University of Hyderabad on a lake clean up drive

University of Hyderabad campus Biodiversity Conservation group Wild Lens along with staff of Sanitary and Horticulture departments conducted Lake Clean up drive on the occasion of World Environment day. Every year the same group conducts Plantation drives on this occasion. This year they conducted Buffalo Lake Clean up drive. Around 50 plus active volunteers took up the task of making campus lakes clean and beautiful.

This kind of regular clean up drives and desilting activities improve the water retention and quality of water, which is useful for wildlife consumption. Dr. Ravi Jillapalli, Founder, Wild Lens said: "We have initiated Lake Clean up drives in 2016 with motto "Our Campus- Our responsibility". Lakes are vital parts of our ecosystem and they need to be preserved for the future generations. However nowadays they became collecting zones of garbage & sewage".

He added: "University of Hyderabad is home for 200-plus species of birds, lot of mammals and snakes. All these depend on Peacock and Buffalo lakes for their daily water needs. It's our responsibility to revive the Lakes and keep a check for the polluting agents. I thank Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Appa Rao Podile for instructing the staff to participate in this noble cause. I thank Deputy Registrar Srinivas Rao, Horticulture Staff- Chandra Prakash Sharma, V Subba Rao, Sanitary dept staff- Mallesh for providing the required tools and man power for the programme".

Deputy Registrar Srinivas Rao said: "This is a nice initiative and regular clean up drives should be conducted to preserve our lakes. He will be working with the interested students on Area Adoption Programs and Swatch Bharath Abhiyan to make the campus Clean and Green".

The volunteers who made this program successful are Karthik Jirra, Raghu Ghanapuram, Sushma Nandyala, Sai Lakshmi, Yashaswi Yenugu, M Priyanka, Usha Ravindra, Anil GR, Manoranjan and Rohith Bond.