HYDERABAD: Single-use plastics will be banned in the temple town of Srisailam from August 26, the temple authorities announced on Wednesday. Srisailam Devasthanam executive officer S. Lavanna said the decision was taken to control pollution from plastics.
Lavanna said the ban will include plastic bags, disposable plates, spoons, cups and glasses. The ban will be enforced from August 26, and beginning September 1 violators will be penalised with fines ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 depending on the nature of the violation, he said.
Devasthanam officials have held a series of meetings with hotels and restaurants in the temple town on the subject, as well as with shopkeepers and everyone is on board with the plan, he said.
Banning packaged bottled water will take about a month. “We are discussing with a supplier who currently serves the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams for introducing packaged drinking water in glass bottles and hope to tie this up soon,” Lavanna said.
He urged pilgrims visiting Srisailam to carry with them cloth or a jute bags and steel water bottles that can be refilled at the 15 ‘Jala Prasadam’ outlets where the Devasthanams provides filtered drinking water, sourced from the holy Patala Ganga point in Krishna river.
The decision was taken not just to reduce plastic pollution in the temple town, nestled in the Nallamala forest range that is also the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam tiger Reserve, but also to save wild animals that have been found to be eating plastic-lined plates or bags with some food still in them that are thrown along the roadside by some pilgrims, he said.
