Religious hymns blasted off from loudspeakers and reverberated around the Pashupati area as pilgrims celebrated Maha Shivaratri on Monday. Anyone who entered the big open space in Bankali inside the premise of Pashupatinath was welcomed by volunteers, and given prasad in honour of Shiva. Sadhus were seen smoking from chillums. And prayers were being chanted. Celebrations were in full swing. But the one thing that disappointed was the huge pile of unmanaged trash and leftover food on the ground.

“We called the Pashupati Area Development Trust over half a dozen times, but nobody has come to pick up the trash,” said Ashok Nath, from Haryana, North India, who has been offering Bhandara (free vegetarian meals that include puri, vegetables, pickle, kheer, haluwa) and other items for both sadhus and commoners. Nath and his team have been serving free food for past week.

 “We had also kept dustbins, but now they are nowhere to be found or have been misplaced. Pilgrims are now just leaving their plastic plates on the ground,” said Nath. “We can offer food, but we can’t manage the waste here and the concerned authority has shown reluctance to clean the area,” said Nath, who has been offering Bhandara for the past five years continuously in the same place. The Bankali area alone has nearly two dozen Bhandara-providing stalls, run by Indian sages and a few Nepalis. The area also boasts various stalls of tea, biscuits, and other packaged food—all the waste of which has been left littered everywhere.

“This is a bad practice. Either the Trust or the Kathmandu Metropolitan City should have immediately cleaned the area,” said another visitor Sushant KC.  

When the Post visited the Bankali area on Monday, the area was filled with hundreds of hungry sadhus and commoners like Anita and Sushant enjoying a free meal. Most of the people present were irritated by the garbage littered everywhere, which was also making mobility difficult.

 According to Govinda Tandon, former member secretary of the Trust, during his tenure a year ago, over 200,000 visitors were served the free meal in Bankali by various organisations. Based on the Trust estimations, this time over 1.1 million people visited the Pashupatinath temple to celebrate the festival. The number of pilgrims this year has increased significantly, making it seemingly tough for authorities to keep things in check.

  Many of the pilgrims who stayed hours in line to reach the main temple to worship Lord Shiva were relieved to get chance to fill up their stomach in Bhandara in Bankali, but they were also equally concerned about the litter. “I had come to worship the main temple at 3am, and it took me six hours to reach the main temple. It felt great to fill my stomach in such a holy place. I had not even had water until I did pooja. If only the trashes were removed from here this whole experience would have been wonderful,” said Anita Mishra, 37.

 The Pashupati Area Development Trust had allocated Rs5.2 million for the overall management of the area that included providing food, accommodation, and cleaning the premises of Pashupatinath. When the Post contacted Member Secretary at the Trust Pradeep Dhakal, he said that he would soon deploy volunteers to clean up the area. “We have been making efforts to clean the area. I will push for more effort. We will soon clean up the area,” said Dhakal.