NEW YORK, April 20, 2011 (NY Times): It was just after dawn last Sunday when a pair of pilgrims lighted incense on the shore and dropped two coconuts into the sacred waters, otherwise known as Jamaica Bay. As the Hindu population has grown in Queens over the last decade, so too has the amount of ritual debris — clothing, statues, even cremation ashes — lining the banks of the bay in Gateway National Recreation Area.
But to the park rangers who patrol the beach, the waters are a fragile habitat. Unlike the Ganges, they say, the enclosed bay does not sweep the refuse away.
The result is a standoff between two camps that regard the site as sacrosanct for very different reasons, and have spent years in a quiet tug of war between ancient traditions and modern regulations. Strenuous diplomacy on both sides has helped, but only to a point.
“I can’t stop the people and say, ‘You can’t come to the water and make offerings,’ ” said Pandit Chunelall Narine, the priest at a thriving Ozone Park temple, Shri Trimurti Bhavan, who sometimes performs services by the bay.
On Friday, Earth Day, prominent Hindu leaders were about to join park rangers in a cleanup of the beach, close to Kennedy International Airport, as part of a longstanding “leave no trace” campaign. Park officials, wary of dictating matters of faith, have reached out to Hindu temples, gently encouraging members to pray at the waters but to leave nothing behind. And many Hindus have obliged.
Most Hindus who visit the beach are immigrants from the Caribbean islands and Guyana who have settled in the Richmond Hill area of Queens. They are largely descendants of Indian workers sent to the Caribbean in the 19th century.
Ricky Kanhai and his wife, Asha, both 28, visited the beach last Sunday to pray that they would soon have a child. Mr. Kanhai waded into the water and poured jugs of milk, dyed pink with turmeric, into the sea foam. From the shore, his mother-in-law, Lalita Prasad, waved a tray of fried treats toward the bay. Normally, Ms. Prasad would leave the pastries in the water for Mother Ganga. But because of the fines and the park rules, she packed them back into a plastic bag to take home. “In your heart, you feel like your offering is not accepted,” she said. “But we have to obey the rules.”