Holy festival results in huge waste of timber

At the time when the world is struggling with widespread deforestation, lack of planning and proper co-ordination between the Jagnnath temple administration of Puri and the forest department has resulted in a huge number of logs of wood to lie rotting, unused. Far more trees are felled every year than is needed for the chariots in the famous annual chariot festival – raath and the surplus is never used up in the following year but lie rotting.

Every year the temple administration needs 865 pieces of timber for the chariots. For this, mature trees of 50 to 60 years old are cut. Every year the forest department provides an additional number of trees to make up for the last moment requirement that may arise. But it has been seen that usually about 40 to 50 pieces of timber remain unused. Every year the temple administration says that the excess timber would be used the next year but this never happens and the forrest department provides for the excess timber the next year. In this fashion, about 300 good quality pieces of timber are lying rotting for the past three years under the open sky in the pilgrimage town of Puri.

In 2010, the Forest Department had provided 950 pieces of timber for the festival. After the making of chariots, 164 logs remained unused. In 2011 the temple administration had demanded 701 pieces of timber. This time also the Forest Department had provided 106 pieces of additional logs and most of them remained unused. This year the administration did not use these unused logs.

The temple administration has ruled out any wastage of timber. They say, all the timber coming in are not suitable for the purpose. So some wooden logs have remained unused. And the administration is trying to use them for other purposes.

In the mean time, several environmentalists and nature lovers have criticised this attitude of both the temple administration and the forest department. Chinmaya Pati, a senior journalist says, “A proper communication between the temple administration and the forest department is required in this regard. How can we cut the trees unnecessarily when each and every tree is precious. The forest department should think twice before giving extra wood logs in such huge numbers. The temple administration should also utilise the unused wood logs in proper ways.”