Friends of Vrindavan

Green facelift for Vrindavan may become a reality

friendsofvrindavan — Sun, 12 May 2013 04:54:03 +0000

Vrindavan, May, 2013: Green face lift for Vrindavan may become a reality if things go in right direction as proposed in a meeting organized at Gambhira by Friends of Vrindavan. Dr. Mahendra Pratap Singh, a senior official from the headquarters of the Uttar Pradesh Forestry presided a meeting in presence of Shri K.C. Vajpayee the District Forest Officer and other officials from the department. Members from Friends of Vrindavan and other civil society groups were also present in the meeting. Public opinion was sought by the officials on the availability of the land for the massive tree plantation.
The meeting began with worshipping ‘Vrinda-devi’ by FoV Founding Trustee and Sevait of Shri Radha Raman Temple His Holiness Acharya Shrivatsa Goswami Ji Maharaj. In his inaugural speech Maharaj ji said that though the greenery has been replaced by the concrete jungle in Vrindavan, but if we wake up even today we can revive the lost green heritage. Maharaj ji suggested that the forestry department should coordinate with the officials of the Devasthan department to do massive tree plantation in the campus of Shri Radha Madhav Temple which is also known as Jaipur Mandir. The trees will add the beauty and serenity in the ambience of the temple which has architectural value. He suggested an action plan to work with the temples and ashrams of Vrindavan to restore the Sacred Groves of the temple town.
BVHA senior members Baba Madan Bihari Das and Acharya Naresh Narayan said that the Yamuna bank is the appropriate place to do massive tree plantation. They said that if the land is acquired as a forest land then only the Yamuna bank can be protected from the illegal construction. They advised that the Kumbh Mela site of Vrindavan and the land between Kesighat to Tatiasthan should immediately be acquired for the tree plantation. The officials went to the Kumbh Mela site with Acharya Ji and Baba to identify the places for the proposed plantation.
Shri Bihari Lal Shashtri, Dr. Rakesh Haripriya and Swami Devendra Chaitanya Brahmachari said that hundreds of trees were cut in Vrindavan’s approach roads and in Parikrama for the road broadening, but not a single tree was planted in those places. They asked the officials to plant trees in those locations where the trees were cut earlier.
Shri Vishnu Mohan Nagarch, Sevait of Shri Priya Ballabh Mandir and Shri Pradyumna Pratap Singh Sevait of Meera Bai Temple and Senior journalist K.G. Gupta said that the trees should be planted in both sides of the railway track between Mathura and Vrindavan. The railway department should be approached for this purpose.
Madhumangal Shukla and Jagannath Poddar said that once Vrindavan used to be the home of the peacocks but they are becoming extinct here as their habitat has been lost in the rapid growth of concrete tall buildings. A peacock sanctuary should be made in any of the reserve forest land in Vraja.
At the end Shri K.C. Vajpayee, the District Forest Officer said that a Task Force will be formed along with FoV to work on the action plan suggested in this meeting.

The World Bank finds tourism potential in Vraja

friendsofvrindavan — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:09:26 +0000

Vrindavan, 23rd April, 2013: The World Bank may invest fund in the Vraja Circuit to promote the Tourism opportunities. According to the District Magistrate of Mathura Shri Vishal Chauhan the World Bank has made a project for five six years for the development of Vraja region. The development will take place in five clusters of Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandgaon, Goverdhan Maant and Gokul. Tourist friendly atmosphere will be created in Vraja so that more tourists can visit the land of Lord Krishna. It is a fact that the artisans of Vraja who are making the poshaks for the deities, kanthi mala, anklets and handicraft items are finding difficulties to earn their livelihood. Therefore a need to protect the traditional cottage industries was felt by the state government and the World Bank.
A team of World Bank led by Ms. Stefania Abakerli, Senior Social Development Specialist, Culture & Development and Ms. Monika Sharma, Associate Operation Officer, Private Sector Development Specialist, International Finance Corporation along with the officials from the Department of Tourism and the District Administration of Mathura visited Friends of Vrindavan’s (FoV) office to see how the waste is being recycled to make many useful items.
This team was on the field visit to study the prospect of tourism development in the Braj. Talking to the journalists Ms. Abakerli said that their visit to Mathura was to learn about the cottage industries of Vraja which can be promoted along with the tourism and culture. This team also visited the poshak & kanthi making cottage industries before coming to FoV.
This team also had a discussion with FoV’s Founding Trustee His Holiness Acharya Shrivatsa Goswami on how the tourism scopes can be enhanced in Vraja. Shri Goswami ji said that though the Vraja-Circuit has enormous tourism potential, but the lack of proper master plan to protect the natural and built heritage is exerting negative impact on the tourism. He said that the unplanned development should immediately be prevented to invite more tourists.
Shri N.K. Paliwal, the Chief Development Officer; Shri D.K. Sharma, the District Tourism Officer; Shri Havaldar Singh Yadav, S.D.M (Sadar); Smt. Robyn Beeche, Shri Madhumangal Shukla and many others were present during the visit.

