Things changed for Nikhil Gampa, an ex-student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) after he suffered Malaria during his college days. The disease which further led him to search for a solution to resolve the problem of floral waste generated mainly due to religious offerings.
During an industrial visit from college, Gampa had stayed in a temple. He witnessed many mosquitoes breeding in the vicinity as there was no proper disposal of floral waste in the temple. Soon after the visit, he was diagnosed with Malaria.
The incident made a mark in the young mind hailing from Telangana and pushed him to work towards a solution. It was then that he came up with the innovation of converting floral waste to aromatic incense sticks. Gampa’s organisation, collects floral waste from various locations, processes it and turns it into many incense sticks.
Offering flowers in religious rituals is an age old tradition in India. Further, this leads to polluting water bodies and piling up of floral waste outside temples and near trees. This filth acts as a breeding ground for mosquitoes spreading foul odour and diseases around. Most places of worship have no mechanism to dispose this floral waste effectively.
Mumbai on an average generates around 15 tonnes of Nirmalaya (floral waste generated from religious offerings) wastage each day. One can imagine the quantum of waste generated across India.
Greenwave, an initiative started by Gampa, trains women in converting this floral waste to incense sticks and other products. The initiative works with low-income women who are educated about this process from collection of floral waste to the final product marketing.
Floral waste is collected daily from places of worship, waste is segregated and flowers are dried. These dried flowers are then crushed into powder which is blended with natural solution and turned into incense sticks. Women from poor households are involved in the entire process giving them livelihood opportunities.
The pilot project was started in Mumbai, Kanpur and Warangal in India. The founder aims to expand it at a pan-India level.
Putting an end to the religious floral offerings is grim task. “In India, religious beliefs and offerings are something that we cannot influence or change overnight it will take lot of time for people to understand and realise. But the waste generation that happens each day is something that we need to work on urgently. Everyone has witnessed what happened at Deonar landfill, we cannot afford to pollute water bodies or landfills for long,” said Gampa.
Explaining the motive further, he added, “Converting waste into useful product and empowering women are the two main objectives that the concept takes into account. We believe with the right training this women can generate additional income. Also the satisfaction of contributing towards a better environment is something that no high paying job would give me.”
The project has received support from CIMAP (Centre for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants) based in Lucknow in the form of technical guidance. It was also shortlisted and won prizes at various social innovation events.
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