Now, take home dhoop prasad made from flowers

Tribune News Service

The fragrance of flowers offered at various shrines in the state, which were earlier just dumped, will now purify homes, as they will be used for making incense and dhoop for pooja. 

The Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board has tied-up with the Council of Scientific and Industrial (CSIR) at the Institute of Himalayan (IHBT) Bioresource Technology (IHBT) at Palampur for converting these flowers into dhoop and incense. The dhoop would be given to pilgrims along with the prasad.

This will save temples, especially major shrines including Chintpurni in Una, Chamunda, Jwalamukhi and Brajeshwari in Kangra, Deoth Sidh in Hamirpur and Naina Devi in Bilaspur,  from the headache of disposal of flowers. The scheme will be introduced in the 36 scheduled temples, which are under government control. In fact, the temple trusts were finding it difficult to dispose away these flowers offered by pilgrims daily to the deities. The volume of these flowers was huge, as it would run into several tonnes.

Member Secretary, HP State Pollution Control Board, RK Pruthi said the Board would sign an agreement with CSIR, which has the know-how for converting flowers into dhoop. He said the dhoop would be distributed free to pilgrims as prasad. Later, the task could be handed over to a voluntary organisation.

Officials in various temple trust point out that for them, proper disposal of flowers was a big headache and the pilgrims would highly appreciate and value flower dhoop that would be a prasad for them. “The quality of this dhoop is bound to be very good as it will have different flowers as the main ingredients along with other items,” remarked a temple officer at Kangra.

Though there is no exact record of the quantity of flowers offered at these temples, it runs into tonnes. Thousands of pilgrims make a beeline to these temples, especially during navrataris and festivals. The 36 scheduled temples have close to six quintal gold and 200 quintal silver. The highest offerings are made at the Chintpurni temple in Una followed by Naina Devi in Bilaspur. Offerings worth Rs 35.79 crore were made at the Chintpurni temple in 2017-18 as compared to Rs 31.44 crore made in the previous year.

Optimum utilisation 

• The temple trusts were finding it difficult to dispose away these flowers offered by pilgrims daily to the deities. The volume of these flowers was huge, as it would run into several tonnes.
• The proposal to convert precious gold and silver, offered at the temples into coins failed to come through, but there are no hitches as far as converting flowers into dhoop is concerned. 
• There are 36 temples that are under government control and managed as per the Himachal Pradesh Hindu Public Religious Institution and Charitable Endowments Act, 1984. 
• To begin with, the scheme is being started from Brajeshswari temple in Kangra town, which already had a machine, which is being modified to convert flowers into dhoop.