Campaign to collect and safe disposal of religious waste launched in Mangaluru

Mangaluru: Ramakrishna Mission in association with Swaccha Mangaluru Prathishtana has launched a campaign titled “Visarjane” for the collection and safe disposal of religious waste in the city, till March 26.

Speaking after launching the campaign, Ramakrishna Mutt President Swamy Jithakamanandaji said the initiative aims to provide devotees with a dignified and respectful way to dispose of old religious items.

Temporary collection boxes will be placed at the Mangaladevi Temple, Kadri Manjunatha Temple, Bharath Mall, Forum Fiza Mall, City Centre Mall and the Govinda Dasa College campus in Surathkal. Members of the public can deposit old framed pictures of deities, broken idols, calendars bearing religious images and other puja materials at these centres during the campaign period.

He said the Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan of Ramakrishna Mission, launched in 2015 with the aim of keeping the city clean, has been implementing a range of initiatives to promote cleanliness and responsible waste management. As part of the campaign, activities such as cleanliness drives, door-to-door awareness on waste segregation, ‘Swachh Manas’ classes for schoolchildren, ‘Swachh Soch’ seminars for college students, special waste collection drives, maintenance of public spaces and public training workshops are conducted regularly. During a cleanliness drive held in March first week around the Kadri Manjunath Temple premises, volunteers noticed that old framed pictures of deities, broken idols and other religious items had been discarded in public places. The volunteers then collected these items, cleaned them and ensured their proper disposal, he explained.

On noticing discarding religious waste is a challenge, the Mission decided to take up the campaign with the support of MRPL.

After the collection of religious waste, all items gathered from the six centres will be transported to the Kadri temple premises and stored safely for further processing. Before the final disposal, temple priests will conduct a special ‘Udvasana pooja’, ensuring that the sanctity of the items is respected.

Following the ritual, volunteers will segregate the materials. Paper-based images of deities will be respectfully immersed in water and later placed in a designated pit in the temple garden, where a Tulsi plant will be planted as a sacred symbol. Items made of wood, glass and metal will be sorted separately. Recyclable materials will be sent to recycling units, while non-recyclable materials will be disposed of safely through co-processing in cement factories, ensuring no harm to the environment, he explained.

The seer said the “Visarjane” campaign is not only about proper disposal but also about creating awareness among citizens on managing religious waste in a respectful and environmentally responsible manner.

The seer appealed to the public not to use the image of gods and goddesses in the invitations. The Ramakrishna Mutt, Belur has already given instructions to all its mutt not to use images of gods in the invitations. After the programmes, the invitations are often discarded. Noticing the discarded images on the invitations hurt the sentiments of the people.

Keshav Patali from MRPL CSR wing said often we see people throwing religious waste especially framed images of gods and goddesses to the river and water bodies. The MRPL will support such initiatives of the mutt.

To a query on continuing the campaign, Ramakrishna Mission Swaccha Mangaluru Campaign coordinator Ranjan Bellarpady said “we are getting queries from taluks on conducting similar campaigns. Based on the response for the 10-day campaign, we will decide on holding similar campaigns elsewhere. Further, in the second phase, we are planning to have a permanent collection counter in the city.”

Swamy Nithyasthanandaji, President of Ramakrishna Mutt, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru was present.