The Union Minister of State for Tourism K Chiranjeevi has announced Rs 5 lakh in his personal capacity to the British activist Jodie Underhill for collecting garbage at the Sahastradhara helidrome in Dehradun during the relief operations after the disaster which struck Uttarakhand in June this year.
Chiranjeevi made the announcement “in recognition of her yeomen service to the cause of Uttarakhand flood tragedy relief”, states a government release. Underhill had been collecting garbage strewn around the food stalls at the helidrome in Dehradun. These stalls provided food for rescued pilgrims and their kin who often converged here.
She came to India in 2008, travelled around India as a tourist and then volunteered at the Tibetan children’s village in Dharamshala. Bothered by the garbage situation, she organised her first mass clean up at Mcleod Ganj (Himachal Pradesh) in 2009 and later formed voluntary organisation Mountain Cleaners. Arriving in Dehradun in 2012 to start her first urban project, she formed Waste Warriors aiming to reach out to the whole nation.