Edamalakkudy, the first tribal panchayat in the State, will be totally waste-free soon.
The Haritha Keralam Mission will implement a project under the Malinya Muktham Navakeralam campaign to realise the objective. District coordinator of the mission Ajay P. Krishna says as the panchayat is in deep forest, it needs to be free of non-biodegradable waste.
“Under the project, plastic and other waste will be collected from each tribal settlement and shifted outside the forest. The panchayat will distribute bins to each settlement and collect the waste,“ he says.
A State-level team of the mission visited Vellavarakkudy, Edaliparakudy, Parappayarkudy, Societykudy, Mevalayan Parakkudy, and Keezvalayan Parakkudy settlements in the panchayat and interacted with families.
Dr. Krishna says the tribespeople expressed their willingness to cooperate with the project to ensure that the panchayat, in the Munnar forest division, is waste-free.
Besides the waste-free panchayat project, the mission plans to implement various other projects in the panchayat through the High Range Mountain Landscape (HRML) project.
“It aims to rejuvenate the traditional millet farming culture in the settlements. Under the HRML project, the mission will implement measures to prevent wild animal incursions into the tribal settlements and rejuvenate farming activities,” he says.
Arun Kumar, secretary, Edamalakkudy panchayat, says the mini-material collection facility (MMCF) will be extended to all the 21 settlements in the panchayat soon. At present, it is functional in only six settlements.
The panchayat will appoint two Haritha Karma Sena members at Societykudy to collect plastic waste from households in Societykudy, Kandathikudy, Kavakkattukudy, Shedkudy, and Edaliparakudy. A Haritha Karma Sena member each will be appointed in the other settlements for the purpose. The waste thus collected will be deposited in the MMCF, which will be taken out of the forest.
All households in the settlements will be given collection bags to keep non-biodegradable waste, and the same will be collected once in four months, says Mr. Arun Kumar.
All institutions under the Edamalakkudy panchayat have already been provided with plastic bins for depositing waste, he says.
According to officials, some of these institutions are following green protocol and the mission has awarded them with certificates.
Officials say the mission is also planning an awareness campaign against the habit of tobacco chewing among youngsters in the community.
