Working Hard & Having Fun at Eco Fiesta 2018
Our region has always witnessed thousands of devotees walking the road year after year to Palani and Sivanmalai. This is to celebrate Thai Poosam, a religious festival observed in many countries around the world. Donation of food and water pours in.
This good faith effort, while fulfilling devotees’ hunger and thirst, also leads to a lot of bad consequences for the environment.
Waste starts piling up, an accumulation that has terrible consequences for agricultural lands along the roads. While urban areas get the (even if imperfect) services of municipal waste pickup crew, rural areas do not have it.
This results in non-biodegradable plastic trash clogging our waterways, being eaten by our cattle, and destroying agricultural lands.
For the very first time, these roadways also saw volunteers devoting a Sunday to clean up public lands this year.
Krishi Janani organized Eco Fiesta 2018, a massive volunteer cleanup effort, in partnership with educational institutions. The entire stretch of the road from Sivanmalai to Dharapuram — with Uthiyur as the staging area in the center — saw our volunteers in action.
Hundreds of youth — students, volunteers recruited over social media, and our family members coerced into volunteering ;) — got together for a few hours on a Sunday morning to pick up trash from 30+ kms stretch of roadways.
We hope that this small effort inspires all of us to become better environmental stewards.
Or, rethink our usage and waste disposal habits at the very least.
