Kodagu under the ‘Green Kodagu’ campaign, are in a quandary over how to scientifically dispose of them.
Bhavan Bopanna, a native of Kodagu, found that more waste was dumped after relief materials were supplied to Kodagu after floods. He quit his IT job to get the mess cleared.
Bopanna and his friends have been collecting the waste for the past one week.
“Kodagu did not have an efficient garbage collection system. Now, after the floods, things have only turned worse. Plastic bottles are littered everywhere. The excavators that were used at the garbage dump yard are not functioning now,” Bopanna said.
“When we discussed the matter with the authorities concerned, they inturn asked us to help them solve the garbage menace. As the officials are concentrating on rehabilitating the affected people, even the corporation has not been able to do much,” he said. “I have been talking to the recyclers, but nothing fruitful has turned till now.
The garbage pile is mounting day by day and authorities have to take some measures immediately,” added Bopanna. Kavya, another volunteer who just finished her graduation from the PES college, is also lending a helping hand to the campaign.
“The local people are not of much help. They are not responding when we talk to them about cleaning and collection of garbage. We are somehow managing
with whatever means we have. The government also sounds very helpless,” she added.
Uttaiah, another local volunteer, said although the relief materials have reached most of the affected places, waste management is a problem.
“The civic body is also not coming forward to help us dispose of the waste” he added.
