The Sunday morning drizzle could not keep volunteers away from Hebbal lake to participate in one of the largest cleanup drives in the city. The initiative – India Clean Sweep – is a collaborative effort by The Hindu , The Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) and Environmental Foundation of India (EFI).
After three hours, volunteers managed to remove three tonnes of garbage from Hebbal lake, which is among the most polluted lakes in the city. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) extended support by clearing the large pile of garbage.
The main objective of the drive was to increase awareness among people on the growing garbage footprint and the impact of plastic use on the environment.
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Manjunath Prasad, Commissioner, BBMP, assured the people that the palike would actively participate and support upcoming cleanups. He promised to provide required equipment and other resources for the drives. “Only 50% of the waste generated is being segregated properly. We plan to solve this problem,” he said, and added that it was nice to see so many people gather to clean a lake on a Sunday morning.
Detailing the process, Gowthami Ashok, of EFI, said a part of the lake was selected from which the garbage was removed manually. After this, the lake was deepened with the help of machinery and then fenced. “To ensure that the garbage does not enter the lake again, we sensitize and educate residents about the importance of the lake and its conservation. The response to the cleanup has been tremendous. We hope to clean the lake completely within 15 weeks,” she said.
Mukund Ramesh from ARCADIS said though many were willing to cleanup the lake, they did not know how to go about it. The drive provided a good platform for them to learn how. Balakumar Narayanan from Pondicherrry in the city on vacation also joined the drive. “I heard about the cleanup drive and was eager to participate. I am glad that I could do something for Bengaluru.”
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The drive was sponsored by Casa Grande and the gift sponsor was Zebronics.