ISLAMABAD: Volunteers from the Clean Islamabad Hiking Trails, Painting the Future and Islamabad Wildlife Management Board on Sunday completed their trash removal campaign in the Margalla Hills.

Volunteers have taken up the task of cleaning such spots due to a lack of awareness on the part of the local administration and the public. They work on their own to collect garbage left behind and bring it to the nearest disposal site.

The small but active group of volunteers includes Tassadaq Malik, Irfan Siddique and Zaheer Khan, who have been using social media to raise awareness and are also trying to evoke a response from the authorities.

After the success of ‘Clean Islamabad Hiking Trails’ and ‘Painting the Future’, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board team has now decided to arrange a bigger event to clean up view points on Pir Sohawa Road, Mr Siddiqui said.

He said that around 40 to 50 volunteers, including boys, girls and families, joined the ‘Happy Trash Hunting’ cleanup drive.

Volunteers met at the Islamabad Zoo parking lot near the Pir Sohawa Road police check post, and moved to various view points in vehicles to clean the area near Monal Restaurant.

The Margalla Hills National Park and the six main hiking trills in the hills are littered with plastic bags, food and drink containers, bottles and other non-biodegradable material organisation on the part of the park managers.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2017