Rajkamal Goswami ATREE, which has long-term presence and stake in biodiversity conservation of KMTR along with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has been actively campaigning to reduce plastic use in the reserve and monitor the impact of such a large congregation of people inside the forest for the last three years. Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) in the Agasthyamalai mountain range of the Western Ghats is the southernmost habitat of the Indian tiger and is known for its high biodiversity. This reserve also has cultural and religious connotations, what with its temples. Prominent among them is the Sorimuthaiyan temple that attracts around 4,00,000 people during the Aadi Amavasai festival from surrounding villages every year. The temple belongs to the erstwhile Singampatti Zameen, a village on the edge of the reserve. The Raja of Singampatti, a former Zamindar conducts a customary durbar at the temple during the festival to keep the historical and cultural heritage alive. The huge influx of people (both transient and campers) during the festival can have a direct and indirect impact on the forests here. ATREE, which has long-term presence and stake in biodiversity conservation of KMTR along with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has been actively campaigning to reduce plastic use in the reserve and monitor the impact of such a large congregation of people inside the forest for the last three years. The organisation has even managed to influence the district administration to impose a ban on the use of disposable plastic in the reserve last year. This year, a team of 23 members, 17 of them from ATREE and several other volunteers from colleges in Tamil Nadu were involved in the campaign. The organisation decided to categorise its activities into fund raising, outreach and awareness, scientific monitoring of impacts, understanding the socio-cultural issues and ethos of the festival and direct action-oriented activities during the festival. As part of its fund-raising initiatives, ATREE put up sales and awareness stalls at a popular mall in Bangalore where t-shirts and other items like stickers and posters were sold. The sale proceeds were diverted for the campaign along with funds from the Wildlife Trust of India. Villages from where a large number of pilgrims and visitors came to the festival became the target for the awareness campaign. The help of Arumbugal trust, a local NGO was sought to organise street plays and other cultural programmes to highlight the hazards of polythene and create awareness and appreciation of the biodiversity in KMTR. Several members of ATREE gave talks in various schools, colleges and took part in processions by school and college students, arranged for telecast of special programmes and interviews in popular FM radio and television channels for over a week prior to the festival, highlighting the ban on plastic and hazards to the ecosystem. Also, ATREE closely monitored various components of the forest ecosystem around the temple to get an idea about the extent of impact due to the festival. This included water quality testing as the river Tamiraparani was adjacent to the temple, occupancy survey of animals to see the impact on animal movement, a traffic survey to monitor the extent of vehicular movement and a road survey to get an idea about the direct impact of the sudden increase in vehicular traffic on animal species. Banners and posters were displayed to convey the message about the negative impacts of littering in the forests. Bins were placed in various places to avoid littering. Over three days, about 500 volunteers from various schools and colleges helped the Forest Department in collecting plastic covers from the pilgrims and replacing them with cloth/ paper bags. ATREE gave the cloth bags at nominal prices for those who had no other alternative. The volunteers also took out an awareness procession, apart from initiating a post-festival clean-up drive.