amritsar

Overview

Amritsar is one of nine cities and 22 organisations that were founding members of the Green Pilgrimage Network. In Assisi in 2011, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the City Administration both committed to making their pilgrimages and city greener.

It is home to the Golden Temple, the most sacred Sikh site, which houses the original, handwritten copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhism as well as the immortal throne enshrining the supreme Sikh religious authority.

Each day, a hundred thousand visitors from all over the world come to the Golden Temple: that’s 30 million visits each year. They make devotional offerings in the temple, bathe in its holy waters and to share in the communal meals freely provided to everyone, in accordance with Sikh customs of hospitality.

Green Pilgrimage Actions

In joining the Green Pilgrimage Network, Amritsar plans to:

– provide organic and pesticide free food to the millions of pilgrims fed each year;

– provide safe drinking water in all the 15 historical Gurdwaras or temples in the city and its surrounds;

– introduce a strict ban on plastic bags;

– install solar water heaters and promote green energy;

– expand the programme of giving out saplings to pilgrims. 10 million have been givenalready;

– introduce eco-rickshaws;

– celebrate Diwali with fewer fireworks.

– celebrate Sikh Environment Day every March 14

PROGRESS SO FAR

In April 2012 that the Minister for New and Renewable Energy has proposed a sophisticated solar cooking system to cook meals at Sri Guru Ram Das Langar hall at Amritsar’s Golden Temple complex, sacred to all Sikhs. The plan is for as many as 30 solar concentrating dishes to provide steam for cooking about a tonne of dal per day. The system would have a hybrid boiler to help generate steam during cloudy and rainy days. The project would halve the consumption of LPG cylinders from 100 per day to 50.

Such systems have already been installed at Tirupati temple, Sai Baba Temple at Shirdi and Brahma Kumari Ashram at Mount Abu. The Bhumi Project’s Gopal Patel, linked with ARC, has visited Tirupati already this month in the hope that they will become a Hindu member of the Green Pilgrimage Network.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) secretary Dalmegh Singh, who was at Assisi in November 2011, has studied the solar cooking system at Sai Baba temple at Shridi. He told reporters that the entire energy requirement of thhttp://greenpilgrimage.net/amritsar-punjab/e Golden Temple was around 300 kW.

Links

Sikh Environment Day 2012 an amazing success

Green Pilgrimage Network handbook

Ecosikh website

updated 09/2014 by Wendy at Green Map