Holi gets aromatic as BMC launches ‘gulal’ made from temple flowers

Bhubaneswar: The festival of colours also promises to bring floral aroma with itself to the capital city this year.

Besides, the residents can remain safe from chemical hazards, with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s organic ‘gulal’, made from flower waste, hitting the market for the first time on Monday.


The BMC had been collecting flowers from temples separately to make ‘dhup’ (incense) and ‘gulal’ for the past six months. So far, the civic body has already produced three quintals of ‘gulal’.

“We have been making incense sticks for the past one year, and they are being sold in market. Around two quintals of flowers were generated from around 700 temples in the city,” said BMC additional commissioner Kailash Chandra Dash.

He added a private agency was engaged for making gulal out of flower waste. “It used its own manpower, along with machines provided by the BMC. The bulk of organic gulal packets will be sent to the market on Monday by the private agency. We will also take feedback from people through the private agency,” Dash said.

The BMC officials said they will issue directions to all marriage halls and hotels with banquet halls not to dispose of flower waste recklessly, but to give it to the BMC sanitary force. “Marriage halls use flowers worth lakhs of rupees for decoration. The used flowers litter roads and choke drains,” Dash said.

The BMC, in its effort to ensure the cleanliness of water bodies, had asked temples not to throw the used flowers. They are now being collected in specialised vehicles and brought to the processing unit.

The BMC officials said that even at household level, people can give puja waste in separate containers to the waste collectors, who will send the bulk to the incense-making unit.