DHARAMSHALA, April 23: Dharamshala, the exile home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetans, observed the World Environment Day with rallies, mass cleanliness drives, and launch of new programmes to maintain cleanliness in the region Sunday.

The Clean Upper Dharamshala Programme, under the aegis of the local Tibetan Settlement Office, held a series of events to raise environmental awareness and fight pollution in and around Dharamshala.

The programmes stressed on the importance of having a clean environment and proper disposal of waste.

A mass clean-up drive was held in the upper Dharamshala area. More than 200 children of the Upper Tibetan Children’s Village School took part in the drive, picking up rubbish and cleaning the areas around the scenic Dal Lake.

Local school students, Tibetans and foreigners carried out an Environment Rally in the streets of McLeod Ganj with banners and posters reading “Save Environment, Save Lives.”

The marchers also raised their voice against the illegal dumping and burning of waste around McLeod Ganj area.

In the Norbulingka Tibetan residential areas, around 10 kms from Dharamshala, a new Waste Management Project was launched. Hundreds of Tibetans, Indians and foreigners undertook a mass cleanliness drive and a team of workers installed dustbins.

CUDP in a release said that with the beginning of waste management in Norbulingka, permanent workers have been hired to maintain cleanliness and run the waste management system.

“Also in the future the CUDP will supply and build waste segregation and composting centres in Norbulingka to ensure the Waste Management Project remains fully effective,” the release said.

Earth Day - April 22 - marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life in a movement towards a better, cleaner and sustainable earth.

In the 1990s the Earth Day went global, mobilising 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.