CHENNAI: This weekend, the lake at Mudichur in Tambaram, which usually wears a deserted look, saw an unusual clean-up crew at work. Along with students in T-shirts and caps scouring the water like treasure hunters, were 42 Marines from the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker that is currently docked at Chennai for a joint Indo-US military exercise. Armed with cleaning implements, the marines and students — over 60 of them from various schools and colleges across the city – fished out polythene, rubber, thermocol and other environmentally harmful materials from the highly polluted lake. It was quite a sight to see the burly marines sweating it out in the Chennai heat to haul away decades of waste, from the periphery of the lake.“It was a great experience,” gushes Malini Hari, a Class 10 student of Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya School. Malini, who is a part of the Environmentalist Foundation of India, says, “We started planning for the event weeks ahead. We first applied for permission from the local leaders and then spread the message about the clean-up in educational institutions. Many students volunteered and, of course, we had the support of the US Consulate.” The Environmentalist Foundation of India organised the programmeNot to be left behind, the residents of Mudichur joined the students in cleaning up the lake.After three hours of clean-up, EFI volunteers performed a street play called Madras Nalla Madras that focused on the need for environmental conservation in urban India. According to Sharan Chandrasekhar, head of communications at EFI, the Mudichur panchayat and EFI are set to enter into an agreement to adopt all the lakes in the panchayat and convert them into biodiversity hotspots. “This is just the beginning of a long process. We are planning lake clean-up programmes at least once a month. The entire process should be completed by 2014 in all the 7 lakes in the panchayat,” he says.
Comments
0 comment