Rachel, a 21-year-old Belgian tourist, is lending a helping hand in cleaning up Chadwick Falls located near Summerhill, 7km from here. The tourist hotspot which once bewitched visitors with its beauty has now been reduced to a virtual dump.

A cleanliness drive was initiated by Rachel under the aegis of a local organization, Ashadeep, on Wednesday along with students and teachers of government senior secondary schools at Boileauganj and Summerhill. Rachel, who is a student of social work in Belgium and has been working for old age homes, said, "The place has dense woods and is beautiful but filth and garbage including wrappers of eatables, besides plastic and liquor bottles are destroying its beauty. Visitors and citizens can play a role to make the place more attractive." Rachel, who has been visiting Shimla earlier, was pained to see the beautiful place being ravaged. 

Sushil Tanwar, the president of Ashadeep, who is wheelchair-bound said, "I met Rachel through a common friend and when she shared her desire to carry out a cleanliness drive, we put together a team for this initiative."

He added that that their organization would carry out such cleanliness drives at other places of tourist interest in Shimla. Rachel has now become a goodwill ambassador for the organization and would promote such campaigns in other places in the hill town.

TOI