Showering flowers (8 Million tonnes annually) at Temples/Mosques is a religious ritual in India. These flowers are a symbol of devotion and thus believed that these sacrosanct flowers should be discarded into water bodies like the River Ganges to respect their sanctity. Sadly, these sacred flowers rot and create havoc in the fragile ecosphere of the waterbody and leach into the groundwater. Most of these flowers that end up at the temples are loaded full of pesticides and insecticides. Once they reach the waters of the river, the chemicals wash off, mixing with the water, making toxic compounds, suppressing the oxygen level, and thereby gravely threatening the marine life. The monumental temple-flower disposal and the deep-rooted religious significance is overriding Ganges’ biophysical stability, killing it.
Ankit Agarwal and his friend visited the Ghats of the River Ganges on the day of Makara Sankranti. They observed that In spite of being one of the most revered water bodies in India, why was this river turning carcinogenic and if it was us, the worshippers, who had turned against the river. They saw the colourful flowers being dumped from the temples nearby turn into mulch as they accumulated. When we had realized our mission is to repurpose this waste coming from places of worship, it was the birth of Phool. A year and a half and countless hour in a makeshift laboratory later, flower cycled incense and vermicompost were conceived and crafted. The mission to preserve the river Ganges and empower vernacular people by providing a means to earn their livelihood became a reality. The Ganges, which is virtually synonymous with the Indian civilization, is dying. More than 420 million people rely on the Ganges for food, water, bathing and agriculture and not to mention the tens of Millions of pilgrims who venture to India's most holy of rivers each year to bathe and worship. Pollution, over-extraction of water and emaciated farm canals are killing the mighty river. Phool is eliminating a stream of pollution- the monumental flower-waste, the project is self-sustaining and bring hope to the Ganges.
Link: Customer gets the services at his doorstep. Their could be no intermixing of the different quality of grain by the flourmill owner as it is floured in front of consumer. Generation of employment opportunity
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