A massive cleaning drive was carried out today at Patlikuhal Village in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh. The drive was part of Krich Cleaning and Prem Varsha Trust’s regular cleanups of Garbage Dumps and illegal landfills across the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). They were also joined by another 15 odd volunteers from Crazy Mad Dogs.
All kind of waste, plastic and glass bottles, wrappers, sanitary pads, diapers hazardous electronic waste, dead bodies of animals were found in the cleaning drive. The point to be noted is that the ‘land of this litter’ belongs to forest department of Himachal Pradesh.
The cleanup site also has a glacial water channel running through it, again filled with hazardous litter. The same water is used by people living downstream for drinking and irrigation purposes.
The cleanup action which began at 10 AM and lasted till sunset, also saw areas Block Development Officer – Mukesh Kumar – arriving at the scene and giving a helping hand. “I am happy this eyesore and an ecological hazard is finally being cleared by these selfless team of people. We plan to make a Park here soon”, said Mukesh Kumar.
At the end of the day 200 bags, amounting to about 4 tons of all kinds of waste was collected from the site.
“This is a normal sight in most of the villages and towns of Himachal Pradesh, and while we are working on ground cleaning the ecology, we hope the people will learn soon”, said Yana Danilova, the other Director of Krich, while making flower pots out of used tyres to put at the site.
This massive effort, part of several such in the IHR, was being led by Gaurav Schimar who has bought organizations such as Krich, Prem Varsha and Clean-Future together to work towards saving the Himalayan Ecology.
It is time that we Indians wake up and clean this ecological mess else there will be no fresh water left for our children since all our major rivers are dependent on Himalayan glaciers.
This is a Clean-Future Exclusive