Eco-friendly religion in India

Religious ceremonies in India's thousands of temples are having a downstream effect on the nation's rivers. Thousands of devotees flock to temples like the Laxminarayan in New Delhi, pictured, each day to perform prayers, smell the familiar fragrance of incense burning and find peace amid the hustle and bustle of the city.

Along with their prayers, devotees offer flowers to the gods in the temples to show their attachment and love for them. Giving flowers is deeply rooted in most religions in India, not only in Hindu temples, but in Gurudwaras where Sikhs worship, along with Jain temples and in the mausoleums of Muslim saints. It's often a treasured custom learned since childhood.

When the devotees have made their "pooja" floral offerings, some take them home to use again in small residential shrines. When the flowers dry up, they throw them in the rivers. Most worshippers do not think about the environmental impact their offerings have.

There are 23,000 temples in New Delhi alone and flower sellers are a common sight outside. A survey by the organization ORM Green revealed that every day, about 20,000 kilograms (44,092 pounds) of flowers come out of the city's temples. That makes up half of the organic waste produced every day in India's capital. About 80 percent of those flowers end up rotting in the Yamuna River.

Indian Hindus consider rivers to be holy, yet many of them are dreadfully polluted. The country's government has spent about 20 billion euros ($27 billion) over the past few years on projects to clean up the Yamuna River, for example, but there is little to show for it. Here, a child picks rubbish from the Tawi River in India's north.

The bright floral scenes in the temples are a stark contrast to the pollution issues plaguing India's rivers. But customs can change, says Anita Kalsi, vice president of ORM Green. The non-governmental organization has come up with a novel way to recycle the flowers and make prayer rituals more environmentally friendly.

Kalsi and her colleagues have developed a machine to process the used flower petals and buds. The by-product can be used to make incense sticks and biofuels for cooking. It took a year's worth of work and 10,000 euros to design the prototype, named Blessed Flower, which is now installed at the Sai Baba Temple in New Delhi.

In the next few years, ORM Green wants to install at least 30 additional flower recycling machines at some of New Delhi's temples. They are also planning on improving the machine to process stems and leaves of plants. Rickshaws, such as this one, have been set up to collect offering flowers for processing and to raise awareness of the project.

Worshippers at the Sai Baba Mandir approve of the novel way of reusing their "pooja" flower offerings. Some also incorporate their own form of recycling, such as using the rotten flowers to fertilize their own plants. With the support of the public and temple administrators, ORM Green wants to spread this technology across India, uniting spirituality with sustainability in a practical way.