Chennai
Around 150 residents from Nanmanagalam joined hands to clean the water body on Sunday. The residents were brought together after a door to door campaign and awareness drive, which highlighted the appalling proportion of dumping in the lake. Starting from 7 am to 9.30 am, the volunteers collected more than 400 kg of trash, working with members of the Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI).
Velmurugan Balasoundar, a resident who has been working towards bringing the community together, says, “This was the first mass cleanup of the lake. With the help of EFI, the residents of Nanmangalam from six communities in the area worked together for this cleaning drive.”
He added that the garbage collected was segregated and recyclable items were collected by Trashgaadi, an on-demand trash collection service. The Nanmangalam lake plays a pivotal role in the ecosystem as it is the catchment area for other lakes like Sembakkam and Medavakkam. Rama Narayanan, the conservation coordinator of EFI, says, “You can see about 60 types of birds visiting the lake. There is also a roosting spot for peacocks nearby. But the dumping and burning of garbage have chased the birds away.”
He adds that while the lake was being cleaned up for the last two years, it was a large-scale operation this time, involving more residents. The residents had gathered after they learned about how the ecosystem was being spoilt, he says. He adds, “We spoke to the Panchayat and sensitised them as to why they should not dump wastes in the lake. The road dividing the forest and lake is also being used as a site for garbage disposal and a channel in the area, which helped to drain excess water from the forest to the lake, was completely clogged with garbage.”
Balasoundar adds that the residents will join in for another round of cleaning just ahead of the monsoon this year. “We removed a huge volume of trash, but there is more. We were given a tractor and tricycles to carry the waste and that was entirely filled. We look forward to another round of cleanup,” he says.
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