Kathmandu, November 22

People littering pristine national parks and other famous hiking spots around Kathmandu valley is a very common sight, but a few people, mostly youngster, have started joining a new campaign to pick up waste materials thrown in the national parks while hiking.

The Shivapuri clean-up campaign is organised by Clean-up Nepal and launched by the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Nepal under the framework of the EU Climate Diplomacy and the European Year of Youth 2022.

EU started the project last year during Europe Week and did one of the Shivapuri National Park Clean-up projects, and this year skilled it for up to 10 weeks. It is an initiative of the EU to raise awareness at schools.

Every Saturday a good number of youths join the clean-up campaign. Clean Up Nepal mostly encourages school students to join the campaign where students are provided with gloves and other safety tools, along with waste collection bags, to collect waste, mostly plastic wrappers from the national park.

The organisation also offers similar tools to the general people who go there for hiking. Most of the people going for hiking are seen participating in the campaign voluntarily. Upon returning to the entrance area, people who participate in the campaign gets a 'bag' as a gift, a bottle of mineral water and a 'super hero' token from the organisation. The collected waste is then segregated, weighed and disposed into trash bins, which are later picked by the garbage trucks of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

The campaign is also joined by the people of plogga community. The plogga movement is a phenomenon with the simple idea of picking up garbage and jogging. The name is an acronym of the Swedish words for picking and jogging - 'Plocka och Jogga'.

Rabindra Lamichhane, programme coordinator of the organisation, shared that their initiative first gained momentum after it got support from the Nepali Army a few months ago. "In the beginning, we had organised a one-day programme to clean Shivapuri Nagarjuna National Park, which was well received by the Nepali Army. So, after some time they requested us to do the same. So, we have come forward with various plans and projects to clean up major national parks inside Kathmandu," Lamichhane said.

He further said that any one who wanted to join the campaign could come to the entrance of SNNP on Saturdays and begin their hiking. They have recorded students carrying 40 to 50 kilograms of waste, most of which are chocolate and junk food wrappers and drinking water bottles, among others.