Civil society organisations and intellectuals have joined hands to save the dying Harmu river, one of the main tributaries of Subernarekha.

NGO Vikas Bharti kicked off the Harmu Nadi Bachao Abhiyan (Save Harmu River Campaign) from its office premises in Ranchi on Thursday. Social activists and intellectuals turned up in huge numbers to throw their weight behind the movement and vowed to make the river, which criss-crosses the city, encroachment-free.

Lalan Kumar Sharma, who had filed a PIL at Jharkhand High Court in 2010, drawing its attention to the plight of the rivulet choked by illegal settlements and garbage, said: “Though the matter is sub-judice, efforts should be made from our side to clean Harmu.”

State representative of NCPCR Ganesh Reddy said that collective efforts could alone save the river.

Notably, the state pollution control board had informed the high court in December 2012 that there was no encroachment at the source of Harmu. The board, in an affidavit, had said a field inspection revealed that there was a mining unit at Simlia, 100m away from the river’s source and its operations were legal.