The flowers you offer here could help a thousand others bloom. More than six months after the temple trust was first approached by a non-governmental organisation, which offered to turn their waste into a resource, Siddhivinayak temple’s attempts at converting nirmalya—offerings made to the deity—into manure are a roaring success.With 30,000-40,000 devotees visiting the Prabhadevi temple every day—the numbers swell to over 2 lakh on Tuesdays—more than 1,000 kg of manure is ready at the end of every month.And the popularity of this manure from ‘‘holy flowers’’ is evident from the fact that by afternoon, the 1-kg packets priced at Rs 20 have disappeared off the shelves.‘‘This is a good way of disposing the nirmalya for the devotees, who otherwise have to discard it in water bodies, and for us,’’ said Subhash Mayekar, president of the Shri Siddhivinayak Temple Trust.‘‘Earlier, there used to be at least a truck-full of nirmalya left at the end of the day,’’ explained Sanjay Bhagwat, chief executive officer of the Trust. ‘‘We had no option but to let the municipal trucks take them to dumping grounds,’’ Bhagwat adds.The initiative started this May after members of the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat approached the Trust (see box).‘‘They were a little hesitant at first because of the space constraints and since religious sentiments were involved,’’ said Pratibha Belwalkar, a member of the NGO. ‘‘Once we explained how a small machine could do the job cleanly, they agreed and things have gone smoothly.’’In fact, the Trust members are so satisfied that they have invited the management of Mahalaxmi and Babulnath temples to watch a demonstration and replicate the experiment.The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat now wants this technique to be used during Ganeshotsav when 500-700 tonnes of nirmalya lies littered on the beach or is discarded into the sea.‘‘It is a good idea and could be implemented in the next festive season,’’ agreed Deputy Municipal Commissioner P R Sanglikar.From flower to manureThe nirmalya of marigold, hibiscus, betelnut flower and durva (blades of grass) is mixed with a culture of bacteria. Sawdust is added to reduce the moisture from the flowers. The bioculture in this mixture reacts with oxygen over 7-8 days. Manure is obtained after drying this in the sun for 1-2 days.‘‘We will try to get solar panels for quicker drying of the mixture and greater productivity,’’ said Dr M S Panajkar, chairman of the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat. —ENS
