Jamshedpur, Nov. 8: Visitors to Tata Steel Zoological Park in the city got a crash course in civic sense and hygiene from some underprivileged children, who traded pens for brooms for the day.

A group of 30, all children of daily wage-earners hailing from Circuit House, Northern Town and Bistupur and students of Prem Jyoti Prangan, a Hindi medium school functioning from the premises JRD Tata Sports Complex, went to the country's lone private zoo not to admire the animals and birds, but to clear trash left behind by visitors.

Armed with 20 brooms and 10 buckets, the students got their hands and feet dirty to clean a 100-metre stretch near Nature's Trail leading from the leopard's cage to the ostrich's enclosure as part of a cleanliness campaign initiated by Lions Club of Jamshedpur, Tatanagar. The boys and girls in uniform removed solid waste, plastic, papers, food leftover and other litters from the stretch during the two-hour drive starting from 9.30am.

Functionary of Lions Club of Jamshedpur and Tata Steel senior manager (society) Rajnish Kumar, principal of Prem Jyoti Prangan Sushma Rani Lenka and school managing committee members were present.

'Visitors at the zoo enjoy the natural flora and fauna and see exotic animals and birds but while leaving, they forget to abide by simple cleanliness rules. Instead of throwing leftovers and waste in vats and dustbins, they litter them everywhere. We can only hope that they learn about civic discipline from these children,' said Kumar, also a member of the zoo managing committee.

According to principal Lenka, the participating students willingly joined the drive.

'We floated the idea and these 30 students from Classes VII and VIII readily agreed to help. As the school remains closed on second and fourth Saturdays, their studies were not hampered in any way,' Lenka said.

The students themselves took away some lessons home.

' Pehle pehle thoda sharam laga, par baad mein achha laga. Jagah saaf hone se wahan par ghoomne ka alag maza aata hain. Hum log apne doston ko bhi kachda yahan wahan phekne se mana karenge (Initially I was a bit embarrassed, but later started feeling happy. The pleasure of touring the zoo doubles if the place is neat and tidy. We will also tell our friends not to litter the zoo premises,' said 13-year-old Sinu Kisku, a student of Class VII.

Classmate Kavita Mahanand said she was ready to take part in more such cleanliness campaigns.

Lenka said they had accepted the Lions Club's proposal to carry out similar cleanliness campaigns at the zoo every month. 'Apart from the zoo, we will also wield the broom for other public places,' the principal added.

According to Tata zoo director Bipul Chakraborty, the stretch that was cleaned today was accountable for 5-6kg of solid waste daily.

The entire zoo (37 hectares) area, which witnesses a daily footfall of 1,000-1,500 on an average, generates around 300kg of solid waste per day.