|
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
 When people his age are busy ‘scrapping’ interesting young things on a popular social networking website, twenty-something Aditya Koppula logs on to the site looking for tree-lovers fighting global warming. However, disappointed with the poor response, he has taken to blogging on the subject. “People are just not interested in environmental issues,’’ he shrugs, a feeling shared by his childhood friends who have now come together to make earth a greener planet.
So, about a fortnight ago this bunch of young students took their first baby steps towards achieving their goal by registering themselves as an NGO, Vridhi, which means growth. And their first initiative in their environmental activist ‘avatar’ was to plant 60 saplings at an institution for street children in Saidabad. “We thought it best represented our cause to fight global warming and one way of doing it is by planting more trees,’’ says group member and IT professional Ashok Sapuru.
But for this group of seven, hugely influenced by Al Gore’s documentary on global warming ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, it was an exercise they had undertaken for the first time. Apart from the documentary it was the rampant chopping of trees in Hyderabad that pushed them to address the issue head on.
But planting 60 saplings was an experience they wouldn’t forget easily, not only because it was their first initiative as an NGO but because of the work involved to execute this seemingly simple task. “We obviously assumed that tree planting wasn’t difficult but it took us over two weeks to plan out the plantation drive we were going to undertake. We consulted experts on which trees to plant and how much space to leave between two saplings,’’ says member D Venkat Kashyap, who is awaiting his Management Aptitude Test results, adding that they were surprised that the space left between saplings depended on their species.
While the site for plantation was decided and permission from the authorities concerned taken, the cleaning of the area, digging of pits and planting of saplings to now watering them was the responsibility the seven to shoulder. But the most back breaking of all these activities was the cleaning of the area. A rocky terrain interspersed with wild bushes had to be cleared for the plantation.
“We cleaned it and then we dug the pits for planting saplings ourselves. We then bought saplings from a nursery,’’ says Kishore Nidra, who is preparing for CAT. The only stumbling block that the group faced was their inability to buy metallic guards for trees. “Priced at Rs 700, we had a choice to either spend on the saplings or on the guards. We chose the former,’’ says Sapuru. Members say that the representation they made to the municipal corporation for guards did not elicit any response. Koppula says that dogs pose a threat to the safety of saplings and need to be protected. The group members are currently taking turns to visit the institution, water the plants and check if they have been mauled yet. “It would be nice if we could get tree guards because the saplings may just get destroyed without them,’’ says Kashyap.
These young boys some of whom have earlier taught street children not just from textbooks but even a few dancing steps, are now keen on learning on all things related to global warming and to make this world a cleaner, greener place. “The TOI conference we attended on Tuesday was a great learning experience,’’ says Koppula even as his friend Venkat Kaushik nods in agreement. The group members say that while they realised that the issues being discussed at the conference were the ones they thrashed over long chats on weekends, the expertise and data they came across at the conference helped them understand the subject better.
But they have ideas of their own as well. “We want to take this movement further,’’ they say, adding that their careers were shaping up only now and they wouldn’t be in Hyderabad for sure. For this reason the group wants to translate the Inconvenient Truth into various regional languages so that more people wake up to the threat of global warming. “Even if we are not around at a later stage, there should be a network of people to take this green movement forward in Hyderabad,’’ they said.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
... Good luck pals 
