We, the members of cleanmountains have successfully started our cleanup mission and are pleased with the result we achieved in our last drives. We are delighted to get support from Forest Official and local villagers in all of our mission. For Kodachadri cleanup drive, we were accompanied by 24 trekkers from Bengaluru. We started our journey from Bengaluru on friday night to the foothills of the Kodachadri peak.
Kodachadri is a mountain peak with dense forest located amidst the Western Ghats of Karnataka having 1343m height above sea level in Nitturu, Hosanagara taluk of Shivamogga district. It is declared as natural heritage site by the Government of Karnataka. It has lush green views, dense forest, wonderful waterfall en route, thrilling trails and lovely landscapes where one can celebrate the wonders of nature!
This is how the day on 15th June 2019 unfolded :
It was 11 AM when we arrived at Kattinahole village located at the foothills. We arrived very late due to some unforeseen circumstances during our road trip. After completing our ritual ablutions, we had food at home-stay and packed our backpack along with gunny bags, gloves, threads, needles, mask etc. for upcoming adventurous trek. We started our clean-up trek after a quick briefing by organizer, and the team quickly got into action by collecting plastics, wrappers, bottles etc. We were instructed to segregate the waste so that it is much easier to recycle and ensure proper handling which makes it cheaper and better for people and the environment.
The trail we treaded can be divided into three stages :
— First one is a hike till the Hindlumane waterfall after getting permission from Karnataka Forest Department. (Distance : 4kms )
— Second is a steep ascent from Hindlumane waterfall to PWD guest house for about 2 hr in forest, grassland and jeep route. (Distance : 4 km )
— Finally its a ascent to the peak which we could not proceed since we started very late.
The initial stretch of about one hour is through jeep trails and thick forest. The forest was green & full with vegetation, thanks to recent rain. We collected six bags of garbage by then, stitched it properly and left it along the trail. Wrapper of ‘Vimal Pan Masala’ was the cynosure in the debris. People had also left their broken footwear (that too not in pair) and we could not find its matching pair. May be they had kept it as souvenir. 😛
We also discovered couple of party zone where disposal glasses, liquor tetra pack & bottles, beer cans being thrown in heaps. We carefully put all these stuff in gunny bags and left it en-route to be carried down when descending. Having made good progress in cleaning above the waterfall, we headed towards PWD guest house and it was 7 pm by then. It was raining cats & dogs, we didn’t get accommodation there so we had to retreat to foothills by taking jeep ride. Unfortunately we could not bring back the trash bags to foothills as it was planned for the next day. But we were ensured by forest official that they would carry it down. After dinner, we retired into the bed late in the night.
Number of participants : 24
Number of collected trash bags : 12
Total Trash collected (in Kg) : 144
Karnataka is no less than a heaven for all the nature enthusiasts and wildlife lovers. Kodachadri offers a complete package of meadows, mountains, waterfall, flora & fauna. Every tourists/people should treat these natural places as their own home and keep it clean , litter free just by following some basic steps.
- Carry a reusable water bottles.
- Carry a lunch box to store the packaged food.
- Do not litter.
- Bring back all the trash whatever you brought and dispose off properly in dustbin.
- Do not play loud music with blue-tooth speaker as there are many creatures living there. Better to use earphone. Best not to listen music, instead listen the chirping of birds, pattering of rain and rustling leaves.
- Avoid single use plastics in your day to day life.