Ever since we were a kid, our parents and our culture told us that there is nothing in the world which can be compared with the vast face of nature. We are blessed to be born and raised in a country like India which has multiple geographical faces: The snow clad mountains in the North, the desert in the west, the coast line in the south and west, the hilly and lush green slopes in the north east, the Deccan plateau and the beautiful ocean surrounding our islands.
Though blessed with lots of such natural beauty, flora and fauna, we started damaging the natural ecosystem for our own greed and personal benefits. We started polluting our environment and caused irreparable harm to the environment.
GCC is not only a club for cyclists but also for people who care about nature and environment. We used to take up activities like tree plantation rides and awareness rides. This time we tried something different. During the COVID-19 Lockdown all of us were locked at home and we had lots of time to sit and contemplate about the things which needed to be done. We cleaned our homes properly and disposed all the waste and useless materials in a proper manner. This surely gave us a lesson that even though things appear to be good, there’s a lot of unwanted & undisposed waste that we have at our places. Also don’t you think we need to do that in our surroundings too?
Whenever we come across or pass by a place where there is lot of dirt, non-recyclable material we just say that the municipal body isn’t doing its job and make a fuss and just pass and forget about it the next day. Right? But is that a thing we really need to ignore and pass by? I guess no.. Definitely Not. एक हाथ से ताली नहीं बजती है| It is not only the Municipal Corporation’s duty to do the cleaning but ours too. Nature and surrounding is our home too! Just like Gary Snyder says, “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home”.
So today on 14th March, riders at GCC organized our 1st ever ‘Plogging’ ride. Now ‘Plogging’ basically is a combination of 2 words: Jogging and the Swedish word ‘Plocka upp’ a phrase used in Sweden for picking up something. It was started by Erik Ahlström in 2016. Since then the activity is carried out World over. Even before the term was coined, such clean up drives did exist! The idea behind plogging event was to pick up trash while jogging or brisk walking as a way to clean up the litter and take care of our health.
Dhawal Bhai, Vinit Bhai and Navin Bhai (the trio) took the initiative and organized the plan. We selected a location where we generally used to go for rides i.e. Bhandup Pumping Station on EEH. Dhawal bhai clicked the photos and suggested this location and everyone unanimously agreed to it. They arranged for the gloves and sack bags needed to collect the litter. We had many riders participating in the event the youngest one being 4 years old! The trio had participated in such an event previously organized by Afroz Shah and they were a part of the Versova Beach Clean Up program.
Riders assembled at EEH depot junction and rode to the destined location on EEH. We were joined by few riders from Mulund riders, one of the largest cycling clubs in the country. After a basic survey of the area, we divided ourselves in to teams of 2 and started collecting non-recyclable waste and recyclable waste. We found lots of plastic bags, plastic plates and cartons, glass bottles, a sofa! While cleaning we realized it takes just 10 seconds to throw your waste into such places but it takes time to gather and sort these waste according to the type.
Apart from our organizers (the trio), we had many riders who came forward and volunteered in this program. Kush (our youngest rider), Kevin, Anisha Aunty (MR), Amit bhai, Ashray, Shubham, Rahul bhai, Nihar, Rhea, Navin bhai (Kothari), Prachet bhai, Manthan bhai, Sejal didi, Shilpa didi, Tirth, Manan, Nigam bhai.
Rahul bhai, our captain, coordinated with BMC and got the segregated waste collected in a proper manner.
(twitter post: https://twitter.com/RahulVala90/status/1370972847238049792?s=08 Would be glad if you could retweet this! Also please tag yourself
It was a wonderful experience and I believe that everyone who volunteered enjoyed the cleaning and had a good time.
Let’s try and practice to dispose the waste and plastic only at the places where it is supposed to be dumped i.e. the dustbins and not litter the surroundings.
This is an appreciation post not only for the riders who volunteered today but to millions of people around the globe who are plogging.
Kudos to all!
Also Kudos to our riders at GCC who didn’t join us physically for the clean-up but supported us in spirit for this program.
Let’s take a step towards cleaner environment and better health also let’s take a step towards cleaning the waste and pollution from within!
Waiting for more such awakening rides!
-XOXO
Quiet.
(Shivang)
Links:
Youtube Vlog: https://youtu.be/HO5FgrD0uCc
Facebook Post: facebook.com/groups/ghatkoparcyclistsclub/1650348811815885/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RahulVala90/status/1370927883493855233?s=08
https://twitter.com/RahulVala90/status/1370972847238049792?s=08
