THIRUVANANATHAPURAM: Tonnes of clothes discarded by Sabarimala pilgrims swell and rot in the Pampa as the contractors designated for the job become selective while fishing them out.
A proposal by Pampa Parirakshana Samithi to start a bonfire (aazhi) to incinerate the clothes near the holy river failed to take off as the Travancore Devaswom Board was busy cashing in on these clothes.
The offending habit of discarding clothes in the Pampa was never part of tradition and was started by an unknown set of out-of-the-state pilgrims in the late 1980s, which is presently being imitated by lakhs.
The Irrigation Department which was expected to fish out of the clothes had over the period declared it as a major problem as clothes trapped all over the river bed affected marine life and collected more waste in the river.
“The contractors generally pick up only dhotis and similar reusable material. The rest of the clothes rot in the holy river.
The proposal to start an aazhi (bonfire) similar to the one in Sannidhanam at Pampa was accepted in principle by the Devaswom, but never took off,” said N. K.Sukumaran Nair, general secretary, Pampa Parirakshana Samithi.
On the flip side, the Devaswom which had first given the contract for picking up clothes in 2005, had during this year and the last, awarded the contract for over Rs 35 lakh.
Meanwhile, the untreated sewage discharged into the river has raised the threat of coliform bacteria level in the Pampa to more than 100 times than that of the permissible level in the peak season, virtully making the river a mega sewage drain.
As per the Pollution Control Board, the coliform level before the season in Pampa is just 450/100ml falling well within the recently relaxed global standard of 2500/ 100ml.
However, during the peak season the level stands between 2 lakh and 3 lakh/100ml . The river drains out into Kuttanad jeopardising the quality of life of more than 40 to 50 lakh people who live on its banks.
