Saturday, May 21, 2022 | Last Update : 08:06 PM IST

Ooty: The war against plastics began here in the Nilgiris nearly two decades ago.

It was Mr.P.Sivasankaran, the then collector of Nilgiris during 1999-2000, set the tone for anti-plastic drive as he appealed to the hill residents to shun throw-away plastics when he addressed the gathering at the meet organized by Citizens' Forum of Ooty in the early 2000.  In fact it was he who stressed upon reverting back to cloth-bag culture to save the pristine environment of the Nilgiris from the plastic menace.

Thereafter, Ms.Supriya Sahu, during her tenure as collector of Nilgiris, gave more impetus to anti-plastic drive.  Her indomitable spirit to check plastic menace saw the Nilgiris district becoming pioneer in banning throwaway plastics like plastic carry bags, plastic tumblers and related items in the year 2001.  From then onward, though stress was on anti-plastic drive, somehow the banned plastic items clandestinely kept entering the hills, mostly through the tourists, that made anti-plastic drive a challenging task.  The usage of polypropylene(PP) (non-woven) carry bags and plastics with more than 51 micron thickness  had become alternative to the banned throwaway plastics.

By late 2018, the Nilgiris district administration went further ahead in anti-plastic drive by imposing ban on plastic bags of all thickness,  use and throw plastic cup and plastic plate, plastic and foil lined paper plates, plastic spoon and fork, plastic straw, Styrofoam/thermocol plates and cups,  polypropylene(PP) (non-woven) carry bags and packing bags,  chefs hats, plastic caps and bed sheets, plastic gloves,  water packets,  silver foil covers, plastic buntings, plastic and foil gift wrap,  laminated  brown paper, laminated bakery boxes and cling wrap, besides paper cup and tumbler.

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