Hill station deemed 'cleanest' in the West Zone; thrilled mayor says not hard for Mumbai to follow suit
Laxmi Karhadkar shows how households segregate the garbage
One of Mumbai's favourite weekend getaways - Panchgani - has just been declared the cleanest town (city) in the Western Zone. A delighted mayor, Laxmi Karhadkar, informed mid-day that it was the triple 'R' philosophy – reduce, reuse and recycle – that helped the town bag the honour.
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Karhadkar, who is originally from Colaba, said while the Indian government's Swachh Survekshan 2018 award to Panchgani, has been announced, it has not formally given it as yet. "We, at Panchgani have achieved what we set out to: make our heritage town (it is a hill station founded by the British) the cleanest in India," she said.
Swachh Survekshan is a government of India ranking for rural and urban areas for cleanliness and active implementation of the Swachhata mission.
Laxmi Karhadkar (second from left) along with Mumbai tourists, Daisy Navdar, Phiroze Navdar and Sangeeta James, at the garbage dump-turned-garden
You're fined
Karhadkar, an independent candidate, has been Panchgani's mayor for four terms (nearly 15 years). She is also the president of the Panchgani Municipal Council and attributes the win to "the people of Panchgani and the determination of the workers of the municipal council". Panchgani has a local population of around 14,750 of which nearly half are schoolchildren at its 45 boarding schools.
"The real challenge comes from Panchgani tourists, we get at least 10 to 12 lakh a year, and the summertime influx is particularly high at the moment. A lot of packaged food, wrappers and plastic water bottles had become problematic for us. We had to put up signboards everywhere to inform tourists that throwing garbage would be penalised. People are fined Rs 50 for spitting, and for non-segregation of garbage, households are fined Rs 500 and commercial establishments, such as hotels, etc, have to shell out Rs 5,000. Earlier, at the town's entry points, cloth bags used to be given to tourists telling them to help keep it garbage-free," said Karhadkar.
Tough going
She said the locals, too, were initially reluctant to segregate garbage. But, Karhadkar made the most of her 'tough lady' reputation and finally made it compulsory a couple of years ago for households to segregate garbage. "I faced resistance, some of which stemmed from ignorance. People did not understand dry and wet waste and refused to cooperate with the man who went door-to-door to collect garbage. We then appointed 'Swachagrahis' [women who went from house to house with the garbage man].
These women taught each household how to differentiate between wet and dry waste and kept a check on them. All garbage bins in the main town and nearby areas were removed so people did not have any place in which to throw their garbage. CCTVs were put at these 'garbage vulnerable' points and through social media, pictures were circulated of all those found throwing garbage," Karhadkar said.
From dump to garden
Panchgani's clean-up offensive reached its zenith, when 'Panchgan', the town's garbage depot, was transformed into a garden called 'Swach Bharat Point'. Mumbai's Daisy Navdar, who was in Panchgani recently, said, "What I found remarkable was that a smelly garbage dump now has a greenhouse that grows tomatoes, brinjals and celery from the compost. The nagar adhyaksh Karhadkar's surprise visits through her town keep everyone on their toes."
Karhadkar said, "The population of Mumbai is a lot larger compared to Panchgani's, but our model is simple and can be easily followed. Also, Mumbai's funds are much larger than Panchgani's." She added, "Mumbaikars usually take back strawberries from this hill station when they return, now they can take back some cleanliness consciousness, too."
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