Srinagar, July 01: 147 metric tonnes of animal waste were generated in the city this Eid, according to Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). This was in addition to about 6 metric tonnes which SMC collects every day.

According to Qazi Yousuf incharge Chief Sanitation Officer of SMC, 70 metric tonnes of sacrificial waste were collected on the first day of Eid; the waste collected on Friday stood at 50 metric tonnes; and on Saturday, 27 metric tonnes were collected by the sanitation wing of SMC. To collect and transport the waste, 150 hopper vehicles were pressed into service.

The officer said as compared to the previous year, the people in general fully cooperated. He said that in last year's Eid, only 93 tonnes of sacrificial waste were collected by the SMC.

Qazi said that some people still threw the animal hides and offal into water bodies. "We are making all efforts to track such erring people and action against them will be initiated."

He went on to say that people have fully cooperated with the officials this Eid. We are planning to expand this service in the city so that not a single hide will remain behind.

Srinagar Municipal Corporation has completed the operation of disposing of offal of sacrificed animals by Tuesday evening.

According to SMC, hundreds of sanitary workers and supervisory staff using more than 150 vehicles have worked day and night for the post-Eid clean-up in the smart city.

SMC Commissioner Athar Amir Khan had given special directives to SMC Sanitation to make special arrangements for lifting the waste of sacrificial animals in the city this year.

The directorate had dug deep pits at different locations where the offal, heads, and hooves of sacrificed animals were dumped and covered.

Earlier, the SMC, LC&MA carried out an extensive drive to educate people to not throw animal waste into drains or water bodies. However, some people still threw the sacrificial waste into these water bodies, especially in Dal-lake.

"This year, these incidents were very low as compared to the previous years." We don’t know why people do this to water bodies. When vehicles were reaching for them for free. 

We have retrieved these hides and offals from the water bodies. In addition, the department has also collected the same in other places.

According to SMC, around 150 vehicles were pressed to work to collect the animal waste from Srinagar city. Also, hundreds of SMC employees were on the job to keep the city clean.