ISLAMABAD: Over a 100 university students cleaned up Margalla Hills Trail 5 on Saturday, in connection with International Mountain Day (Dec 11).

The initiative was supported by UNDP Pakistan’s Environment Wing, World Wildlife Fund Pakistan and the National University of Science and Technology’s Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering.

Participants collected waste, including plastic bottles, wrappers, cans, plastic, shopping backs and food packaging discarded by visitors along the hiking trail.

Speaking at the event, Pakistan Mountain Festival Director Munir Ahmed said the youth participation in the clean-up was a good sign and a sign of the maturity of young people when it comes to nature conservation

He said the sensitised and environmentally engaged youth would become a real source for inspiration for others to take green practices into society.

“Mountain ecosystems are the lifeline of the living and breathing species, including human beings, and they cannot be restored if over-exploited once, therefore, we need to be more conscious to conserve them,” he said.

He said the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad needs to take more vigorous action to take notice of the rapidly degrading Margalla Hills National Park areas, spread over three parts of the Islamabad Capital Territory.

Covering around 22pc of the earth’s land surface, mountains play a critical role in moving the world towards sustainable economic growth.

They provide sustenance to 915 million mountain people around the world, representing 13pc of the global population, but mountains also indirectly benefit billions more living downstream. Extreme weather would affect the next generation more, although mountain communities in Pakistan have already been facing harsh situations for the last several years.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2017