Festival over, Bengaluru grapples with huge garbage

Bengaluru: The city was in a festive mood as full-fledged celebrations of Ayudha Puja and Vijayadashami made a reappearance without any Covid-19 restrictions on Tuesday and Wednesday. On both days, there were many Durgapandals, as well as numerous adorned residences, automobiles, BMTC buses, and other cultural activities. However, the extensive celebrations also left behind piles of waste on the streets.

It is always a massive task for the BBMP to collect trash on the day after any major festival. Even though5000 tonnes of garbage are generated everyday, this amount increases by 30% during significant festivals.

"On average, 5000 tonnes of garbage are generated each day, and during festivals, that number rises by 30 to 35%. Large quantities of waste is generated in the vicinity of significant temples during the festival season," said a BBMP official.

Roads in both residential and commercial areas were littered with plantain stems, rotten vegetables, lemons, loose flowers, and garlands. "At densely populated areas like markets, larger waste dumps were found. Since most of it was green waste, it can be easily handled, and can be converted into manure after processing," said Harish Kumar, Solid Waste Management Commissioner, BBMP.

KR Market, RT Nagar, Madiwala Market, Malleshwaram, Yeshwanthpura, Gandhi Bazaar, Hebbal, and Shivaji Nagar are a some of the areas where garbage piles were found. Meanwhile, business has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic levels, textile traders said that they were optimistic that it will in the future. "Despite the approaching holiday season, the textile business sector hasn't experienced a major growth yet. Deepawali is coming up, thus business might pick up shortly," said Sawal Ram, a textile vendor.