Osho Park in Pune Causing Local Unrest
Osho Teerth Polluiton Problems upset local residents
SannyasNews reporters
The Osho Teerth Park was created by the commune from a swamp back in the early nineties. It was transformed into a Japanese zen garden with stone bridges, bamboo trees, stone benches, cement busts of Boddhisatva, bird houses, etc. The polluted water flowing through the area was purified naturally using holding ponds with selected plants.
Sadly at present the water flowing through the nullah (stream) has again become polluted according to “Intelligent Pune”, the local on line newpsaper this week.
(It also needs to be said that The Osho Teerth Park has inspired the Pune Municipal Corporation to simulate such gardens through the city of Pune since it’s creation in the 1990’s).
However local people in the Sant Gadge Maharaj Bastir area are complaining that in the latest monsoon knee level water entered their houses due to blockages at the intersection with the Osho Teerth, and part of the area became a mosquito invested wasteland.
Residents in the area complain that despite protests no efforts have been made to clean up the nullah.
The Ward officer for the area, Shree Ram Salvekar, says the nullah outside the commune was cleaned by his department a month ago, Unfortunately a screen installed by the Osho people is still blocking the nullah with waste and it overflows backwards from that point.
The officer insists that the nullah inside the Osho Commune is the responsibility of commune staff but this has not been efficient of late. Attempts to reach the commune for comment have failed according to “Intelligent Pune”.
This seems to us at sannyasnews a paradox. Do the commune not have the resources to clean this matter up? Where has the tradition of genuine volunteering gone, which has been replaced by local labour? It seems it is time to restart this tradition of volunteering which was based on the love of Osho, and his commune, in which work itself was transformed into an act of love.