German woman and son clear litter in Rishikesh

RISHIKESH: In the midst of a sea of survivors at the Rishikesh bus terminal, a nine-year-old rushed about with a carton in one hand swiftly picking empty cans, bottles and paper bags. His mother followed him. She too went about quietly collecting the waste lying around. Contributing to the relief exercise the mother and son from Germany are in no rush to catch the first flight to the comfort of their home and have instead stationed themselves here doing whatever is required. But their concern for the environment at the camp strewn with plastic bottles, paper plates, empty cartons brings to the fore the reality that the nation, despite the disaster in the hill state, is yet to learn to respect nature.

So far 35,000 survivors have registered with the administration, SDM Riskhikesh Ramji Saran Sharma told TOI on Wednesday. Rishikesh is the main transit point that evacuees have been brought to the last three days to catch buses, trains and flights from Dehradun. A sense of charity permeates the relief camps around these exit points with much relief work going on. But the environment is getting filthier every passing day. Dustbins are brimming, people are throwing plastic bottles in storm-water drains and the sites are marked by half-eaten eatables while paper plates are littered all over.

It was this scene that 9-year-old Ramo reacted to on Wednesday when he told his mother he wanted to pick up the waste. NGO workers trying to get people to join the garbage removal exercise along with the sanitation staff were only too happy to provide Ramo and his mother with gloves to pitch in. As the mother picked up glasses, Ramo dived under chairs and tables pulling out what he could find. He had no time to talk and only stopped once to ask the NGO worker if the gloves were safe. His mother said her name was Kamala and they'd had been living in different parts of India over the last few years.

The mother and son were in the upper reaches near Gangotri till a few days ago when they came down to Rishikesh. She said that Ramo studies in Rishikesh but will now be going to Europe to be with his grandmother for a while.