Volunteers from New Acropolis, Mumbai spent a better part of their Sunday the 13th of September, in a clean up at the site of the Kanheri caves at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai.
The 2000 year old Caves are a historical gem. The caves have a distinct Buddhist cultural and artistic influence. Most caves were Buddhist viharas, meant for living, studying, and meditating. Larger caves were Chaityas or halls of congregational worship with rock cut stupas and many depictions of the Buddha. Owing to its proximity to Mumbai, and its unique location amidst a “National Park”, the caves are a popular tourist destination.
The Archeological Survey of India does a good job of eliminating visible trash from the area in and around the caves. Yet a detailed clean-up of the site was warranted as bottle caps, gutkha and sweet wrapers, more tedious to clean are invariably ignored. The Acropolitan volunteers took this as opportunity to thoroughly pick up trash from areas around the cave system while engaging with these quaint dwellings of monks through the centuries.
