ISLAMABAD: Students from different universities cleaned the Margalla Hills Trail-5 on Sunday in connection with the Pakistan Mountain Festival.

The two week event is being organised to commemorate the importance of mountains.

The Margalla Hills clean-up was supported by Comsats University, Shad Foundation, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Deputy Mayor Zeeshan Naqvi was chief guest of the occasion.

Organisers provided cotton fabric bags to participants for trash collection that were handed over to the IWMB for reuse after being emptied.

Mr Naqvi said that the youth need to understand the value of nature and natural resources and help society and authorities to keep the green cover intact.

“We need to do more efforts to make the citizens more aware of their responsibilities to keep the city and Margalla Hills clean and green,” he added.

Organiser Munir Ahmed said: “Our mountains are the hub of resources, including water, biodiversity, medicinal plants, music, culture and heritage. We need to conserve resources and to mainstream the mountain culture in letter and spirit.”

He said every citizen needs to behave responsibly and keep disseminating the message across to others with actions, not words.

IWMB Assistant Director Sakhawat Ali gave a detailed briefing on the Margalla Hills National Park.

He said that the park was declared a national park on April 27, 1980 under section 21(1) of the Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Conservation and Management) Ordinance 1979.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2019