Expired medicines found on lake bund on World Earth Day

Coimbatore: A group of environmental volunteers, who had gone to clean Muthannan Kulam in the city on Sunday — World Earth Day — found expired medicines and medicine packets dumped on the lake bund.
Volunteers of the Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI) said they found hundreds of torn medicine cartons on the bund. “When we cleared them, we found pills lying below,” chief co-ordinator of EFI Sanjay Prasad said.“There was also a large garbage bag containing medicine bills. Those who had dumped them had deliberately torn the firm’s name off the bills,” he said.
During their weekly lake cleaning drives, the group frequently encounter hospital and medical waste, Prasad told TOI.
Not only in lakes, medical waste turn up in forests too. “Once, when we went to clean Madukkarai forest range, we found used syringes and needles dumped there. They pose serious threat to wild animals, especially elephants. If they step on a needle, they wont’ be able to remove it themselves,” he said.
Muthannan Kulam has also turned into a dumping ground for dried garlands from temples, Prasad said. “People throw dried garlands tied up in plastic bags. Birds in the lake try to eat the bags and get entangled in them. Last month, we found a spot-billed duck that had died trapped in a plastic bag,” he said.
While the city lakes present a visual treat from afar, environmentalists say only when you get on the ground you get to know the kind of waste dumped on the lake bunds. Two weeks ago, another group of environmental workers, who had gone to clean Valankulam, had found an empty coffin in it.