More than a tonne of garbage was cleaned up along the 5-km stretch between Bandishola and Halakkarai Road in Coonoor on Saturday.
The clean-up drive was organised by Coonoor-based NGO, ‘Clean Coonoor’ to mark World Cleanup Day and involved the participation of volunteers as well as personnel from the Forest Department and civic bodies.
According to managing trustee of the NGO, Samantha Iyanna, the drive was organised after residents had brought to the notice of the NGO the unchecked and illegal dumping of garbage along the road by passing vehicles and people living nearby.
Members of Clean Coonoor spent an entire day on cleaning the stretch.
P.J. Vasanthan, trustee of Clean Coonoor, said that there was more trash along the stretch which would be removed in the coming weeks.
Furthermore, in order to prevent dumping of waste along the stretch, which is home to a variety of wildlife, two rural dry-waste collection centres at Bellattimattam and another at Halakkarai was inaugurated by the Coonoor sub-collector.
“The Coonoor Panchayat Union has put at our disposal two of its buildings for the purpose of sorting and storage of dry waste which will be later disposed of as per established norms by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. The centres will be manned by staff appointed by Clean Coonoor, and will collect dry waste from the nearby villages, gated communities and individual homesteads,” said Mr. Vasanthan.
