Kaushiq Kodithodi began cleaning the Chaliyar after finding garbage in the river during a kayaking trip.
A water sports lover in Kerala is taking his passion to the next level as he is now aiming to spread awareness by initiating a river cleaning drive.
Starting today for the next three days, 44-year-old Kaushiq Kodithodi, along with a 60-member team in 50 kayaks, will clean up the Chaliyar river covering an area of 68 km.
Mr Kodithodi, who works at a software firm in Dubai, opened the Jellyfish Water Sports Club in Kozhikode, his hometown, along with his wife four years ago.
"To start with, we bought a few kayaks and began to train interested people in this sporting event and now we own 50 kayaks. We hold weekly classes besides camps during holidays to enable children to take part," said Mr Kodithodi.
The concept of cleaning rivers arose after finding heaps of garbage in the Chaliyar during one of his kayaking trips.
"We decided to set up a separate entity solely meant for this and we named it the 'Clean Rivers Initiative Trust' and today (Friday) we will begin our clean up of Chaliyar. We will start from Nilambur in Malappuram district and travel 8 kms and in the next two days 30 kms each and it will end when we reach Beypore in Kozhikode district, where the river meets with the Arabian sea," said Mr Kodithodi.
"At the end of our cleaning drive, we expect to collect about 1,000 kgs of waste from the river, which would be sent for recycling," he added.