Overview
- GHMC partnered with ISKCON to run a pilot sacred collection drive at the ISKCON Temple in Banjara Hills that created the city’s first formal system for retiring worshipped items.
- Volunteers received old deity photos, damaged frames and worn idols and carried out an Udvasana Puja before moving items for systematic segregation and dismantling.
- Organisers reported they collected 68 kg of devotional objects from about 100 city residents and recycled materials where possible while re-homing items when citizens requested it.
- A follow-up Divine Collection Drive is scheduled at Sri Hanuman Temple in Yousufguda on June 13 and religious institutions are being invited to register as local collection centres.
- The project aims to stop devotees leaving sacred items in public places by linking religious closure with material recovery, and organisers plan to expand collection points and citywide coordination tools in later phases.