Members of local NGO, Clean Coonoor, began work on cleaning up another stretch of the stream which joins the Coonoor River recently. The inauguration of the clean-up operation was organised to coincide with World Rivers Day, which is marked across the world on the fourth Sunday in September each year.
Speaking to The Hindu , Samantha Iyanna, Managing Trustee of Clean Coonoor, said that volunteers will clean up around 600 meters of the stream, which has become clogged with construction soil which has been routinely dumped illegally by builders.
P. J. Vasanthan, trustee of Clean Coonoor, said that the stream is referred to by members of the Badaga community as Hancoonthorai stream. He said that drainage from Ketti, Aruvankadu and Ottupattarai flows through the stream which joins the Coonoor River.
The NGO estimates that the entire clean-up operation would cost around ₹ 15 lakh to ₹20 lakh, the funds for which have been raised through subscriptions from individuals and a Hyderabad-based NGO – the Gandipet Welfare Society.
The district administration has also backed the restoration of the river. Clean Coonoor has already worked on cleaning up the Coonoor River, with around 12,000 tonnes of soil and waste removed from a 1.5 km stretch of the river over a one-month period between June and July of this year.
Following the inauguration of the clean-up operation on Sunday, a poem recital – “The Coonoor River’s Sorrow,” by author Varada Menon, the launch of a short film on the Coonoor River Project by Clean Coonoor and the video launch of the Nilgiri anthem, “Namma Nilgiris,” was organised in Coonoor.
