No waste inside this Malleswaram mutt

The Chitrapur Mutt in Malleswaram practices 100 per cent waste management and does not throw away any garbage.

The name board of the Chitrapur Mutt in Malleswaram is hidden behind a thicket of trees inside the compound. The gate is lined with colour coded waste bins that indicate the disposal of different kinds of waste. The Saraswat-Konkan community that takes care of this mutt, started practicing zero-waste processes in 2014.

Biodegradable waste is put in these containers. Flowers are composted separately. Pic: Akshata Chonkar

Rekha Mavinakurve, a frequent visitor of the mutt, is also an active volunteer in Malleshwaram working on solid waste management issues. She is a member of Malleshwaram Swabhimana Initiative, a community-based organisation (CBO) group that works in Malleshwaram. She spearheaded the movement to shift towards a completely independent method of managing waste in Chitrapur mutt.

She explained that while the mutt had been segregating their waste for over nine years, there was a sort of dissatisfaction about the way the waste was managed once it was given to the authorities. She said, “we separated our paper and plastic from the biodegradable waste, but it was always mixed up by the trucks that came to pick up the waste. We started giving the plastic to the ITC company for recycling, but the food waste was still a big issue.”

Pic: Akshata Chonkar

Along with Poornima, the head of the mutt volunteer group, Rekha set up a composting system at the garden. Thus the garden of the mutt also became the composting area where the waste turned into fertiliser. Says Poornima, “we encourage all the devotees at the mutt to practice segregation all around them, since it becomes an unconscious practice rather than a forced effort if it is done in all surroundings, apart from just the mutt.” She also adds, “we have kept this practice up under the guidance of our swamiji, who has been very supportive of this cause.”

Soon, other volunteers learned the process and started practicing it. For almost three years now, the flowers used as offerings are decomposed separately, while raw vegetable and fruit peels are put in different containers. The coconuts that are offered during poojas leave behind a lot of husk, which is dried and used instead of firewood by the mutt itself.

“Under the guidance of our guruji, we have taken up this process and it gives us immense joy to see that nothing is lost and everything that we leave behind is used in the cycle to produce more,” said Rekha.

During large-scale functions, leftover cooked food items are separated and dumped in a waste pit in the backyard of the garden. The process of composting all of this waste takes about two to three months. The compost is then used as manure for the several plants and trees growing in the mutt premises.

Volunteers have also planted various flowers, fruits and vegetable plants, that are used as offerings and prasadam in the mutt. They have recently begun growing hibiscus, rose, radish, pomegranate and tulsi plants, all of which are used in the mutt.

There is no use of plastic inside the mutt premises. The devotees are asked to take back any plastic or paper that they bring inside. The mutt has stopped using plastic cups and plates to distribute their prasadam.

“We have frequent poojas and upanayanams that take place in the mutt, so we urge the devotees not to use disposable utensils for their programmes. We have bought 1000 washable cups, plates and spoons each, with the help of some donations and the mutt savings, and we provide these to the people who organise functions here,” explained Rekha.

This also had a compounding effect: many of the volunteers at the mutt have now started practicing segregation and composting in their own homes.

Akshata Chonkar was an intern at the Co Media Lab, an initiative of Radio Active 90.4 MHz and Citizen Matters.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

Marooned and abandoned: Study reveals displaced families were put in the path of floods

Perumbakkam in Chennai has faced floods in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023. Despite that, 12,045 families were resettled there since 2015.

When Cyclone Michaung-induced floods hit the resettlement colonies of Perumbakkam, the houses on the ground floor were quickly inundated. On a priority basis, persons with disabilities were allocated houses on the ground floor. However, with the floods, their vulnerability pushed them further to the fringes. They were forced to climb stairs seeking refuge in other people's homes that already had leaky roofs and damp walls. This was not the first time people in resettlement colonies in Perumbakkam or Semmencherry were facing floods. Almost every year, November and December are months of struggle for the families, who are evicted and resettled…

Similar Story

Matharpacady: Resisting hot real estate deals to conserve century-old heritage

Despite the challenges of maintaining heritage houses, the residents of Matharpacady want to save the precinct for culture and community.

Renie Baptista, lives in a 100-old-legacy house in Matharpacady. The house, inherited by her father-in-law from his mother, invokes a mixture of legacy, emotional attachment to the neighbourhood, where people share similar cultural and social ethos. She also enjoys a sense of space in her 2000 sq ft bungalow, which, even now, is a sturdy house.  Shifting into a flat that could come with water and other infrastructural issues bothers her along with the worry of losing her link with her community spaces forever. Many others in Matharpacady share her anxiety. The quaint old charming bungalows and bylanes of Mazgaon village…