Kozhikode: The Panamaram river in Wayanad will get a new lease of life with over 250 volunteers from Kozhikode under the banner of ‘Fight for Life’ launching a mission to clean it.
Conducted as part of ‘Clean Wayanad Miss-ion’, ‘Fight for Life’ has been removing the was-te from a 20-km stretch of the river for the last many days. The organisation based in Kozhi-kode has been engaged in beach cleaning, martial arts training and charity activities and has started cleaning the river post-flood in the district.
Mr Sreejithkumar, me-ntor of the organizati-on, told DC that ‘Fight for Life’ had floated the idea of cleaning the entire Wayanad in a single day. Initially, most of the participants oppos-ed it as an Utopian concept. “But when we expl-ained how we had roped in 1000 volunteers for cleaning the Kozhikode city beach in a single day during the stint of N. Prasanth as collector, everybody was convin-ced which resulted in the massive cleaning drive in which 75,000 volunteers participated,” he said. Conside-ring the experience and access to the fishermen community, ‘Fight for Life’ was entrusted with the cleaning of water resources.
Among 600 volunteers, 250 including fishermen from Puthiyappa and Vellayil in Kozhikode, focused on the Panam-aram river as Panamaram was one of the worst- affected towns. “Using four fishing boats and three kayaking boats, we removed sacks of plastic waste from the river challenging the flood waters,” he said and added that the expertise of fishermen helped in completing the task successfully. Volunteers of Jellyfish Kayaking Academy, Spark Chorode, Ameen Rescue also cooperated in the mission.
One of the major tributaries of Kabani, Pana-maram river was filled with a huge quantity of plastic which almost submerged the tiny town. ‘Fight for Life’ has 300 volunteers in Wayanad alone headed by Akbar Ali Khan and Siraj Vythiri. It also distributed relief materials worth around Rs 58 lakh across the affected zones. The volunteers want that the mission should be conducted at least once in a month for some more time.