Indian Oil Corporation donates one hundred garbage bins for the cause of Cleaning Vrindavan

friendsofvrindavan — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:37:46 +0000

Vrindavan, April 27th 2013: Chairman of the Vrindavan Municipal Council Shri Mukesh Gautam distributed the garbage bins to the vendors and shops which generates garbage. One hundred garbage bins were distributed jointly by the Vrindavan Municipality and Friends of Vrindavan. The garbage bins were donated by the Mathura Refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation to Friends of Vrindavan with a purpose to get them distributed in this temple town.
Addressing the vendors Shri Gautam exhorted that the traders should take responsibility to keep Vrindavan clean. Municipality can’t keep the town clean without the public support. He said that the effort of Friends of Vrindavan is definitely helping Vrindavan. He admired the Mathura Refinery’s decision to donate the garbage bins, which will boost the initiatives of Friends of Vrindavan to keep the town clean.
Jagannath Poddar from Friends of Vrindavan said that more garbage bins will be distributed in the town in coming days. He said that the U.P. Pollution Control Board has been approached to leverage more garbage bins from the chemical industries. Most of the municipal ward members were present during this occasion.

Divisional Commissioner visits FoV projects

friendsofvrindavan — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:49:03 +0000

Vrindavan, April 19th, 2013: The Divisional Commissioner of Agra Shri Pradeep Bhatnagar visited Friends of Vrindavan’s office along with many other officials of the Mathura District. He was shown the recycling units where the bio-degradable waste is recycled into vermi-compost organic manure and paper recycling plant. Jagannath Poddar, Director of Friends of Vrindavan briefed the commissioner and his wife about the mission of the organization and the projects undertaken by it.

The Commissioner was accompanied by Shri N.K. Paliwal, care-taking District Magistrate & the Chief Development Officer; Shri Manvendra Singh, Secretary of the Mathura-Vrindavan Development Authority; Shri K.C.Vajpayee, District Forest Officer; Shri D.K. Shrarma, the Tourism Officer, Shri Havaldar Singh Yadav, Deputy Collector; Shri K.P. Singh and many other officials from the different departments.
After the visit he directed the officials to promote the concept of recycling in the district, which will help alleviate the garbage menace. He also had a short discussion with the Braj-Vrindavan Heritage Alliance Senior Members Shri Madan Bihari Das and Shri Madhumangal Shukla about the illegal encroachments on the Yamuna bank and directed the MVDA secretary to immediately act to demolish all the illegal constructions.

Acquisition of Vrindavan landfill site for whole sale market challenged

friendsofvrindavan — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 05:42:13 +0000

