Palitana to junk plastic..............

Palitana to junk plastic..............

Counted among the holiest shrines of Jainism in the world, Palitana's Shetrunjay Hill will soon be a plastic-free zone.

Sources in Anandji Kalyanji Trust that manages the Jain temples in Palitana said the trust functionaries have already started the process of making the religious destination free of plastic menace. The project is to be implemented in a phased manner.

Sources said over 400 volunteers came to Palitana from Mumbai last month and collected plastic from all over Shetrunjay Hill, where a large numbers of Jain temples are located. They picked up plastic pouches, water bottles, wafer packets among other plastic waste.
"We were shocked to find that the waste collected by volunteers amounted to over 900 bags each containing about 15kg of plastic. So we decided to prevent carriage of plastic material atop the hill to reduce the plastic menace," a representative of the trust said.

"We have also written to Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board of the government to issue a notification in this regard and ban plastics at this religious place," one of the trustees said. Devotees are asked to dump plastic before they start climbing the hill for prayers.

"Every Saturday and Sunday, our volunteers stay at the entrance of the hill at Samvasharan Derasar and request devotees not to carry any plastic material. Our volunteers give them jute bags free of cost to dump platics," a trustee said.

On an average over 10 lakh people visits the Jain temples every year in Palitana. Besides being a religious place, Shetrunjay Hill is close to the forest where Asiatic Lion has its abode. There are about 15 lions are in Palitana area in Bhavnagar.