Today we headed to
Verna region, which has famous plateaus that hold the rain water like a big
chunk of sponge, has beautiful lakes, life giving springs, lush fields and
beautiful countryside! The Idea was to pay our respect to the spring, a gift
from god, by cleaning up the non bio-degradable litter left as a very sad
reminder and a sign of (un)civilisation by of our own brethren, who forget to
treat mother (earth) as mother and have made this beautiful place into one of
the most dangerous places to be at! One had to be there to believe it!! Come
on, there are no or hardly any outside tourists visiting this place!
Have a look at this
picture & calendar perfect photo of the same place! On the surface, it
looks like any of the thousands of such water bodies, that spring up every
rainy season in Goa!
However, be ready for
an incredible shocker, when you get closer! The very small path of may be 50 –
70 metre, leading to the spring’s upper region, introduces us to all possible traces
of consumer items, that are available in the market! The worst being though,
the broken beer glass bottles, which had hands of almost each of us bleeding by
the end! But to our utmost dismay, while we were still cleaning, a local guy
threw a beer bottle right in front of us into the gutter next to the parking
lot, where we had made our sorting station! Upon asking why did he do so, there
was the most indifferent reply saying gelem (means got lost, gone), while he looked
other way – totally shameless and unmindful that we picked it up from where he
threw it!
Here we started placing
the sacks that were brought in by our members, one of them (Dr.Sneha Bhagwat)
joining as a welcome new member for us! Then we had the youngest one Avinash
Almeida giving his helping hands, who organised most of the plastic cups
together!
Notice the heap of
plastic bottles....and....
...the mountain of
glass bottles of beer, whiskey & rum!
By the end, we had
three big bags full with the unbroken bottles and had to accommodate the broken
bottles and very small pieces in other 3 medium size bags!
And not to forget its metallic version, all
the beer and soft drinks cans!!
This time, we further
segregated the metal lids separately! So in all, we had the following
segregations:
1) Hard Plastic (bottles, tubes, lids, etc);
2) Soft & Clean
Plastic (carry bags, packaging from bread and other stuff);
3) Glass Bottles
(complete ones);
4) Glass Pieces and broken Bottles;
5) Metal Cans; 6) Metal
Lids;
7) Thermocole (though only few pieces found);
8) Rags, Slippers, Shoes
and all other Dirtied Plastic Bags, Wrappers, Packaging and Napkins &
Separately Paper, which we left to bio-degrade!
And of course we were rightly honoured by some
passersby as rag pickers, which we felt proud of, instead of being called a Trash
Spreader (like most of them, visiting the place with lots of picnic stuff)! It
is a great feeling to spend
a few moments in this profession, to know how they (rag pickers) make their
both ends meet by indulging into this every day and month of year, making our
place more liveable, despite being despised at by the public!
We tried to wash some
of the dirty cups already in the water so that it is easier and less energy
consuming for the recycling process!
While we were only half
way through, sudden appearance of Bianca Dias, Kapil Satarkar and Nigel Dias
was a shot in the arm for us!! It really accelerated the sorting process and
also while some of us were in two minds if to still continue bringing more of
waste (almost sounding endless), the additional hands did help us fetch more
and also some more bags were organised by them!
Come on guys & gals, buffet is laid nicely, attack! This
is lunch time after hard (half) day’s work!!
Emma deeply engrossed
in sorting the plastic bottles & cups (hidden behind the heap of glass
bottles)! While Mrs. Sukhtankar looks on...
After which....comes
the time of two lost sisters meeting after a decade? No!!
This is the ceremony of
crushing the plastic bottles – optimising the accommodation in least possible
space!!!
And below is our proud
smile and faces oozing with sense of great satisfaction for having cleared the place
to a great possible extent for the safety and pleasure of enjoying the beauty
for oncoming visitors, ladies & children.....!
Just
that the great apathy from the passersby is tooquite disappointing, who we made
earnest requests to bring back the bottles and other innumerable stuff they
were carrying to the spring! Also the couple of restaurants next to parking,
showed no interest or acknowledgement whatsoever towards the small work
accomplished by us! They are one big source of this litter, but they are least
concerned! It should rather be taken care of by either government or ragpickers
like us! If each one takes their picnic trash back and disposes it off in a
proper way there will be no need for us to clean such places. They all just
looked down at us, this being NOT THEIR BUSINESS, but their business continued
as usual! Only thing we expect as outcome that more people get inspired and
more conscious towards responsibilities! Start doing your bit (no matter how
small) towards mother earth and making Goa a better place.
Here is our Selfie
Expert Samrat Kataktalware, Avinash Almeida, Dr.Sneha Bhagwat, Mrs.Sukhtankar,
Emma Costa, Andrea Fernandes, Prashant Maurya, Bianca Dias, Kapil Satarkar and
Nigel Dias – Oops, he is clicking the photo! Find him in the next one!
DUS KA DUM!!! Indeed ten of us!
We did place a few
handmade message boards at visible places, requesting the visitors to give the
place its due respect and not to abuse it! Hope better senses prevail!
In general, people
always complain there are no dustbins at many places taking it as an excuse to
litter (of course one could take the lighter trash back home, as when they
bring it, it is still far heavier)! The irony is, here we saw two very
large concrete bins, which could not even be tampered with by dogs or cows
(very high and heavy), but inside were only 2-3 wrappers and some small amount
of burnt plastic!! What should be in it, was spread all over and around the spring, in the
water, beneath the rocks, in the bushes and under the leaves!!
“The World Is A Dangerous Place Not Only Because Of Those
Who Do Evil, But Equally Because Of Those Who Look On And
Do Nothing”... says Prashant Maurya
Help yourself to maintain Environment clean and green!
Check below for photo report:
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