Bengaluru: For the second consecutive year, citizens of Bengaluru woke up on October 2 to spread awareness about Mahatma Gandhi's teachings and take it a step further by implementing some of them. Taking part in a country-wide ‘Plog Run’, hundreds took to the streets on Wednesday morning collecting waste strewn across the city’s roads.
Plogging comes from the Swedish term “plokka upp” which roughly translates to picking plastic while jogging. The relatively new 'sport' has rose in popularity with the growing awareness of plastic pollution.
On Wednesday, joggers in Bengaluru went around with the message "IamLessPlastic" and "Go Native". The event was organised by United Way with the support of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and other NGOs.
The event was also part of the civic body’s ongoing drive against the menace of single-use plastic. Starting September 1, the civic body has increased the fine of solid waste management violators by five times and collected as much as Rs 1,46,300 in the first week alone.
The BBMP’s campaign against PoP (Plaster of Paris) resulted in only two per cent of Ganesha idols being made of PoP this year.
On Gandhi Jayanti last year, the ‘Plog Run’ had witnessed more than 7,000 joggers across 50 localities collecting more than 33 tonnes of plastic waste from Bengaluru alone. This year, more than 50 cities across the country took part in campaign.
In south Bengaluru’s Jayanagar area, about 200 participants set out to collect trash as early as 7am. Within an hour, the group, comprising men and women of all ages, collected more than 500 kg of waste.
"I am here to clear plastic waste because it is not good four our earth, for our Bengaluru," said eight-year-old AK Pukalarasan. "When they told me about the event, I decided to take part in it because I need to give something back to our country, our city. Everybody should come forward. Only then can we make our country better than any others," said an 81-year-old volunteer.
“We celebrated Gandhi Jayanti with such a great activity. We feel so happy. It's like we are following Gandhiji's steps," said Amsha, a student from RV College of Engineering.
"It's a personal responsibility to ensure that their surroundings are clean and they shouldn’t keep waiting for someone else to pick up the litter. Even the tiniest thing like chocolate wrappers add to that," said another.
The volunteers pledged to remove plastic from their lives emphasising on the need to use cloth or paper bags. "Although people are aware of the harms of using plastic, more needs to be done to completely eradicate the usage of plastic,” said Usha Kiran, a resident.
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