Spurred by social responsibility instinct, a group of 25 local youth of Topchanchi block of Dhanbad carried out an intensive cleaning of Topchanchi lake, an artificial lake developed during the British Raj by tapping 10 natural channels flowing through adjoining Parasnath hills.

The group led by Gokul Mukherjee (34), a local teacher began the drive early in the morning under the banner of Topchanchi Helping Hands, a social organisation from Lichi Bagan, the tourist hotspot situated on the bank of lake with brooms and spade in hands and masks on their mouth and carried out sweeping of food leftovers, collected food wrappers, thrown away water bottles and cans in sacks till the afternoon all around the lake.

The volunteers also carried out awareness among the pickers requesting them to put the garbage like food leftovers, wrappers, plastic bottles, polythene packets only in dustbins to maintain the aesthetic beauty of the lake.

Talking to The Telegraph Online today, Mukherjee said “Topchanchi is one of most beautiful picnic spots of the region which attracts tourists from the different parts of Dhanbad besides, Giridih, Bokaro, neighboring Bengal and other parts of country due to its scenic beauty as it is surrounded by a series of hillocks and dense vegetation but due to administrative neglect it is lying in bad shape.”

“We also take the opportunity to appeal to district administration and civic body Jharkhand Mineral Area Development Authority (JMADA) which is custodian of the lake to install more dustbins all around the lake so that the visitors do not face difficulty in searching the dustbins to dump the garbage,” said Mukherjee.

“We would also appeal for the renovation of the two guest houses including the lake house established during the British Raj era meant for the VIP guest and C-1 guest house for the common visitors, both of which are lying in extremely bad shape due to lack of maintenance and lying unoccupied,” said Panchanan Singh another local youth who is also the treasurer of Topchanchi Helping Hand and participated in the cleanliness drive on Tuesday.

The lake was once during our childhood days was one of the favorite places for filmmakers and several Hindi and Bengali movies were shot in scenic locales of Topchanchi which is also surrounded by a wildlife sanctuary spread over an 8.75 km area.

The lake is also a favourite destination for a large number of migratory birds including Black Cormorant, Pink Duck, Black winged stilt, common Teal, gadwall, brown headed gull, spoonbill, red crested pochard and common Coot.