PLANT TREES, SAVE NATURE July 28 is observed as ‘World Nature Conservation Day’. Nature. A word that we all can resonate with. Yet, only a few of us really give a thought to it. Nature. If we feel it, it has the power to heal us.  Nature. It is what a lot of people look to capture those picturesque shots for Instagram. Nature. It is also referred to as mother but we seldom treat it like one. Nature. Human activities have meddled with it and it is unleashing its fury. Nature. If we do our bit towards it, it will reward us. This year’s World Nature Conservation Day happens to be on a Sunday. Weekends are loved by most people because it gives them a break from their work or studies. But for We Mean To Clean (WMTC) volunteers, the excitement is for a slightly different reason. WMTC volunteers are always excited to do their bit for the environment on weekends. These volunteers truly appreciate all that mother nature has endowed upon us. It is human nature...

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! Climate change: I am inevitable. And we are We Mean To Clean. When Thanos snapped his fingers, half of the universe was destroyed. But what’s coming now is even more dangerous which can destroy this complete world of ours. It's even more dangerous because it's not fiction. It's real! The inevitable climate change. This Sunday morning, a bunch of real life avengers assembled like every other Sunday to fight against that real threat on our world. Our infinity stones are the native tree saplings of amaltas which we planted last monsoon. And to use them as one of the unrivalled weapons against climate change and pollution, it is the responsibility of every avenger to nurture these saplings properly and regularly. For the very purpose, this fervent group of people gathered at Sainik Vihar District park to water over 150 amaltas saplings to ensure their proper growth and survival. And this time a lot of new volunteers joined us in this ...

One of our volunteers attended the IPL match held between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals at the Ferozshah Kotla stadium in New Delhi last Saturday. After the match was over and Delhi fans were elated with their team’s win, this volunteer looked around was left slightly disappointed. He observed that while the fans had gone most of them had left behind the banners and flags that they had brought for cheering the teams. Lots of people had thrown empty chips packets and cold drinks glasses around the stands rather than in the dustbins. Being a good samaritan, our volunteer picked up all the flags and banners and piled them up on the stadium chairs. He also collected all the garbage and put it in a bag. This was a very humble but a very significant effort on his part. Ideally, all the fans who went for this IPL spectacle should have made a little effort to throw used and empty packets etc. in the dustbin. At the FIFA World Cup held last year in Russia, fans from Ja...

🌳 100 AMALTAS SAPLINGS PLANTED!!! 🌳 We are pleased to share that with the help of around 50+ volunteers - including kids from the nearby areas, college students and working adults - we have hit yet another century today. 🌳 We planted 100 amaltas saplings within a matter of two hours, although there was some interruption due to rains. 🌳 We have focused only on amaltas in this park because this area is frequented by goats. Goats don't feed on amaltas. 🌳 We could have planted more saplings but we were out of the scope of pits here. Our volunteers will visit the park mid-week and try to seek the DDA's assistance in removing weeds. Post that we'll see if we can plant any more saplings here. 🌳 Our total saplings count this monsoon season has hit 500! Yes, if you've been following our page, we had planted total 370 till last week, today's 100 and there's another set of ~30 saplings reported by other set of volunteers that they planted.

🌳 200 NATIVE SAPLINGS PLANTED!!! 🌳 Over 50 highly enthusiastic volunteers gathered this morning at Sainik Vihar district park for our weekly monsoon plantation drive. 🌳 We began with a significant talk about the importance of native trees for our ecology. In no time kids from around the area also joined us. 🌳 The kids were especially happy to plant the saplings. These highly energetic kids, along with our volunteers, planted 200 saplings of Amaltas in a matter of only two hours. 🌳 We selectively planted Amaltas here as goats frequent this park - goats do not eat Amaltas. 🌳 A team of volunteers and kids also did cleaning of the park area where we did plantation. 🌳 We concluded with an informative session on the importance of bringing back our native trees. 🌳200 Amaltas here... Sainik Vihar is going to be AMALTAS VIHAR! 🌳🌳🌳

🌳 120+ NATIVE TREE SAPLINGS PLANTED on SUNDAY! 🌳 It was possible only because of the hard efforts of our volunteers that we were able to plant 120+ tree saplings such as Peepal, Goolar, Arjun, Marodphali, Neem, Pilkhan, Amaltas, Imli, Amla, Papdi, Jamun, Kachnar, Mehndi and Shehtoot. 🌳 Our volunteers also fixed a young fallen Peepal tree by giving it support. 🌳 This season we'll plant a wide variety of saplings to aid biodiversity. It'll not only help in reducing air pollution effectively but will also help in improving our ecology. 🌳🌳🌳

Prasad Nagar lake has struck with certain government machinery-related challenges. Here's a video we shared live on our Facebook page describing the turn of events so far and how things stand:

🌳 50+ NATIVE TREE SAPLINGS PLANTED! 🌳 Thanks to our volunteers and locals. We've planted 50+ native tree saplings such as peepal, bargad, goolar, arjun, marodphali, neem, pilkhan and jamun. 🌳 This season we'll plant a wide variety of saplings to aid biodiversity. It'll not only help in reducing air pollution effectively but will also help in improving our ecology. 🌳🌳🌳

LET'S PLANT MORE TREES! Even as Delhi protests against the felling of 16,500+ trees in south Delhi, a couple of our volunteers have kicked off our plantation as we stare at the monsoon in coming few days. As usual, we are going to plant ONLY NATIVE INDIAN TREES such as peepal, neem, amaltas, banyan etc. and not ORNAMENTAL PALMS used by GOVERNMENT AGENCIES in their FAKE COMPENSATORY AFFORESTATION! We will start scheduling proper plantation drives on this with coming weekend. We will keep you posted with further details.

