Bhubaneswar: Notwithstanding the ban on use of plastic and thermocol, markets in this capital city are flooded with thermocol boats, decorated with colourful plastic ribbons.
In Odisha there has been a tradition to sail tiny boats in rivers and water bodies on Kartik Purnima, the last day of the holy month of Kartik. The tradition is to remember the rich maritime past of the state.
This celebration is called ‘Boita Bandana Utsav’. This year the utsav falls Tuesday.
Earlier, people used to float boats prepared from banana stems. With the passage of time, these eco-friendly boats have given place to thermocol and plastic boats.
After the celebration, the ponds and river banks are sure to be found with huge accumulation of garbage of these boats.
Usage of these boats is polluting the water bodies, causing humongous damage to aquatic animals and flora and fauna, some environmentalist have observed. They have urged people to stop using these boats from this year onwards.
Realising the danger caused by the plastic and thermocol boats, some organisations have risen to the situation and decided to make people aware of the harmful effects of thermocol and plastic boats and how eco-friendly are the traditional banana-stem boats. Like observing green Holi and green Diwali, they are contemplating on observing green Kartik Purnima.
A social organisation, Kalinga Association for Protection of Culture and Heritage (KAPOCH), which has been observing ‘Boita Bnadana Utsav’ at the bank of Daya river, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar for the last seven years, has decided to make this year’s celebration plastic and thermocol free.
The organization has decided to urge the people coming to the Daya river to sail banana-stem boats. The oragisation has decided to provide banana-stem boats to all the people coming to the river bank.
That apart, the organization has also decided to request youths not to fire crackers on the river bank.
Like the past years, this year too, ‘Boita Bandana Utsav’ will be celebrated on a huge decorated wooden boat. And the members will clean the river bank the next morning.
PNN
