CLEAN TREK

New enthusiasts who often accompany the group are also trained in his way to ensure they leave a cleaner trial behind.

Lead trekker Nityanand Naik (26),as an assistant manager with a theatre company,says,“Each of us carry bags and collect plastic cups,ice-cream wrappers,plastic and glass bottles,gutkha wrappers,thrown by picnickers. If we don’t find a suitable place to dispose them of properly,we take it to the nearby village or taluka. We ask locals where it can be properly disposed of and empty the bags there.”

The idea had struck some years back. A member,Shrikant Pillay,says,“Once I had been to a trek with another group. The lead trekker made me carry a plastic bag. I was the trailing man,the last one on the trek. I was told to collect anything thrown by participants. This way,our team would not pollute the path. That was when I thought we could extend this idea to collect garbage anyone has thrown. The idea was floated in Yatri Sahyadri which accepted it.”

The trekkers have become so attuned to this habit that they are more conscious of not littering in their day to day life. Pillay says,“You won’t find any trekker throwing anything here and there. If you give a chocolate to one,he will ensure the wrapper is thrown into the dust bin. If there is no dustbin close by,he will keep it in his pocket till he finds a dustbin. Or else he will take it home to be disposed of with household garbage.”

Naik says,“When we take groups for trekking,we ensure none of the participants scatters things on the trail. Several participants call us and tell us the idea has stuck and even in routine life they have become more sensitive and responsible.”

The group also works to clean up and restore old forts hardly visited by people in and around the Virar-Dahanu belt. “These are small forts and we are taking up the project to restore them,” says Naik.

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