On Independence Day, 1050 kilograms of trash was collected in a clean-up drive organised by members of Environment Life from waterfalls near Vadap-Karjat. This was the eleventh such drive organised by the activists in a span of two years where they conducted cleanups from various places. The garbage collected mainly consisted of plastic and liquor bottles, wrappers and other food-related trash. Dharmendra Barai, head coordinator of the team pleaded to all picnickers by sending a strong message, "If you feel convenient enough to carry 20 kgs of food for picnic, then it is plausible to carry back 4 kgs of waste along with you." Barai also spoke on how the social media played a role to attract picnickers since the area being over-populated during weekends, how one should take precautionary measures, and avoid throwing trash at waterfall areas. For the past two years, members of Environment Life have been cleaning up areas around waterfalls near Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). They approach schools and colleges residing near the waterfalls which are generally in Matheran and Neral. Dharmendra said, "We approach the locals and even the Gram Panchayat for this purpose and try to educate them about how to maintain the natural environment." He urges the government to make waterfall areas under special jurisdiction and start converting them into proper tourist areas by providing basic amenities. "The government should at least dilute some fund towards environment conservation and start an initiative called Waterfall Tourism. Not only will this be beneficial to the government in terms of revenue, but also increase employment as more manpower would be allocated to develop those areas," Dharmendra said. There are many nameless waterfalls and since there is no government intervention many of these areas are manipulated by visitors. "In the coming years if this continues to be the state, then I fear, the scenic beauty which one makes it a point to visit, will soon soon lose its charm," woes Dharmendra.

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