Pilgrims urge TTD not to ban plastic bottles for water

While the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams’ ban on single-use plastic came into force atop the Tirumala from Wednesday, pilgrims made a plea to the temple body to exclude packaged drinking water from the ban.

Also, facilitate use of alternatives to plastic so that the transition to nonplastic packages does not cause any inconvenience, they pleaded. The nation’s top temple administration has enforced the plastic ban in Tirumala from yesterday in a bid to preserve the serenity of the environment in the Seven Hills nestled amid the Seshachalam forests. Since January 2020, there has been a blanket ban on use of packaged or bottled drinking water in plastic bottles on the hills.

The TTD reportedly took this decision as the holy town’s garbage bins are filled with plastic water bottles. A majority of the pilgrims, about 80,000 on an average a day, used to carry them.

The board’s decision on a complete ban on plastic use was implemented in three stages in the past two years.

In the first phase, use of water bottles was banned in all TTD departments and the offices were directed to use only the Jalaprasadam water. In the second stage, a mandatory advisory was displayed at all TTD rest houses, urging devotees not to carry single-use plastic bottles.

In the third stage, all eateries and restaurants in Tirumala were urged to avoid water bottles and use only water from the Jalaprasadam units.

Later, TTD issued notices to various agencies supplying water bottles to Tirumala to stop this. Then came a complete ban on single-use plastic water bottles in all vehicles like cars and buses coming in right from the Alipiri check post.