Two Sisters Remove 80,000 Kg of Plastic in Jharkhand

Anjali and Ruchi Neeraj couldn't stand watching their beloved picnic spot disappear under mountains of plastic bottles and wrappers.

In 2023, the two sisters founded the Vasudha Kalyan United Foundation in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, and started organizing community cleanup drives every Sunday. What began as a few locals with trash bags has grown into one of India's most sustained citizen-led environmental campaigns.

The numbers tell part of the story. By mid-2025, volunteers had removed 50,000 kg of plastic waste from water bodies around the city. Today, that figure has climbed past 80,000 kg, spanning cleanup operations at rivers, lakes, ponds, and waterfalls throughout Jharkhand state.

Their method is refreshingly simple: invite neighbors, bring tools, haul out the trash, and show people exactly how much garbage had been hiding in places they thought of as pristine. Every Sunday, volunteers gather at a different site to tackle the problem head-on.

Recent drives have targeted some of Jharkhand's most popular tourist destinations. Tamasin Waterfall, with its tiered cascade through forest, and Tilaiya Dam, a favorite weekend getaway spot, both attract thousands of visitors who often leave their trash behind.

The Ripple Effect

The sisters know that cleaning a lake on Sunday doesn't stop people from littering the following weekend. That's why they've built a second track into their work: education and awareness.

Anjali and Ruchi now visit schools and set up conversations at village gatherings where littering happens most. They talk to picnickers before the trash hits the ground, not after. The goal is to shift what people believe about shared spaces and whose job it is to protect them.

India banned certain single-use plastics in July 2022, but the country still generated over 4 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2022-23. Rules create frameworks, but the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board acknowledges that real change requires coordinated effort from communities, not just enforcement.

That's exactly the gap these sisters decided to fill. Every bottle pulled from a riverbank, every wrapper removed from a waterfall, represents someone's careless choice and two women's determination that their home deserves better.

The cleanup drives continue every week. The awareness sessions keep expanding. And water bodies that have been cleared once will need clearing again, because the sisters understand something crucial: real change isn't about one big cleanup, it's about showing up consistently until enough people decide to stop making the mess in the first place.