Picnic spots are not litter zones.

A group of around 20 youths from Jharia’s youth outfit Samadhan, who educate over 2,000 children from underprivileged homes for free, carried out a cleanliness drive at Bhatinda falls of Dhanbad, a prominent picnic spot some 12km from district headquarters, on Thursday.

The three-hour drive began around 11.45am. Samadhan founder Chandan Singh and his group of volunteers, armed with brooms and gunny bags, swept the picnic spot and collected thermocol plates, plastic and liquor bottles, plastic wrappers and leftovers and put them in gunny bags to dump them in dust bins.

The volunteers also requested picnickers on Thursday not to leave garbage lying around, especially nonbiodegradable items like plastic wrappers of potato chips, plastic bottles and thermocol plates, but dump them properly in dustbins only for their proper disposal.

“The drive was a part of our awareness drive to encourage picnickers and New Year revellers to use dustbins properly so that garbage doesn’t mar our tourist spots or spoil their ecosystems,” Singh said.

He said from Bhatinda falls alone, they collected well over 100 thermocol plates and plastic and beer bottles each.

He added that Samadhan periodically organises such cleanliness awareness drives at various places of the district, especially after festivals like Chhath.

“We held a similar cleanliness drive at the Singh Nagar Talab of Jharia on November 7 after Chhath during which we cleaned puja leftovers lying on the banks of the pond,” Singh said.

People appreciated Samadhan’s efforts. R.K. Singh, a resident of Baghmara came to Bhatinda falls with his friends on Thursday, said watching the volunteers clean up the place made him realise that people use scenic spots for enjoyment without a care, leaving a lot of mess behind.

“That’s irresponsible behaviour. The clean-up work by Samadhan volunteers was an eye-opener for me and the 5,000 others who had gathered at the picnic spot,” Singh said.