Today, June 5th, is – as many of you already know – World Environment Day, and to mark the event, this morning a group of Delhi schoolchildren were initiated into the environmentally friendly practice of plogging.
I’ve blogged before about plogging, and will share some links at the end of this post, including the Swedish backstory, but as a reminder plogging is basically picking up litter when you’re running.
The rendezvous this morning was in front of the “I love Delhi” sign and selfie point in Patel Nagar. The DC came, which was smashing, the lovely folk from Delhi Street Art came, since their sign was being re-inaugurated (someone loved the “love” bit of the sign so much, they whacked it 🙁 ) but the stars of the morning were undoubtedly a bunch of little school children, who were introduced to the whole notion of keeping fit while keeping the planet clean.
Ripu Daman Bevli, a dear friend and my super supportive running partner, has been plogging for years and is credited with introducing the concept to India. Ripu is indefatigable in his desire to see our streets free of litter, and he travels the country advocating a clean, litter-free, sustainable way of life.
One of the ways he encourages people to go out and pick up trash is by explaining how bending down and picking up trash, how hauling a bag of rubbish, can be part of a workout. He calls it his #trashtalk 🙂
And so this morning, under a brutal summer sun, with curious bystanders watching, we inaugurated both a sign and (fingers crossed) a lifestyle change.
A feel good session, cleaning up a little of the city, and hoping that the seeds of change have been planted in the minds of the children.
Those of you who follow me on Instagram will know that I “plog” my local park every time I go there. And sadly, there is always trash to be picked up. So we really need change to happen, both mindset and habits, and who better than youngsters to be that change?
As I mentioned earlier, here are a few of the blog posts I’ve written about plogging.
Let’s protect our world, folks.