Vrindavan 31st March 2013: The Braj-Vrindavan Heritage Alliance decided to challenge the acquisition of the landfill site for the whole sale market in Vrindavan. Recently, the main landfill site of Vrindavan was acquired for making the whole sale markets of flowers, grains and vegetables.
In a brain storming session of BVHA’s meeting at the Advaita Vat, it decided to challenge the acquisition of the landfill site for the Mandi Samiti (wholesale market). The BVHA lodged the protest to the District Magistrate, the Divisional Commissioner and the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh.
Baba Madan Bihari Das was authorized to lead the committee which will act to secure the landfill site. The BVHA said that this land has been used as a landfill site for last twenty five years which has enough space to contain it for the next twenty five years. This land was declared as the landfill site by the municipality in an affidavit given to the Hon’ble High court of Allahabad, while it was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (Gopeswar Nath Chaturvedi v/s State of U.P. and Others, 1644 of 1998) on the plight of Yamuna Pollution.
Since there has not been any recycling facility in Vrindavan, this particular land is best suited to dump the garbage in its deep trenches. No alternative to this land was allocated by the municipality, so that there is an apprehension that the garbage will ultimately be dumped on the Yamuna flood plain area or in the storm water drains in the holy city of Vrindavan, which may force the streets and drains of Vrindavan submerged into the garbage and will ultimately flow to holy river Yamuna.
There has not been any official satellite dumping station in the town, and the garbage is accumulated on the nodes of the main road, which is finally taken to this main garbage station. There are plenty of garbage and rubble which are already lying on the Yamuna Flood Plain, thus converting the land use of this official dumping station to any commercial activity will only add to the polluting condition of the Yamuna River. While the whole sale market will only benefit the handful of people, but diminishing the main landfill site will be against the public interest at large, as the situation may lead to severe health hazard. In case some other plain land is made available temporarily, the so called development projects will force the dumping site be shifted somewhere else, by then there will not be any other land available.
In the letter written to the official BVHA also pointed out that the District Town of Mathura doesn’t have any landfill site and all the garbage is being dumped on the Yamuna Flood Plain. People of Vrindavan don’t want the similar situation in Vrindavan. The land for the mandi (whole sale market) should have been acquired somewhere near the highway in Chhatikara, so that the big trucks could have been restricted in entering the town and the villages nearby and the new townships could have benefitted by this new project.
Finally, the BVHA strongly advocated making a petition to the High Court on this issue if no steps are taken by the authorities to secure the landfill site.

‘Khelan-Van’ is the only hope for Vrindavan’s Green Heritage

friendsofvrindavan — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:38:53 +0000

Vrindavan, February, 23rd 2013: With submitting the memorandum to the District Forest Officer Shri K.C. Vajpayee and the District Tourism Officer Shri D.K. Sharma, the Braj-Vrindavan Heritage Alliance (BVHA) begins to demand ‘Kehlan Van’ on the bank of Yamuna between Vrindavan and Mathura. On the invitation of the Frineds of Vrindavan, the implementing partner organization of the BVHA the two officials attended the meeting at the ashram of the Vrindavan Swarupotthan Paribhavana & BVHA mentor Baba Sevak Sharan.
Baba showed them the conservation map of Vrindavan and told them in detail how Shri Dham Vrindavan’s economy can be developed without any destruction of the ecology. The speakers in meeting said that the so called development plan has no room for the forestry in Vrindavan and moreover no room is left to plant trees in Vrindavan. Those who never visited Vrindavan have a view in their mind that Vrindavan is full of sacred groves and forests, but when they come here they find it as a suburb of Delhi, which hurts their feelings about Vrindavan.
Vrindavan is associated with the name van, the participants of the meeting exhorted to the officials to help Vrindavan by restricting it to transform into Vrinda-pur (city). The memorandum says that the nature of Yamuna is to change its bed every year; people encroach on this land to build their houses. The letter emphasizes that the land on both side of Yamuna 500 feet each side should be acquired by the Forestry department and developed into a reserved forest. The proposed forest can be named as ‘Khelan-Van’ or the play ground of the Lord.
The BVHA said that the ‘Khelan Van’ should be incorporated in the tourism master plan so that the proposal can be easily accepted by the government and the land can be transferred to the Forestry department. If the idea of the ‘Khelan-Van’ materializes then the ten kilometers stretch in both sides of the river will bring back the glimpse of Krishna’s time of Vrindavan said Baba Madan Bihari Das. Acharya Naresh Narayan another senior member of the BVHA said that the importance of Yamuna increases when it enters Vraj. So the ambience of the Yamuna Flood plain should be according to the mood of Yamuna as a goddess.
The meeting was also addressed by Smt. Braj Bala Gaur, who is a member in the Vrindavan Municipal Board. Smt. Gaur said that she brought the proposal of getting Vrindavan declared as a ‘holy city’ in Municipal Board meeting, which was unanimously resolved by the board and been sent to the state government for its approval. Similar proposal can be introduced in the Vrindavan Municipal Board again. She said that the ‘Khelan-Van’ can also be used for making peacock sanctuary.
The BVHA concluded that it will step up this demand with the State Government and may request the National Green Tribunal to pass an order in favor of this cause. The officials promised that their departments will work closely with Friends of Vrindavan when they make their departmental plans about Vrindavan.
The meeting was addressed by Dr. Devendra Chaitanya Brahmachari, Dr. Chandra Prakash Sharma, Ram Narayan Brajwasi, Shri Krishna Saras, Girdhari Brajwasi, Prof. K.M. Agrawal, Prof. P.P.Sharma, Shri Sushil Sharma, Jagannath Poddar and many others.

