
Utkal Sanskrutika Samaj celebrates Debasnana Poornima with religious fervour in Visakhapatnam
Utkal Sanskrutika Samaj for Odias in the city celebrated Debasnana Poornima on its premises at Dasapalla Hills near All India Radio with religiously fervour and gaiety.
Jyestha Poornima in the Hindu calendar is celebrated as `Deba Snana Poornima' (bathing of Gods), in the presence of the Odia people under the guidance of the Samaj president president J.K. Nayak.
Early morning, the deities of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra were taken out from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple to the decorated Snana Vedi, the bathing platform. The deites were bathed with 108 pitchers of scented water.
This bath will cause fever and the deities will be in quarantine called Anasara and will convalesce for 14 days. On June 26, the devotees will be rejunevated to go on the famous Rath Yatra on June 27, said the Samaj general secretary Bimal Kumar Mahanta.
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The water body today is a haven for both native and migratory birds. The participation of the citizenry in such a revival project can be crucial. 'In a changing climate, the citizens are the key stakeholders and can help maintain and protect these urban commons in the long term,' Manu Gupta, Co-founder of SEEDS India, told Mongabay India. Reviving Shamsi talab Mohammad Arif remembers the good old days when he visited his grandmother, who lived near the talab. 'As a child, I spent many summer afternoons at Shamsi talab enjoying the cool breeze and watching fishes swim in its waters. Till about 2010, the talab was in a reasonably okay condition. It was also much bigger,' reminisced Arif. Like Zaida, Arif too now lives in ward number eight of Mehrauli, near Hauz-i-Shamsi. According to him, the lake began to shrink when construction picked up around it. 'Lots of houses came up in its vicinity, and concretisation affected the flow of rainwater into the tank. Wastewater and sewage started flowing into the talab,' Arif said. Diverting dirty wastewater and untreated sewage away from the lake was the biggest challenge. In 2021, two years before the signing of the MoU with the Archaeological Survey of India, SEEDS reached out to various stakeholders – the Municipal Council of Delhi, Delhi Development Authority, ASI, councillor, Jal Jeevan Mission, Delhi Jal Board, and local residents like Zaida. Those involved initiated ground-based assessments to chalk out a restoration plan, which eventually led to the signing of the MoU. SEEDS India has a SURGE Initiative (SEEDS Urban Resilience, Governance, and Enablement), which focuses on community-driven interventions and innovative solutions to restore urban water bodies across India. 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