30 Mumbaikars Collect 10,000 Kgs Of Garbage From 16 Waterfalls Near The City!

Right from the deepest oceans to the peaks of Mount Everest, the menace of plastic waste has wreaked havoc. And the city of dreams, Mumbai is no alien to any of this. From the mountains of plastic waste found on the serene beaches of Mumbai to the heaps of litter that the tourists dump on their way to nearby getaways, Mumbai and its scenic surroundings are sadly covered in a blanket of litter and hazardous waste.

Some saviors of the environment are, however, putting in all their heart and soul to make Mumbai truly clean and green. Accordingly, they are all working hard to clean the beaches, plant trees and make their city plastic-free.

Dharmesh Barai from Mumbai was concerned about the pitiful conditions of the waterfalls around the city. These waterfalls are a quick escape for Mumbaikars that transports them from concrete jungles into the lap of nature. So, Barai with his enthusiastic team of environment protectors decided to collect garbage and litter from these spots and restore their natural beauty.

Accordingly, they visited 16 waterfalls on the outskirts of Mumbai and achieved their goal of making them litter-free on Independence Day. They collected around one tonne of garbage from the waterfalls in the course of the cleanliness drive.

“We found 80 percent bottles and food wrappers among the garbage and would like to appeal to Mumbaikars to stop treating our beautiful waterfalls like open bars. Just like they carry all the full bottles up, they should be responsible enough to carry back the empty bottles and other waste back and dump it in a nearby garbage bin instead of the waterfall,” Barai told TOI.

The core team consisted of 30 volunteers from Mumbai from the age group 8-65 years. All kinds of biodegradable garbage was collected from waterfalls in Tapalwadi, Jummapatti, Khopoli, Pandavkada, Chinchoti, Anandwadi, Kondeshwar, Bhivpuri, Palasdari, Ambewadi, Kharghar, Prabalmachi and Vadap by them.

Dilip Khandkar, a 64-year-old, environment enthusiast from the team said that it took around 2-3 hours to clean each waterfall.

“People treat waterfalls like picnic spots and enjoy but don’t clean up afterward. Since many waterfalls are not designated picnic spots there aren’t garbage bins and the villages nearby do not even have ghanta gadis to pick up the garbage. The Nagar Sevaks at the remote areas says that the limited funds they have do not help them to arrange for garbage collection from there,” he said.

Barai also said that people should realize their responsibility towards the environment and look after it effectively. “Mumbaikars should be environment-sensitive and avoid littering birds and animals in the vicinity are harmed by this non-biodegradable waste too. We need to increase awareness. There are quite a few Bollywood celebrities, who care about their environment and it would be really great if they could talk about waterfall clean-up on their social media. This will surely give this drive the boost it needs. We need to save our beautiful waterfalls,” he said.

The group of environment enthusiasts who call themselves ‘Environment Life Team’ has been safeguarding nature since October 2, 2016. True to their motto- “My Waste, My Responsibility”

It’s about time we realize our responsibility towards Mother Nature. If we can’t participate in LIT cleanliness drives, the least we could do is avoid littering.

Kudos to the Environment Life Team for their efforts!