It's tourists' discards' and Palamu tiger reserve's worry. The tourists' discards are varied. It is from the butt of the cigarette to empty bottles of wine. Suga bandh in the Bareysarn range of the tiger reserve Palamu is a victim of tourists' leftovers. Here 5 gazebos and a wooden bridge built for the tourists lie amidst dirt, filth and leftovers of the tourists.
Deputy director South division of the tiger reserve Palamu Kumar Ashish said "We brought in more and more amenities for tourists but our heart sinks when we find at the end of the day a huge pile of dirt, garbage, leftovers etc abandoned there by our esteemed tourists at Suga bandh."
"We have pictures of empty cans and bottles of water, wine, beer, wrappers of ready to eat food, disposable cups,plates and glasses etc. We can't release those dirty pictures as it is nauseating and disgusting.It will be an insult to the scenic beauty of this Suga bandh." said this deputy director.
Suga bandh draws on an average 600 tourists a day. On Sunday it's double the figure said the forest guard Paramjeet Tiwary.
Forest guard was extremely pained to say "Nearly 50 per cent of the tourists who come here have no pain for littering the site of the Suga bandh. If we have 600 tourists a day, be sure there will be 300 empty bottles of water, wine, beer and leftovers etc."
There is no civic body here nor the village panchayat has any mechanism for disposing of the leftovers of the tourists. It is the EDC that steps in.
"We exhort the members of the EDC (eco development committee) to volunteer themselves in the 'safai' (cleanliness) drive. They do but it is not a one day or two days affair.It is 365 days job"added the forest guard.
Kumar Ashish said " Disposal of waste at the tourists' sites is a big challenge. Burning in tiger reserve is not allowed. There are wastes which are non decayable. Here our problem is high. Tourists bring with them all that is not at all desirable."
"Maximum time that a tourist spends at the scenic spot is 2 hours or so. If there is a tourist family, the stay at the scenic spot may be a little longer. But where is the justification for leaving behind more than 2 kgs of dirt, garbage and leftovers at such places within 3 hours" quipped Ashish.
Defiling tourists' spots is not only the bane of the tiger reserve Palamu. It's everywhere he said.
Sources said unlike railway platforms where there is a provision for imposing fine if found littering dirt and garbage on the platform but nowhere at the tourists' sites there is any curb except billboards asking tourists to keep clean and avoid throwaways.
Sources said following ban on the sale of gutka, paan masala etc its torn pouches are not found in that volume which it was in the pre ban stage.
The menace to the torn paan masala' pouches and voluminous spitting thereafter has reduced considerably but sniffing, smelling or consuming of drugs has gone up.