Clean up at Ananthagiri

What would like world of your children to be? This is a question every parent should ask themselves. We have often heard people say that we should provide a cleaner, less polluted world for the future generation. Many of us from GHAC regularly go for trekking and other outdoor activities to various locations within the twin cities and other parts of the state. What we often notice and do not act on is the amount of litter that dot these spots which spoils the look and feel of these locations.

A few months we at GHAC decided to act and one of our first demonstrative works was at Durgam Cheruvu, on the occasion of World Environment Day.  The GHAC team did a good job by cleaning up a part of the lake and that was in a way our contribution to preserving and conserving mother-nature. It was then we decided to go for our next clean up location – Ananthagiri. A second home to many of us, Ananthagiri hills and its environs has been a favourite meet up place for many of us. So after a few missed dates, we finally gathered up for a meetup on 20th August to do our due for Ananthagiri.

A late meet up announcement meant that we had a tepid response, but we did not want to give up our mission. The basic equipment for a clean-up including gloves, garbage bags and other essentials were ready. And so we were ready for the D day. We hired a bus and 16 of us were on our way to Ananthagiri. Stopping along the way for breakfast, we imbibed the lovely weather as we made to our destination.

We decided to complete the work in about three hours as clouds were gathering in the horizon. Clear areas were demarcated to GHAC volunteers and the students. A surprise package was two lovely kids Kavi and Nisha along with their mother Jen Mankoff, a Professor from Carnegie Mellon. Instead of covering a large area and diluting the effort, we decided to stick to a smaller area and do a better job of the clean-up. Face masks and gloves were provided to the volunteers and they began the painstaking efforts to clean up their areas. Soon, the first of the litter began to emerge and they were stacked in small mounds along the walking track.

The strategy was to collate the litter into garbage bags and then carry them to a collection point near the Ananthagiri temple bus stop, from where the garbage collection vehicle of Vikarabad Municipality would cart it to the dumping grounds. An overcast sky was suggesting a hint of rain and we had to work fast in ensuring that we wrapped up the effort in time. In a couple of hours, we had over 15 bags of litter filled up. The litter included plastic bottles, plates, glasses and snack packs among others. We avoided picking up glass bottles as the chances of getting injured were pretty high. The threat of rain forced us to speed up the work and by the time we called it a day, we had spent close to three hours at work. We met Mrs Aruna Bahaguna, DG of Police inside the forest and she appreciated the work being done.

52 students from Mannan Engineering College helped in this effort and their dedication deserves to be complimented. We had an oath-taking ceremony in which participants promised to protect the environment and conserve nature. They later helped us in hauling up the litter bags to the main road for the municipal truck to pick it up. Later all the participants moved to an area near the view point where again they found garbage and litter which was collected and transported to the nearby dump.

That done, we all trooped into the Haritha Resort of Andhra Pradesh Tourism at Ananthagiri. After freshening up we had lunch and walked around the resort admiring the sights and sounds there.  Soon, it was time to leave the beautiful environs of what is called ‘poor man’s Ooty’. Till we have another clean up, thank you – the wonderful GHAC team that made this possible.

Suresh Kochattil
suresh@ghac.in