Hundreds of young and old eco-activists turned up at the Yamuna ghats in this Taj city on Sunday morning to pick up trash, mostly polythene bags, to mark the start of World Water Week March 18-25.

Programme coordinator Shravan Kumar Singh said: "UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is known for his love for environmental and nature conservation programme. Through our clean up exercise today (Sunday) we have sent out a strong message - that we want the cleaning up of Yamuna to be taken up at the earliest and on war-footing."