PlogRaj keeps our city clean and we need more of them
March 29th, 2020 | G Nagaraj
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Loved the Garden city
I, G Nagaraj fondly called as Raj /Plograj across the family and friends- is more of a human catalyst who connects green-dots.
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Bangalore – A town where most of my summary holidays were spent during my childhood days as it's my mom’s Home Town. Gandhi Bazaar – A place where every summer holiday of us was engaged for fun.
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Activities that I love to do – Being a Nelipot – Love barefoot Running and do it often
Passionate about – Mother Nature as mentioned.
I started getting into cleanups around 5+ years back unknowingly/unexpectedly when I saw a group of people coloring the walls of a subway. I later came to know that group as The Ugly Indian
Eco-warriors working all along
Say trees – An NGO that is actively/professionally involved in tree plantations – became a regular /core team member in ensuring regular plantations/maintenance drives
Later joined Groups like LBTC/YFP as and volunteer as and when I could.
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Robinhood Army – A zero funded voluntary group – love being part of it. as a regular robin ensure food drives/academics at Jayanagar/JP Nagar cluster… Basically ensure the left-out food that we eat to get it served for the needy on the same day before it becomes stale.
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Plogging – Well this is something which I am in great love. It struck me about 10 years back when I was working for Coca-Cola. We went to a nature camp @ chicmagalur for celebration/party. A lot of plastic bottles were there and since we never carried any garbage bag, we kind of left it just like that and then was I throwing something inside me stopped me…yes, not to litter. Probably that was the first instance wherein I walked and picked up bottles and guess kept them in a dust bin at a resort.
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Later when I started getting into clean-ups this inspired me often to do a cleanup during runs. So silently I used to pick a few bottles enroute and put them in the bins. I was not carrying any gloves/bag as such. I just used to pick up some plastic waste and put them in the nearby bins…
Plogging has become habit
I Later took up plog challenges, started involving the neighborhood/family/friends for cleanups in our vicinity. In the last 2 years, the concept of Plogging has grown tremendously as it's in sync with FIT India Movement & Swachh Bharath. Plogging involves burning calories & in the process cleaning up the streets which we use often.
Now it has become a habit. rather an OCD which I am ok with 😉
Off late I have been involving robins /running groups for cleanups during food drives/academics. Even the corporate companies are coming forward to spend their weekends for Plogging Afterall cleanliness is next to godliness…
To ensure that keen/like-minded citizens don’t miss out green activities have started a Facebook page/WhatsApp group to update on events happening across the city on weekends. The events include Plog, Cleanups, waste management, tree plantation, etc. The updates are easily accessible on our FB page – Bengaluru Green Event Calendar
Determination & Passion towards our mission
#BYOCSelfie - A concept started by fellow eco-warriors – I have been part of their team in ensuring awareness creation in the neighborhood & fellow citizens. In fact in Nov2018 we a running group with 30+ members did a 2 days trip with 0 disposables from Bengaluru to Coorg and also plogged for 21+kms amidst the forest trails of Coorg and later another 23km Plog in Nice road (Hoskerehalli)
Most important of all, I have taken a conscious call in naming my kid as “ Avni “ – which means Earth. She is 6 years young by December and she is an active eco-nut as well. She joins me for the cleanups/plog does video bytes to create awareness on eco-friendly habits…
“Success is Sweet, but its secret is Sweat “. Let’s sweat it out and burn our calories/egos for a better neighborhood in short term and Nation in a broad perspective
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Our efforts have been appreciated across all the relevant platforms _ Print & Visual Media
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Our Vision for 2025 – HCGN – Healthy, Clean, Green, Neighborhood (Nation). Executing it in small possible ways as often as I can in the neighborhood & then expanding across the nation ( we have ploggers from several other countries too who keep giving us plog updates )!
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Kudos to all such eco-warriors across the globe working for Mother Earth!
The author of the story is Raj, aka Plograj and you can reach out to them here
InwasteR is only a platform to share WaStory and the views and experience are purely of the author.