Mangaluru : Yuva Brigade clean up the Nandini that flows alongside Sri Durgaparameshwari Temple, Kateel, some 19-kms from here on Sunday. The 300-odd volunteers including those from the Yuva Brigade, NSS volunteers of Sri Durgaparameshwari First Grade College, Kateel and locals ended up clearing nearly a dozen load of debris dotting either banks of the river.

Starting at crack of dawn, the volunteers under the guidance of Tilak Shishila, district convener of the Brigade descended on the banks clearing up debris – mostly flowers tied up in plastic covers, old dress left behind by devotees after a bath in the river, items used in ‘pinda daana’ and other assortment of waste callously tossed in to the river and on the river banks. The task was tedious but the volunteers soldiered on well past 1pm to leave the area spic and span.

Manjayya Merenki, the lead volunteer sharing his experience of the clean-up said the ‘Swachh Nandini Vandhya Nandini’ is the brainchild of Yuva Brigade state convener Chakravarti Sulibele and executed in the district under Tilak. The temple administration was all praise for the work put in by the volunteers and have assured to help maintain cleanliness in the area henceforth, Manjayya said, adding all such initiatives needs assistance from the locals – temple in this case.

While the primary aim of the state wide clean up was to clean up temple kalyanis’ (temple ponds), Tilak said their cleanliness in Dakshina Kannada was not so much of an issue as elsewhere in the state. Hence, Yuva Brigade decided to focus on cleaning up the Nandini River banks of the filth and debris accumulated on the banks, he said, adding the volunteers also cleaned the area of photos and glass pieces of abandoned photo-frames of deities once worshipped faithfully.

The debris was segregated and handed over to the local panchayati raj body for scientific disposal, he said. “We have requested the temple authorities to specify a designated spot on the temple premises where devotees can leave discarded photo-frames rather than toss it in the river or on the banks,” he said adding the Yuva Brigade will collect the same periodically for disposal under its other project ‘Kanakanadalli Shiva’ where they collected photo frames across Karnataka.