Berhampur: The Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) here has been making unique statues and sculptures going by its “Waste to Wealth” mantra. This time, however, its students have built a 23-foot elephant statue inspired by the Prime Minister’s call for “Swachhata Hi Seva” ahead of the Gandhi Jayanti. The statue has been built by using 30,000 used plastic bottles. The statue was inaugurated Sunday in the presence of Berhampur MLA Bikram Kumar Panda, Mayor Sanghamitra Dalei, political secretary to CM Gopabandhu Dash, state planning board member Ramesh Chandra Chyau Pattnaik and OSCDC Ltd chairman Subash Moharana.
Students made this elephant statue after collecting plastic bottles from various place in the city, Principal Rajat Kumar Panigrahi said. First the structure of the elephant was made with scrapped iron rods and later the structure was filled with plastic bottles and covered with plastic net. Plastic bottles should be recycled as they do not decompose in the soil and are precarious for our environment.