Members of Making a Difference (MAD) an association of some 800 conscious youth in Dehradun city, cleaned up the Tamasa River near Tapkeshwar Mahadev shrine on Sunday. The young volunteers cleared the river of many quintals of waste including the banned polythene bags which clog the river.
More than 40 volunteers from various schools and colleges participated in the clean up drive which was conducted with the full cooperation of the temple priest. The river which once supported richer bio-diversity is now contaminated with waste dumped by people including those visiting the temple. Said to have been over 25 feet deep once upon a time, the river is now hardly ankle deep.
The temple priest exhorted the youngsters to undertake their cleaning activity while adding that the devotees dump all this waste in the belief that anything dumped in flowing water takes one to divinity.
While cleaning out the garbage the youngsters also found some dead fishes which appeared to have died after getting entangled in polythene waste. They complained about the apathy of Doon Valley Waste Management Pvt ltd which undertakes collection of garbage from the municipal area in Dehradun. Though the company officials had been informed about the drive on Sunday by the group which had sought assistance, DVWM assured help but did not provide any and then rebuffed volunteers when they sought help on Sunday, complained MAD members.