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Clean up: Volunteers clean the forest and gather the waste</td></tr></tbody></table>Volunteers tire of waiting for the authorities to fine forest litterbugs About 200 nature lovers decided to protest against litterbugs in a unique way. They now guide visitors to Suvarnamukhi forest near Bannerghatta and plan treks, free of cost. The tours began last Saturday with a clean-up of the forest area. "This is our protest," said Manjunath, a resident in Bannerghatta. "Instead of pressing authorities to fine visitors who dump garbage, we help visitors get up close with nature through free guided tours in the forest and urge them not to litter," he said. Suvarnamukhi Kalyani forest area sees the most number of visitors, and is the most littered. Lot of traffic The volunteers were tired of waiting for the forest authorities to take action against litterbugs and decided to do something on their own. "The number of visitors to this place has gone up 10 times compared to last year," said Vivek S, another volunteer. "So has the amount of plastic and other waste. We cleaned the whole stretch and will continue doing so in the days ahead." "The plastic waste is very dangerous for wild animals within the forest as we have had deer killed due to plastic," added Manjunath. "This holds true for many birds and animals like the hyena, wild dogs, black bucks and deer. Heaps of waste will also affect the environment here." The volunteers have put up signboards and placed waste bins in the forest and will conduct tours and clean-ups with the help of experts and forest officials. Promise of help "We are happy that people have volunteered for a cause," said Vanashree, DCF (Deputy Conservator of forest) Bannerghatta National Park. "We will certainly help them in carrying out their initiative." Besides the Suvarnamukhi forest area, the group also plans to include other parts of Bannerghatta forest.

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Volunteers tire of waiting for the authorities to fine forest litterbugs

Protest with a guided tour

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Protest with a guided tour

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