Kerala: Ban on plastic, mobile in temples from April 1

Thiruvananthapuram: An absolute ban on plastic will be imposed in all the 1240 temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board from April 1. Devotees will not be allowed to take their mobile phones into the temple premises, too. Administrative officers in temples have been asked to put in place a token system, and a mobile shelf modelled on a cloak room, in temples for the temporary safe-keep of the mobile phones of devotees.  Traders will be prohibited from selling ‘puja’ items like oil, camphor and incense sticks in plastic bottles, cases, or covers.

Likewise, devotees will not be allowed to bring any ritual-related materials like oil or ghee into the temple premises in plastic containers. “We have already issued strict orders to traders to change their ways,” TDB president A. Padmakumar said. In Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple, which the TDB president had converted into a lab of sorts for his anti-plastic drive, plastic trays kept in shops selling puja materials have been replaced by receptacles made from palm spathes (‘paala paathram’). Steel tumblers, instead of disposable plastic bowls, are now placed near temple counters for devotees to take oil and pour in giant stone lamps.

“They can either leave the tumblers near the lamp or take it back to the counter. Each temple needs to keep some 50-odd steel tumblers for the purpose. It is not costly either,” the president said. The Aranmula model will be followed in all other temples,” he added. However, rendering devotion free of plastic is complicated. The TDB is still unsure as to how to deal with the large inventory of incense sticks and other materials in plastic packaging already in the possession of traders. “We have, for instance, asked them not to sell in packets and instead to take out the incense sticks or camphor from out of the plastic package, and sell them in loose form covered in paper or any biodegradable material,” Mr Padmakumar said. He, however, knows it is not a practical solution.

“But even if we find it hard to dispose of the existing inventory, traders have been prohibited from purchasing materials in plastic packaging from April1,” he said. With the ban imminent, new innovations have cropped up. For instance, Kudumbashree has created a cover for incense sticks from the outer layer of the banana tree stem. “We are also planning to lease out space in Devaswom lands for small industries that can manufacture biodegradable packaging materials,” the TDB president said.