Rs 5 Lakh Silver Lota Accidentally Discarded, Indore Civic Workers Search Through Tonnes Of Garbage

Municipal sanitation workers in Indore retrieved a two-kilogram pure silver lota (urn), valued at approximately Rs 5 lakh, after it was accidentally thrown out with daily household trash, news agency PTI reported. After a two-day search, the precious ancestral heirloom was found before it would have been permanently destroyed by heavy industrial machinery. The incident happened on July 18 in the Rajendra Nagar area of Indore, India's cleanest city. An elderly woman mistakenly placed a bag containing the 2 kg silver kalash, an urn primarily used for religious ceremonies, into a passing municipal waste collection vehicle.

By the time the family realised the precious utensil was missing, the collection truck had already completed its rounds, dumping its load at a local transfer station. The waste was also dispatched to the city's central waste-processing facility. 

Hundreds of tonnes of waste are taken to the processing centre every day from across the city; hence, the Chief Sanitary Inspector Vijay Yadav said it appeared impossible.

"It was like finding a needle in a haystack," he said while speaking to the news agency.

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When the distressed family approached municipal authorities for help, officials launched a coordinated recovery effort. The family provided a photograph of the silver urn to aid workers in identifying the item.

At the sorting facility, where materials like plastics, footwear, paper, and metal are separated, workers had already sorted the unidentified pot into a massive multi-tonne pile of scrap metal, unaware of its value.

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For nearly 48 hours, team members sifted through the tonnes of garbage, and the efforts finally paid off when sanitation staff spotted the tarnished metal vessel.

"After two days of searching, we found an urn matching the photograph, with the family's name engraved on it," Yadav said.

Officials noted that had the report been delayed even by a few hours, the urn would have been lost forever. 

With the elderly woman currently away on a religious pilgrimage, the recovered urn was handed over to local municipal councillor Prashant Badwe for safekeeping until her return.