Garbage dump removed from temple land in Kovur

About 20 cents of land belonging to the Sri Thirumeneeswarar temple in Kovur near here was cleared of years of garbage dumped by the local village panchayat. The plot, which is a part of a 14- acre eucalyptus and casuarina grove, is on the side of the Kovur - Mangadu Road. 

Sources in the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department explained that they had raised the matter with the local panchayat and told them to remove the waste immediately. “We will take efforts to construct a compound wall to protect the plot,” the official said.

Around 1200 tonnes of waste were carried using 64 Taurus lorries with 126 labourers working for three days. A total of 70 tree saplings such as guava, neem, poovarasam, magizham and aanai kundumani were planted on the cleaned plot. 

Kovur panchayat president B. Sudhakar said it was legacy waste that was cleared. “Earlier, we didn’t have a lorry, which is why our small carts would dump wastes on the temple land. We have a new nine-tonne capacity lorry that will carry our garbage to the yard at Perungudi where it will be segregated. We get around 5 tonnes of waste daily and also are asking residents to segregate their garbage,” he said.

Kancheepuram District Collector Kalaiselvi Mohan, who inspected the area, said that the saplings would be maintained by the local body and that a board would be installed saying garbage should not be dumped there.