Karnataka - Bangalore

Birdwatchers on a picnic for a cause

Bangalore: The city’s intrepid birdwatchers have just about had enough with the mounting garbage on the once idyllic Nandi Hills. They have organised a picnic for a cause. A birding event at the Nandi Hills will be combined with a clean-up drive on August 23 to rid the place of plastic carry bags and paper.

The birding group is now looking for volunteers to “swarm” the hill and clean up as much as they can in a day. Armed with gloves, rakes, weighing scales, trashcans, the volunteers will segregate the garbage into two categories: polythene covers, PET bottles, ice-cream cups, spoons, etc; and plastic wrappers such as gutka and chips packets.

The organisers will be joining forces with “Clean and Green,” a group of volunteers, which has organised similar campaigns in other parts of the State. The birdwatcher’s group will also be supported the Deputy Commissioner, Forest Department, Horticulture Department and other authorities. The plastic waste collected will be weighed and handed over to a company that will use it to strengthen the asphalt on roads, said Deepak Rajanna, an avid birdwatcher and one of the organisers of the clean-up event. Besides volunteers, the group is looking for people to arrange for vehicles to bring back the garbage.

The group will also join hands with the advocates’ association of Bangalore to combine the clean-up drive with a sapling-planting event, Mr. Rajanna said.

Transport will be arranged for the volunteers and you can bring your food and water – but of course, you will have to make sure that you pick up behind you.

For more information, visit http://cleannandihills.wordpress.com. The group hopes that this effort is a sustainable one and not a “one-time fad” and that awareness is created among people to stop littering in the first place. They also plan to set up a trash disposal system there with dustbins at regular distances.

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