‘Tirtha-Sthal’ demand for Vrindavan gains momentum

friendsofvrindavan — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:05:01 +0000

Vrindavan, February 3: ‘Tirtha-Sthal’ demands for the holy city of Vrindavan gains momentum as the BVHA hands over the memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister demanding Vrindavan should be declared as pilgrimage town. The memorandum was handed over to Dr. Ashok Agrawal, a senior leader of the ruling Samajwadi party (SP). Dr. Agrawal contested the assembly election on SP ticket.
Dr. Agrawal was invited in a Braj-Vrindavan Heritage Alliance (BVHA) meeting organized in Shri Madan Mohan Temple, one of the ‘Sapta-Devalaya’ Temples. Vrindavan Municipal Chairman Shri Mukesh Gautam handed over the memorandum on behalf of the BVHA to Dr. Agrawal, who promised that the memorandum will be given to the Chief Minister, with a special pursuance from his side that ‘Tirtha’ status should immediately be given to Vrindavan. He said it has been a twenty year old demand and none of the state government under different political parties showed interest on it. He assured his full support to this cause.
Earlier, the BVHA thanked the Municipal Chairman felicitating him with garlands and shawls for getting the municipal board resolution in favor of declaring Vrindavan as a pilgrimage town. The BVHA resolved that signature campaign for massive awareness will begin the following week.
The meeting was chaired by Acharya Shri Sanatan Kishore Goswami, sevait of Shri Madan Mohan Temple.

Vrindavan Municipal Board declares Vrindavan as ‘Tirtha-Sthali’

friendsofvrindavan — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 04:53:57 +0000

VMC chairman reading the BVHA demand

Vrindavan, 19th January, 2013: After much lobbying and sensitization by Friends of Vrindavan (FoV) and the Braj-Vrindavan Heritage Alliance (BVHA), the Vrindavan Municipal Board passes the resolution to get Vrindavan Municipal area to be notified as ‘Tirtha-sthali’ on 19th January. Smt. Brajbala Gaud, who is the councilor from the Ward 16 of the VMC raised the issue in the board meeting, which was unanimously passed by the councilors of all the parties.
Baba Sevak Sharan, one of the Founding Trustee of FoV; Baba Madan Bihari Das and Acharya Naresh Narayan from the BVHA met the Vrindavan Municipal Chairman Shri Mukesh Gautam to bring bill in the municipal board meeting to declare Vrindavan as a ‘Tirtha Sthali’.
The board resolution will be sent to the state government for its approval, and once the government approves this specific board resolution the governor will issue the ordinance on this subject. Although, it is just the beginning, we shall keep on demanding with the various politicians to get Vrindavan declared as a pilgrimage town, said Shri Madan Bihari Das from the Tatiasthan, he added that we shall call a meeting of all the saints and mahants after the Kumbh Mela of Allahabad, and then we shall make the future strategy on it.
Acharya Naresh Narain said that we are not demanding something which involves money; we are just demanding a holy status for a place which is associated with the faith of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. It will stop the further cultural deterioration of this holy town. It should be noted that the illegal sale of meat, wine and other intoxicant has been in rise in Vrindavan municipal area in recent years.
Shri Madhumangal Shukla, the petitioner in the Allahabad High Court against the illegal cutting of the trees in Vrindavan and the construction of the half-circular bridge on Yamuna at Kesighat, said that the Mughals and the British Rules didn’t allow hunting in Vraj area, one can see the orders of Akbar carved on the stone at the Kusum Sarovar and other places.