80+ SAPLINGS PLANTED! Today's updates: 1. The contractor finally began the desilting of lake but a couple of unfortunate incidents happened. A DJB pipeline broke and the water leaked into the lake, raising the water level. Things became difficult for the contractor as their machine partially submerged in water. 2. We are trying to get the DJP pipeline fixed at the earliest. We've also deployed a motor to pump out water. This water is being used to irrigate the surrounding garden. We had a buy-in of the DDA's horticulture department in this. 3. We also have the support of Mrs. Veena Virmani ji, Chairperson or North DMC, who is helping us by pushing this through with the government officials. 4. Apart from this, we also planted about 80+ bougainvillea saplings around the lake. These saplings will grow into a beautiful bush and will help in biodiversity of this area. It'll help attract butterflies and birds. We used lake water to irrig...

Firstly, we are glad to share that DDA has recently formalised the contract for desilting of this lake. The contractor has begun the work. Now that the lake has dried up at an optimal level to begin work the contractor will utilize the machine to clear the lake of all the silt and rubbish. Following picture shows the state of the lake as on 10-Jun-18: Our team will also supplement their efforts by actually getting inside the lake and clearing the waste. As you may have observed in the above pictures, a lot of this waste comprises of clay utensils thrown into the lake by some people during Chath Pooja. Our team is going to clear this waste along with any plastic or glass bottles. Further, while we don't believe in forbidding anyone to practice their religious beliefs, we urge everyone to consider the environment while performing any actions. We are also planning to isolate one area of the lake that can be utilised to perform such religious activities. We...

The amount of garbage we collected! Well, it's the ususal story wherever we go. And this is what we do! As a part of our whole effort towards reviving the lake, we are also looking at other important aspects - the surrounding ecosystem. It is important to have a clean environment. Our volunteers engaged in clearing litter from the surrounding garden not only to ensure it is clean but also to create awareness by action that it is our responsibility as citizens to keep our city clean.

We're into the fourth week of Prasad Nagar lake revival. Today, we started with creating awareness about various issues of the lake and how those can be tackled. Great thing is that a lot of locals understand these issues and have come together to help revive the park and the lake. They themselves talked about the importance of protecting the park as they realise how everyone gets benefited from the park and that it is everyone's duty to give back to the park. While they talked about it, a lot more locals gathered to listen. Soon after this, a team of locals put on gloves and started cleaning the periphery of the lake of all kinds of plastics, glass bottles and religious offerings. Another team of volunteers started cleaning the park area collecting plastics and food left by people near trees in different bags. The main highlight of today was the restoration of an old peepal tree. Everyday people, in the name of misplaced faith, put eatables such a...

We met top DDA civil and horticulture officials today to pester them for initiating the lake cleaning process. The contracting of the cleaning is still under process so that is expected to be completed in the coming week. Brijesh Gupta ji, civil, has directed his department officials to pursue the matter aggressively and has also directed them to begin the cleaning of the lake latest by 5-7 June. Once the desilting process starts it can be completed within two weeks. Brijesh Gupta ji is well aware of the monsoon staring at us. So, even he is trying to get this process completed before rains hit Delhi. Gupta ji is also open to look at other options where the lake could be cleaned without even removing water out of it. He has requested a detailed proposal from us with all such options available along with the costing. If any of such methods are economically feasible, they shall also be explored and most possibly implemented. Harswaroop Singh ji, horticulture, has also of...

CONNECTING PEOPLE WITH NATURE! In order to make people feel attached to Prasad Nagar Lake, we involved them in plantation in the lake park today. The gesture was well received and much appreciated by the locals. They pledged to take care of the saplings by watering them. Additionally, the locals also felt more enthusiastic about cleaning of the lake and agreed to cooperate by spreading awareness among the visitors on littering or dropping wheat flour balls in the lake. As for the actual cleaning process, we had a meeting with DDA officials yesterday, along with their contractor. While the contractor is fixated on the idea of removal of silt only when the lake dries up, we believe it's not possible this season. Thus, the DDA officials have sought our proposal on the same - how to clean the lake while it is still full of water. Our experts are drafting a proposal on the same and we are looking to submit the same during this week. However, till th...

A very special day as the whole world celebrates Mother's Day today. Our team attempted to make people give a thought to another mother - the mother of all mothers - MOTHER NATURE! We asked people to display their love and commitment towards mother nature by hugging a tree! Also, as a part of our efforts to revive the lake we politely requested visitors not to put atta for ants around the trees as infestation by insects makes the area hollow and porous leading to a weak support for tree roots. At the worst trees can fall! Mother nature has equipped ants with enough sense to locate their food! We also requested not to keep bajra for pigeons as pigeons' population has disproportionately increased over the past years. And this has created an imbalance in the population of birds in our city. It has also affected sparrows, which are rare now! Mother nature has also equipped pigeons to locate their own food... they don't need us. We also requested not to put...

The morning of 6-May-18 was very special. With a very strong support from our own volunteers, the concerned government officials and also encouraging support from the locals, we kicked off the revival of Prasad Nagar Lake. We also have the company of some relevant experts in the areas of biodiversity and water bodies revival - both by natural means and the utilisation of technology in a way it doesn't disturb the natural vibes of the place. Our experts team is currently chalking out the entire strategy to outline a proper methodical approach on the cleaning of this lake. Meanwhile, our other set of volunteers shall be creating awareness among the visitors of this lake. Please join us! We need a lot of support for this!