Organisations and citizens joined hands on World Wildlife Day to clean up trash from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) on the Goregaon side, which is restricted for visitors. Around 140kg of waste was collected from the park including 70kg glass liquor bottles weighing around half of the total waste collected.
BNHS along with Mumbai March organise clean-up
Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) along with Mumbai March, a non-governmental organisation, organised SGNP Thrash Dash on Sunday on the occasion of World Wildlife Day. The non-biodegradable waste was collected from the wildlife habitat to minimise the threat of land and water pollution. The trash will be handed over to waste recyclers to make the maximum use of it.
Participants included college students, morning walkers, senior citizens as well as members of BNHS and Mumbai March. Over 80 participants started the activity from the Hathi Gate of the park to the main road. The waste they collected included glass bottles, plastic bottles, discarded footwear, plastic bags, rubber pieces and gutka packets.
Lot of waste was came from the film city
The participants said that a lot of waste was coming from the film city as it shares a border with the national park. The waste included thermocol sheets, alcohol bottles as well as an entire shooting set lying in the waste.
Shardul Bajikar, naturalist and education officer with BNHS, said, “We organised it as a one-time activity but given the amount of trash, we have decided to organise clean-up drives every quarter. We are thankful to the SGNP management for letting us organise this drive.”
Avinash Thadani, Co-founder of Mumbai March said, “The shooting teams should make sure that they do not leave any waste behind. There is a strong need to execute proper checking at the entry gates of the national park.”
