End the year on eco-friendly note

If you're still unsure of how to spend your New-Year's weekend, Matheran offers an attractive solution. Nature trails and a 10 km run have been organised by Ecofolks to celebrate the 10th International Mountains Day on December 30. Nikhil Ghanekar reports.

If you're still unsure of how to spend your New-Year's weekend, Matheran offers an attractive solution. Nature trails and a 10 km run have been organised by Ecofolks, a non-profit organisation to celebrate the 10th International Mountains Day on December 30.

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The 10km run or Mathe-run as the organisers have called it, will start from Dasturi Naka and end at Pande Ground in Matheran. This and the nature trail have been are organised in collaboration with Maharashtra Nature Park Society (MNPS) and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB).

Besides the 10km run, environmentalists, members of the Matheran eco-sensitive zone monitoring committee, president of the local municipal council and other stakeholders would address issues threatening the fragile ecology of the hill station.

"Matheran's eco-sensitive ecology faces a lot of pressure from the tourists. A lot of tourists also don't understand the restrictions put in place to protect the local ecology. Through the idea of man and mountain meet, we want to highlight these issues said," Paresh Pimpale, founder, Ecofolks.

During the event, National Social Service volunteers will collect base-line data on the solid waste generated in the hill-station by conducting a door-to-door survey.

MNPS director Avinash Kubal said, that stakeholders need to play a proactive role to curb ecological damages, "Solid waste and the death of trees due to horse dung and their urine is a big issue right now. Since the trees here are not deep rooted, the poisonous mixture of horse dung and their urine is killing several trees at Dasturi Naka," said Kubal.

The event also features a competition to log biodiversity of the hill-station and photo-walk to capture the beauty of the hill-station.