The world famous White Rann showcased by the Gujarat tourism department with the help of super star Amitabh Bachchan has turned a garbage ground before and after the much-hyped Rannotsav.
A tourist guide who captured the garbage on his camera said on Wednesday that German tourist Amalie Frank and her daughter Sweety were shocked to find the plastic material littered all over the white Rann, some 6 km away from Dhordo village. He said the tourists themselves removed the plastic and other materials from the spot and carried them in their vehicle to dispose of at the appropriate site.
The guide said that they collected materials included around 25 plastic water bags, numerous food-carry bags, empty beer teens and liquor bottles. He said Sweety specially took pictures of a big signboard at the spot which carried statutory warning in both English and Gujarati, saying that use of plastic bags and other polyethylene material is banned in the white Rann and violation of the rules was punishable under the Indian Penal Code.
The guide said that there were two more similar signboards put at the entrance of Dhordo village and the tent city (now dismantled) for annual Rannotsav, some three km from the village. He said that the garbage was now spreading wider in the Rann and posing a great threat to the endangered wildlife as per a report in DNA by DV Maheshwari
He said that when he took Michal Rosenthed, a German lawyer, to the Dhordo Rann last month, the tourist was shocked to see that the beautiful Rann had turned a dumping ground for garbage. The German advocate said that violators in his country were instantly punished on the spot with heavy fine.
Kutch Tourist Guide Welfare Officers founding president Pravin Dagara said that that cleanliness was maintained only during the Rannotsav. He said TCGL had appointed security guards, but none was seen now. He said Dhordo village panchayat had appointed chowkidars, but they were not given due payments.
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