Priyanka Chopra campaigns for clean Yamuna

Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra on Monday cleaned the Yamuna river here in a symbolic gesture as part of an initiative to create awareness for environmental issues.

Wearing oversized sunglasses and a white kurti, the 29-year-old star picked up a mason's fork and cleaned the floating rubbish from the bank of the Yamuna at the Dussehra ghat, with the iconic Taj Mahal in the backdrop.

The event kickstarted the fourth NDTV Greenathon campaign, of which Priyanka is the brand ambassador.

"This time we began our campaign from Agra because tourist inflow is maximum here. Taj Mahal is on the bank of river Yamuna, which has become a dumping zone of waste materials now. If we do not protect our environment our future will be dark," Priyanka said.

Model-actor Milind Soman and Abhishek Mishra, Minister of State for Protocol, UP, alongwith local environmental organizations and school children joined her in the effort. The whole exercise took about an hour.

Earlier, the actress spent about an hour visiting the Taj Mahal.

Launched in April 2008, the NDTV-Toyota Green campaign is aimed at creating awareness about environmental issues.

As part of this year's drive Soman will run from Delhi to Mumbai, starting on April 19 and ending in Mumbai on May 20, when Greenathon 4 will have its gala annual fund raising telethon.