[1]It was a different outing for the 42 marines of the US Navy who landed up in Chennai.
What started as a fun activity turned into a full-fledged civic exercise along with volunteers of Enviromentalist Foundation of India and ended up in cleaning up the Mudichur lake spread over four acres of land. The participants clad in casuals and equipped with gloves and special shoes managed to remove a tractor full of plastic and non biodegradable waste.
Local municipal chairman P. Dhamodaran welcomed the mariners and said that the municipality has bagged several awards for taking up eco initiatives among villagers and has also bagged the prestigious president environment award.
Our villagers are sensitive to environment and the recent visit by the foreigners and the subsequent cleaning up drive will enhance the awareness on ecology, he said.
“The villagers were enthralled and blended with us. They played a warm host even for the minimal time we spared with them and it is a routine activity for us. Whenever there is a port call, the crew will spend time ashore learning about the people and culture of visiting city”, said a few members of the crew.
The team cleared the pathways surrounding Mudichur lake for about one and half hours and handed over the waste to the local village panchayat. Later in the day U.S. sailors also participated in the cultural programmes organised by the villagers.
The organisers said more such campaigns would be conducted. Youngsters would be roped in for our projects like Sea turtle conservation, lake conservation and restoration of biodiversity parks in schools.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/07us-ship1jpgcropdisplayjpg-087