Pass Board Resolution to declare Vrindavan as a ‘Pilgrimage Town’: BVHA

friendsofvrindavan — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:16:23 +0000

BVHA presenting memorandum to Vrindavan Municipal Chairman

The Braj Vrindavan Heritage Alliance led by one of its founding member His Holiness Baba Sevak Sharan presented a memorandum to the Vrindavan Municipal Chairman, Shri Mukesh Gautam demanding to add the proposal in its forth coming board meeting ‘to declare Vrindavan a pilgrimage town’ which is scheduled on 19th January. In its memorandum BVHA said that Palitana in Gujrat, Haridwar & Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, Kurukshetra in Haryana and Amar Kantak in Madhya Pradesh have been declared ‘Tirtha Sthali’ by the respective municipalities. Although the faith of hundreds of thousands of the Hindus is associated with this holy land, yet it is waiting to be declared as the pilgrimage town. The municipality should immediately pass the resolution in favor of this genuine demand.
‘We shall write to the State Government of Uttar Pradesh and its governor to make an ordinance supporting the Municipal Board resolution’, said Acharya Naresh Narain, Chief Editor of the monthly magazine ‘Anant Sandesh’. When our holy books have said that Vrindavan is a pilgrimage town, and the devotees are doing pilgrimage then what is the problem to declare it officially, wondered BVHA.
Baba Madan Bihari Das, a senior member of the BVHA pointed out that the sale of illegal meat, egg, wine and other intoxicant will be automatically be banned once the Vrindavan Municipal Board passes the resolution on the ‘Tirtha sthali’. He added that BVHA will soon meet the M.L.A. Shri Pradeep Mathur to take forward this demand with the state government.
Shri Chandral lal Sharma, a retired educator, said the time has come that the Vrindavan Municpality frames the laws to protect the sanctity of Vrindavan. Too much so called development has spoiled the very essence of Vrindavan Dham.
The chairman assured that the BVHA’s demand will be presented on the Municipal Board meeting and he was optimist that the board will decide on its favor. Shri Gautam was full of appreciation of the BVHA’s implementing partner Friends of Vrindavan for supporting the municipality to make Vrindavan clean and green.
Jagannath Poddar, Navneet Agrawal, Shri Omprakash Dubey, Madhumangal Shukla, Nootan Sharma, Kanhaiya Gupta were also p

VCF drive organized around the cultural heritage site of Vrindavan

friendsofvrindavan — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:03:31 +0000

cleaning the lawns of the old madan mohan temple

cleaning the steps of old madan mohan

Vrindavan, Janurary 7th 2013: The heritage temple of Madan Mohan and its surrounding were thoroughly cleaned by FoV’s Vrindavan Cleaning Fund programme. The lane which goes to the Samadhi of Prabhupad Shrila Sanatan Goswami and Advaita-vat was also cleaned under the drive. The steps, lawns and the interior of the temple campus and the alleys surrounding the temple were cleaned after the request made by the residents of the locality.
Acharya Shri Sanatan Kishor Dev Goswami, the Sevait Acharya of Shri Madan Mohan Temple said that the area to the Samadhi has not been cleaned for a long time. Shri Gopi Kishor Goswami appreciated the initiative of the Vrindavan Cleaning Fund which brings relief to the areas where the municipal cleaning services is not accessed. He further requested Friends of Vrindavan to clean the drain which leads to the Parikrama Marg from the Samadhi of Shrila Sanatan Goswami Prabhupad. He said once the drain is completely cleaned a new gate will be installed towards the Vrindavan Parikrama to facilitate the devotees to have darshan on the way to Vrindavan Parikrama.
Shri Nootan Sharma, Programme officer of the VCF programme assured the residents to provide two community garbage bins for the locality, so that the garbage of the temple surroundings can be stored in it and can be picked up in regular intervals. Shri Sharma said that the VCF drive will be organized once in a week in this area.
Shri Madan Mohan Banerjee, a prominent resident of the area was also present during the cleaning drive. He said that although this area is very close to the Banke Bihari Temple, but it has still remained neglected. The Cleanliness Drive was sponsored by the Yash Birla Group, Mumbai.