Despite constant efforts by greens and volunteers here, truck loads of liquor bottles and plastic waste are getting dumped in the forest areas on Yercaud Ghat Road.
Nature enthusiasts and volunteers, who took up cleaning the forest areas along Ghat Road, now fear that they might have do this for eternity as liquor bottles, plastics and other disposable waste reappear in areas that were cleaned by them.
For the past few weeks, members of various organisations, including the Salem Nature and Wildlife Trust and other organisations have been cleaning the forest areas on Yercaud Ghat Road and have been removing liquor bottles, plastic waste including disposable cups and other disposable waste.
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Each week, the group has collected at least 10 large sacks of waste which primarily consists of liquor bottles. Empty bottles are thrown into the forests which often gets shattered into pieces after it hits a rock, posing threat to wildlife here.
“The barrier walls on Ghat Road is a ‘boozing spot’ in the night. Vehicles could be noticed parked nearby the the barriers and people regardless of awareness and warnings continue to booze here.
At least, the bottles could have been left on the barriers rather than throwing them into the forests. This would make work easy for the civic bodies to clear them”, laments one of the volunteers.
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V. Gokul from Salem Wildlife and Nature Trust said, “we have been cleaning the forest areas closer to Ghat Road for the past few weeks but plastic and liquor bottles reappear. Nearly 10 sacks of liquor bottles were collected on Sunday and most of them were broken. The bottles can harm wildlife here.”
He added that they would need more number of volunteers and safety kits to clean the forest area along Ghat Road as most of the bottles have been irresponsibly thrown into the forests and they are broken posing risks to volunteers.