
PUNE: The bone-chilling cold that hangs in the air can’t take away the beauty of Spiti, the middle land, some 12,500 ft above sea level. Neither can it freeze a graffiti artist’s fingers.
Pune-based
Nilesh Kharade took his street art high up to Kaza, Spiti’s headquarter, for a
reason. “The valley is stunning in its rugged beauty. Ever since the government
eased travel restrictions, Spiti has become a hotspot, a travel hotspot. But
pollution, especially plastic, is the clear collateral damage and it is ruining
Spiti,” he said.
In his
talks with Kaza’s villagers, he could sense their despondency. “Many would say
tourism is good for them but an overdose of tourists, bikers and adventure
seekers is also spoiling their valley. They said their pristine lakes and
mountainsides are now marred by plastic. They wanted me to create messages so
that the littering will stop,” he added. Nilesh Kharade, an artist, as is known professionally, and four others from
Delhi, decided to paint messages on rocks and walls with keep Spiti
plastic-free images. Together with the other graffiti artistes who go by the
names Khatra and Hiren Trivedi, Pranav Gohil, he completed four works by the
first week of July.
“We also
participated in artists tagging. It is a graffiti writer’s tag is his or her
personalized signature. We painted warning signs,” he said. The Buddha was made
entirely from broomsticks mixed with lime. They also named the set of murals,
Navodaya, a new beginning. It was not easy. There was snowfall for three days
and when they began with a mural outside a famous café wall, it needed twice
the effort. “I had a nosebleed and breathing was laborious. The paint would freeze
on the brush,” he said. Their mural on the café’s wall was a 15 ft high and 45 ft
wide depiction of the creatures in Spiti River taking to the skies because of
the pollution.
They had
help from the villagers who mixed the lime and helped where they could. “They
are kind and gentle people. We could only paint a few hours a day. The Buddhist
monks from the nearby monasteries came down to see what we were up to,” Kharade
said. The local royal also felicitated the group. This was Nileshartist’s first such attempt in
Himachal Pradesh. “We did it for free in the hope that our murals will tell off
visitors about ruining Spiti’s appeal.”
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