Dear friends and lovers of Sri Braj Dham,
This is a request for all stakeholders and Dham guardians to:
– Consider the impacts and extent of current visual pollution of Vrindavan Dham and Braj Mandal
– Consider relevant solutions to the problem of visual pollution
The problem:
There is a recognized need to make information about certain products and events known to the general public through advertising. However, in Vrindavan it becomes a competition of who is more rich and famous with the result being that even for a temple opening event, all of Braj Mandal is plastered with thousands of billboards.
The amazing carved entry arches of Vrindavan’s temples are covered by posters of all sizes placed over them to promote Hari Katha and other events. A medieval town like Vrindavan, with so many archeological buildings and holy sanctuaries, must be kept free from visual pollution from billboards and oversized advertisements. These advertisements also result in flex plastic waste, which also becomes a problem with old advertisements strewn all over.
The solution:
Other cities in the world have successfully limited visual pollution and kept their heritage areas beautiful by regulating the size, placement, colors, etc. of signboards and advertisements. Some big cities such as Sao Paulo (Brazil) have even banned billboards all together.
One possible approach that can be taken by the municipality is that they could assign certain areas where the local temples announce their special festivals etc. The municipality could earn the advertisement revenue from these authorized areas. A special website could also be used for promotion.
Those who want to listen to any particular or general speaker can find them all in a few places with their respective program information. This is much more functional both for the listeners as well as for the other yatris who come to do parikrama and already have their spiritual guides.
A publication can also be made available every three months in which speakers can advertise their programs and temples can post their schedules. Sri Naresh Narayan Ji already publishes a Hindi journal and an English section could be added.
The same standards described here should be applied to billboard advertisement of political campaigns and product/real estate advertisements.
This step would uplift the beauty of Vrindavan amazingly by allowing its glorious heritage and devotional beauty to remain plainly visible. Vrindavan administration has already put the electricity underground. This has eliminated the messy cables in the air which were also a visual distraction from Vrindavan’s beauty.
Taking action as suggested here to further reduce visual pollution would invite peace for those who come and help them to deeply meditate about service to Krishna as they walk in the land of Vrindavan.
Thank you for helping to restore the santity to the Dham and for paying attention to this call to stop visual pollution.
Yours in the service of the holy Dham
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti
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