The Dhauli foothills strewn with food packets and leftovers. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 24: The foothills of the famous international peace pagoda at Dhauli are full of garbage with picnickers dumping plastic plates and cups all over the place.

As the place is not cleaned regularly and there are no garbage bins, tourists visiting the spot are worst hit.

With the picnic season about to end and Republic Day on Sunday, the sight near Dhauli is disturbing as about 10,000 tourists visit the place daily during the peak winter season.

“We have around 20 dustbins near the market and in areas near the pagoda, but there is no such provision near the foothills. The scene is worse near the ‘ghat’ along the Daya river. You can seen heaps of garbage lying on the bank of the river,’’ said Sumanta Subuddhi, a businessman near the pagoda.

Gourav Kumar Das, a tourist from Sundargarh, said: “The cleanliness of the foothills should be ensured as the area has the priceless Asoka-era rock-cut edict at a distance of about 300 metres from the makeshift dump yard along the road that leads to a garden being developed by the Odisha tourism.”

Bhubaneswar tourist officer Shashanka Rath told The Telegraph that corned over the situation a special drive would be launched within a week to clean both the foothills and the bank of the Daya.

Additional district magistrate and vice-chairman of the Dhauli Development Council Manoj Kumar Patnaik said: “The council runs with the co-operation of the local panchayat. However, in the past four months, there have been some problems between the council and panchayat over approval of expenses. As a result, members of security and other staff are not getting their dues. This might have sparked the present situation. However, I will see to it that a drive is in place to clean the foothills.”

Tour operator and holiday planner Debashish Mohapatra said: “Adequate number of dustbins on the foothills of the famous monument will help control the mess as tourists are now forced to throw leftovers here and there. The authorities must decide on the matter at the earliest.”

A senior tourism official of the state government, however, admitted that lack of co-ordination between the department and various agencies concerned had ruined the ambience of Dhauli.

The international peace pagoda came into existence in 1972 under the aegis of Kalinga Nippon Buddha Sangha as historians have discovered that the famous Kalinga War was fought on the bank of Daya in around 261 BC.