Dear Editor,
I am following up the New York Times article featuring the clash between Guyanese Hindus conducting pooja at Rockaway Bay and park rangers (SN Apr 22). I am pleased to report that almost 200 people, mostly Guyanese, turned out on Earth Day last Friday to clean up the rubbish left behind after conducting pooja at the Rockaway Bay beach area. Volunteers came from several mandirs. Several non-Hindus, including a group of Baptists organized by Dr. Dhanpaul Narine, were among the volunteers who launched the clean up operation.
According to Narine, the volunteers picked up large amounts of limes, other rotten fruits, jhandis, rotten bamboo, saris, other cloth (ing), taria, etc. The clean up operation attracted a lot of media attention and was carried on four TV networks – Channel 1, CNN, NBC, and Voice of America — and the mainstream newspapers. The broadcasts were repeated again and again throughout the course of the day and the event was the talk among Indo-Caribbeans.
Operation clean up, as it was dubbed, was in response to a New York Times feature story on Hindus performing “Ganga” pooja at the Rockaway Bay area leaving behind offerings (fruits, cloth, and other pooja paraphernalia) which pollute the beach threatening wild life and fish. Park rangers had issued summons to polluters (worshippers) and threatened many with arrests for polluting the area. In principle, the rangers said they are not against worshipping on the beach and are coming around to understanding the Hindu practice of respecting the waterways, as inscribed in the holy scriptures. But they will like worshippers to take their offerings with them after pooja and to keep the area pollution free. Orthodox worshippers insist they must leave their offerings behind to be absorbed by the ocean as has been their custom for the ages. The problem is the Bay area does not allow for a free flow of water into the ocean and offerings are pushed back to the land where they pile up and rot. Hence, this clash between Ganga worshippers and the rangers as reported in the Times article.
The Park rangers welcomed the participants in last Friday’s clean up providing them with gloves, aprons, bags etc for garbage collection.
Dr. Dhanpaul Narine, one of the persons who spearheaded the drive, said the entire clean up was done in an hour. Among those who partook in the clean up operations were Parray Ramgharib, Esther John Ramdeen and Veena Gosine of Shiva Temple, Bhoj of Bhuvaneshwar, Pt. Mahendra Doobay and Naidoo Veerapen of Bhavanee Maa, Pt. Chunelall of Trimurthi. Dhanpaul thanked everyone who assisted in the clean up operation.
The organizers of the clean up operation and pandits urged worshippers not to leave offerings behind after conducting pooja. Dharmacharya Rishi Mandir of the Pandits Parishad said worshippers can dip their offerings seven times in the water and dispose of them some other way than leaving behind in the water or on land – it is ok to burn or bury the offering. Parray Ramgharib, Chairman of the Board of SDMS, has been involved in the clean up of the area for years and has appealed to worshippers to leave the area pollution free but his pleas have gone unanswered. He hopes this time around, worshippers will be more responsible or worshippers could see the area closed for poojas. The organizers plan another clean up of the area in September.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
