Gir's plastic heap worries foresters

The day is not far when an Asiatic lion chokes on a plastic bag in the only place it calls home- the Gir forest. Environment activists have removed six tonnes of plastic from around Mount Girnar, which is home to 24 lions on the edge of Gir sanctuary. Every year, lakhs of devotees come for the four-day "Lili Parikarma" that begins and ends at the Bhavnath temple on Mount Gimar. In the process, devotees leave behind pouches of country liquor, gutkha packets, water bottles and wrapping of water and biscuits. The fair, organized by local people, sadhus, police and forest department officials, has now been curtailed to 9.6 km from the original 19.3 km that it was spread across. But, the mountain of plastic only seems to be growing in size every year, especially since it has become a huge tourist attraction due to the "Kushboo Gujarat Ki" ad campaigns. M A Kant, the Junagadh range forest officer, said they loaded more than 15 tractors with garbage after clearing the forest.