Perhaps because they are the end of something, they are what remains in memory of the life that was, of the dazzling colors, of the velvet of the petals. Now, metaphorically speaking, let's try to imagine what can happen if i withered flowers they are not some beautiful bouquet arranged in the house, but some ten tons, religiously stretched out on the surface of a very slow river that flows in front of a temple. Let's try to imagine, just to give an example as real as it is concrete, what happens every year, from 6 to 14 April, on the occasion of the Chaitra Navratri, in Ujjain in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh when the Shirpa River literally comes covered with many millions of votive flowers left to float in front of the Mahakaleshwar temple.
Indeed, let's try to imagine what happens after the ceremonies. Flowers yes decompose, Obviously. And, once released on the surface of the river, they form a serious environmental threat, you want for their albeit limited load of pesticides, you want for the organic materials that result from their decomposition, which contributes to the proliferation of seaweed which, in turn, cause a oxygen reduction dissolved in water, thus endangering aquatic fauna.
Petals of money
Rotting flowers are a serious problem for many of India's major rivers. They are nests of microbes and nauseating effluvia and contribute to the propagation of many infectious diseases. Yet, these flowers would also make for a terrific economic potential. The essential oils of flowers such as rose, champaca or jasmine are in fact highly sought after for the production of scents, cosmetics or incense sticks. Not only that: with withered flowers you can make pigments and dyes, syrups and organic acids, biogas and biofuels.
Excellent quality compounds suitable for the fertilization of crops with high added value or to fertilize the gardens of the temples themselves. Exploiting the phenomena of decomposition it is possible to produce fuel with which generate electricity in the more isolated areas of the country. In short: the ideas to recover the resources hidden in a river of withered flowers are numerous. And now something is moving in this direction: in some regions of the country activities have been started for recycle these resources in various ways.
Sustainable temples
Some temples are now at the forefront in this regard. For example, at the temple Siddhivinayak Ganapati they began to collect the carnations used during the ceremonies to extract the pigments useful for coloring the ladoos, the treats of flour and sugar syrup, and to produce the colored powders who work to draw the bindi and sandor, the classic disc between the eyes and the parting at the hairline that women usually wear.
The flowers that the faithful lay down every day at Ajmer Sharif, in Rajasthan, one of the most famous places of worship in India, are collected and used for produce compost: two machines, offered by the Hindustan Zinc mining company, which operates in the region, make it possible to produce 25 kilograms of high quality compost for each quintal of withered flowers.
Similarly, Coal India LTD has started two plants at the temples of Dakshineswar Kali need Babadham in Deogar, Jhrkhand for the production of organic fertilizers. In Delhi, eight places of worship have equipped themselves with machines that allow flower offerings to be recycled to produce compost, while, to combatpollution of the Ganges, the HelpUsGreen company has convinced numerous temples in Kanpur and neighboring regions to collect the withered flowers and give them to a new small business that produces joss sticks.
For the moment, these are exemplary cases, but various non-governmental associations and some companies are now moving in this direction and plan to involve the regional authorities with the aim of achieving a more widespread reuse of flowers. Even the Indian Ministry of Environment is moving in this direction with the definition of guidelines, so that the different regional administrations develop information campaigns on the recycling of this floral river.
