L: It took 25 days of picking litter for the forest department to make the authorities notice a German tourist's solitary sanitary campaign in the Pachmarhi forest.

During his 25-day stay in the hill station last month, Joerg Edelmann would trudge to the Bee Falls every day and collect garbage left behind by tourists --mostly Indians.

The forest department has finally issued a directive to keep the hill clean. It is the centre of Satpuda Tiger Reserve too, about 200 km south of here.

While his `craziness' amused some, the 46-yearold German's passion insp- ired many tourists, who even helped him. Abhishek Saboo and his wife, during a recent visit to Bee Falls, were moved to see Edelmann picking garbage. “It was embarrassing to see a foreigner collecting garbage left behind by my countrymen,“ Saboo recalls. Edelmann told Hindustan Times he had left the 600 kg of litter at Bee Falls and informed the Satpura Tiger Reserve authorities about it. But the garbage bags are yet to be removed. “I have instructed the park manage- ment to work closely with civic agencies to ensure a pollution free environment at tourist spots,“ R.S. Negi, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), told HT.