Travel and tell no one, live a true love story and tell no one, live happily and tell no one, people ruin beautiful things.
One can co-relate this deep quote from Khalil Gibran with the current situation of cleanliness in India specially when we visit a religious place.
Recently Retroutes team was at Haridwar, trekking the famous Mansa Devi hillock and was appalled by the debris and garbage, witnessed in the form of religious clothes (Mata ki chunri), prasad packets, head bands, incense stick packets in addition to the all India famous garbage material of chips packets and empty water bottles lying unnoticed, undisturbed, peacefully near the temple. The things once made to decorate mother Mansa, are now the very reason behind destroying the pristine beauty of mother's abode.
The question that arises in mind is - why this ignorance?
It is not because the people who have visited these place were ignorant about the harmful effects of throwing garbage like this. Almost whole of the tourists crowd belong to the so called 'intellectual' & 'well behaved' class of society who apologize even at yawning in front of other people. They possess high educational qualifications, discuss regularly the issues related to global warming and show utmost sensitivity towards environment and cleanliness. This educated and concerned crowd supports 'Clean India' campaign on social media and if need arises can even march to India Gate for protest.
The question that still lurks in back of the mind is why we are not able to show some respect and concern towards our religious places.
The question is why we, a nation of five thousand plus old civilization are not able to maintain that serenity and purity for which our holy places are known for.
The question is why we, a country boasting of being home and refuge for all the major religions of the world, are not able to respect these religious places.
The question is why we, one of the most intellectual people of the world close our eyes and turn a deaf ear towards the degradation of our beloved holy sites on visiting and worse behave in the same manner as the people before us who made these places dirty.
We have seen the villagers cleaning the items of decorations after we convert them into debris and have heard the painful voice of old villagers comparing the mountains and villages of their times.
There is a limit to individual efforts. The local people are always less in number than the tourists pouring in. Numerically, the hands of cleaning get outnumbered against the hands polluting. So ultimately, they and their habitat are losing this battle.
A similar situation was seen in Haridwar, where marigold flowers were beautifully decorated in a bouquet of green leaves. It is sad that among those thousands of pure and organic offerings made up of handmade garlands, only few reach up to the main temple and the rest are thrown along with other puja items into holy river Ganga. These items of decoration, now act as agents of pollution. The purpose of these beautiful things is never served rather they are affecting the river adversely.
The biggest irony is that we can see the rivers getting polluted but alas we leave no stone unturned to pollute them. People know that these things pollute the river and never appreciate them floating in Ganga while they are taking bath or strolling at the banks, but the same people when see these things in the hands of the priest during the famous 'Ganga Aarti', themselves offer the flowers out of their great faith and respect towards the holy river, neglecting all the warnings written everywhere along the river.
Can they justify this act of respect towards Maa Ganga?
Will these offerings be appreciated by our Gods & Goddesses ever?
Do we really need a campaign to show respect to our holy places?
Is it only the duty of government or municipal corporations to clean our environment?
Things won't get better this way. We have to take a pledge for this.
A pledge to keep our rivers, mountains & religious places clean.
A pledge to stop others from polluting our land.
A pledge that the next generation will take the same pledge for years to come.
