Now, it’s litter show at Lalbagh

Now, it’s litter show at Lalbagh
Saturday August 18 2007 13:28 IST

BANGALORE: For eight days Lalbagh Botanical Garden was the most happening place in the city, where the Independence Day Flower Show was arranged.

Thousands flocked to see the floral beauties. But what all is left behind today is tonnes of litter. Wastes strewn all over are evidently the poor civic sense of the visitors. But participants are not left far behind. They have contributed their mite’ leaving a lot of muck to dirty the beautiful garden.

Here again plastic wastes have been the chief villain. Heaps and heaps of bottles, plastics wrappers, cups, papers, and food items are all thrown everywhere. Even the glass house has not been spared. One can find broken pots, footwear, dry flowers, papers and plastics amid the now dried floral arrangements.

Mountains of wastes are left behind in the empty stalls on both sides. The dustbins are overflowing with smelly wastes covered with flies and insects. The last day of the flower show saw more than 4 lakh visitors. According to Deputy Director of Horticulture Jagdeesh, removing wastes has always been given a priority by Lalbagh officials inside the sprawling 240 acres of Lalbagh. The whole garden, except a few places, have been dirtied. ‘‘The show saw unmanagable crowd. Visitors sneaked in food bags though they were asked not to do so,’’ he said.

Ten trucks laden with wastes were removed to the dumping yard. The remaining wastes are being removed to the sorting station near Siddhapura gate,’’ he said. Additional 250 labourers were deployed to clean the garden. On Friday, around 150 of them were put to work over and above 35 cleaners. By evening we expect the work to be completed,’’ Jagdeesh said. A portion of the barricade skirting the glass house was broken due to heavy rush. ‘They last-day crowd was unbelievable,’’ recalled a senior traffic police. He remarked that Lalbagh cannot taken in such massive multitude.

Lalbagh officials plan to hold a meeting to discuss about the matter and take up some measures in future.