The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has collected around 90 metric tonnes of unused flowers and floral waste from Dadar market on intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, September 20-21.
The market known for both wholesale and retail supply saw a huge quantity of produce being dumped by sellers in the middle of the Ganeshotsav festivity.
This surprising incident came to fore as there has been a dip in the demand of fresh flowers this year.
The Phool Bazaar Vyapari Sangh has noted a nearly 50% fall in demand of fresh flowers and decorative leaves this year as customers prefer artificial flowers and toran over fresh ones to enhance their décor. Moreover, erratic rainfall exacerbated the slump this year.
Despite slashing the prices, the vendors could not sell all flowers and they had no choice but to discard the remaining supply. The flowers are sold for around ₹60 per kg.
A vendor explained that once the flowers get wet their lifespan reduces from two to three days to one day, which adds to their burden of discarding the waste.
To deal with this mountain of excess, BMC has posted a garbage van at the flower market at all times. However, due to the sheer volume of the waste, on Wednesday, September 20, the van had to make several trips from the market to the dump yard at Kanjurmarg.
Small piles of garbage dotted every few meters outside Dadar station. When mixed with rain water they turned into sludge, rendering the space slippery and raising a stink.
A similar scenario prevailed under the bridge outside the station, with a heap of flower waste occupying a third of the space. BMC official said that they collect the waste from here thrice every day, other sellers contradicted him, saying the civic body’s van does not show up on some days. When the van cannot load up all the dumped flowers, sellers leave them on the road.
Farmers sell their supply directly to the sellers. It is an unorganised sector, so no one knows who will bring how much produce. This time, they preferred to dump unsold stock here instead of taking it back. This is a huge loss to the farmers as well, said an official from BMC’s G North ward.
Share
Tweet
