Volunteers clean up capital’s scenic hills

Agroup of university students, members of civil society and nature-loving citizens collected litter from the frequently visited hill track of the federal capital, Margalla Hills Trail-3, last week.

Deputy mayor of Islamabad, Zeeshan Ali Shah Naqvi, led the participants along the 4.5-kilometre hilly track.

Volunteers collected large amounts of waste — including plastic bottles, wrappers, tins, plastics, and shopping bags thrown away by visitors.

The scourge of littering by visitors on the hiking trails of the Margalla Hills continues, despite the Islamabad Wildlife Board’s checking points.

One of the participants of the mountain cleaning team, Munir Ahmad, said the natural ecology and habitats of mountains need to be protected for the sake of biological diversity, water and food security for human beings and other living species on the planet.

“We all depend extremely on water that flows down from the mountains,” Ahmad said. “Therefore we need to protect everything that ensures availability of water every single day of the year.”

Limited funds

He said the overwhelming participation of young people in the Margalla Hills clean-up was a good sign of their maturity towards nature and conservation.

The environmentally-engaged youth would become a real source of inspiration for others to adopt green and clean practices in the society, he added.

Deputy Mayor Naqvi said it was everyone’s duty to protect the green character of the federal capital despite limited funds being available.

He said the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad would be implementing wholeheartedly the Clean and Green Pakistan initiative the Islamabad Capital Territory without any discrimination between rural and urban areas.