Clean And Green

Clean Up Trip With Hewlett Packard

2010-05-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

Clean and Green – Trip to Clean

Date: 17 Apr 2010

Place: Muththathi [Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary]

Number of Volunteers that participated: 45 + 3 + 2 = 50

Trip Report:
Hewlett Packard India., Bangalore, as part of the Sustainability Networks Chapter in India have been involved in Environmental projects. Further progressing their involvement set off on a Clean up drive of a picnic spot in the Wildlife Sanctuary of Karnataka. Supported by volunteers from Clean and Green [Archisman Panigrahi, Jayashree Srinivasan, Rakesh Chandra, Anitha Majji and Roopa Sankaran]. The 45 enthusiastic and bouncing with energy volunteers loaded into the bus started from Hewlett Packard Salarpuria office [near Forum Mall, Koramangala] at 6:30AM on 17 Apr 2010.

As their first trip the location chosen was Mutthathi, the scenic and regiliously significant place in the wilderness of the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. 100 Kms from Bangalore in the thick forest, this place is one of the favorite places for picnickers.45 HP Volunteers and 3 volunteers from Clean and Green participated in the trip. The team successfully rolled out of the Bangalore City limits very soon after 6:30AM, giving a head start over the blazing sun during the travel. The group had reached Kanakapura (mid way) well before 8AM. So the team decided to stop for breakfast after Satanur. The bus stopped for breakfast near the outer limits of Satanur village. After a well packed, wholesome breakfast, again set off towards Mutthathi. Clean and Green volunteers gave a briefing to the team about Clean and Green and the information shared was greeted with happy and loud cheers for the group’s efforts. The team reached Mutthathu a little after 10AM.

The HP team coordinator was T Naveen Kumar. He was supported on the logistics front through a vendor company contracted by HP. The logistics was handled very smoothly, leaving the volunteers to focus on having fun. Naveen’s coordination and the efforts of the vendor company members who accompanied the trip, are praiseworthy and notable.
Again the impacts of small gestures are often lasting. HP had arranged for sun screen lotion to be made available to all the volunteers.

So soon after unloading from the bus at Mutthathi, the sunscreen lotion was distributed, ensured that all volunteers wore it and then the briefing on the segregation of plastic was started.

The eager team had to face the blazing sun and unbearable heat. The need to drink lot of water to prevent dehydration was stressed for ensuring adherence.

The cleaning started off in earnestness, with the team wanting to chase a goal of collecting huge amounts of plastic. The team broke out into smaller groups, and left with the gunny sacks and rakes to do the clean up. As ever the number of sacks initially seemed insufficient for the volumes being collected. Soon a small team started stuffing and compressing the plastic into the gunny sacks enabling re-use of some of the sacks and soon we had more sacks than needed.

The cleaning went on about an hour before everyone wanted to take a break. After which the team continued and collected some more plastic waste. The onlookers and picnickers were curious about the work we were doing.

The target for the team was 100 Kgs which was achieved in 2 hours. After stuffing and packing the garbage, the team went to the Forest Dept., facility for washing up and waited for the lunch. The notable element of this trip was HP had also sponsored a three wheeler vehicle to deliver the lunch at Mutthathi.

The delicious and sumptuous lunch was polished off in no time. After which a few brave-hearts set off walking towards Jungle Lodges and Resorts property. The heat was unbearable and though a 4.5 Km walk seemed doable, when we realized that the stretch is 6Km, all of us chickened out and boarded the bus.

The three wheeler vehicle which had carried the lunch for the volunteers was pressed into service to transport the garbage back. All the 100 Kgs of waste plastic was loaded and the vehicle went to Jungle Lodges and Resorts.

On the way back to Bangalore through Haleguru, we stopped at the Jungle Lodges and Resorts. The Clean and Green volunteers met the Resident Manager of CFF, Bheemeswari and the Executive Director of JLR (who was on a visit to the property).

The garbage collected by the Cleaning Staff members (working at Mutthathi) is stored on the JLR property in gunny sacks and stitched up. There were huge number of sacks with the waste collected by the JLR staff. Clean and Green volunteers took permission from the HP coordinator to carry back some of the trash collected by JLR staff. Soon another 100Kgs of waste from the efforts of the JLR staff was also loaded into the three wheeler vehicle. Which then left for Bangalore.

The team enjoyed the scenic beauty of the place and immersed themselves in nature with walks along the banks of the river.

Highlights of the Trip:
During the clean up, we learnt that Jungle Lodges and Resorts, Bheemeswari has hired a 6 member cleaning staff team retained on a monthly salary, to maintain the cleanliness of Mutthathi.
When the team went to Jungle Lodges and Resorts Bheemeswari, the same information was confirmed by the Resident Manager of Jungle Lodges and Resorts, Bheemeswari.
Clean and Green congratulates the Jungle Lodges and Resorts, taking responsibility of the areas near their property, and would like to commend the MD and his staff on this progressive step forward.
Clean and Green volunteers also had an opportunity to meet with the Executive Director of Jungle Lodges and Resorts, at Bheemeswari.

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Water Bottles, Toffee Wrappers, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, Ice-Cream cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.
Amount of Plastic collected in volume: 100 Kg of plastic !!!!

Sponsors: The complete trip end to end was sponsored by Hewlett Packard.

Other Expenditure : NA

Expenses Incurred by HP : Details available with HP Coordinator.

Oracle Trip to Clean : After a Year's Break : 12 Sep 2009

2009-09-15T01:09:00.000-07:00

Date: September 12 2009. Place: Muthathi

Number of Volunteers that participated: 56

Oracle India kicked off their World Wide Volunteer Week of 2009 on a drizzling day on 12th September from Oracle office, at 8:10 AM for a Clean up Drive. This year the location was Muthathi, 100 Kms from Bangalore under the forest, this place is one of the favourite places for picnickers.

52 people from all walks of life, Oracle Employees, their friends and volunteers from Clean and Green participated in the trip. The team stopped for breakfast 15kms away from Kanakapura. The team reached Muthathi around 11:30 AM. After a brief from Sandeep to the volunteers about the clean-up, volunteers formed small teams.

With rakes, gunny bags and gloves in their hands volunteers were collecting and segregating plastic under 3 categories and bringing loads of plastic in gunny bags to the team doing stuffing and stitching.At 3:00 in afternoon all the volunteers had lunch at a cool place provided by the forest officials and took some rest. Sandeep gave a brief about Clean N Green group and what efforts we are putting to attain a sustainable solution to keep the famous picnic spot Clean and Green. Then all volunteers gathered to check the amount of the plastics collected before leaving back to Bangalore at around 4:30PM.

Highlights of the Trip:
4 cement rings sponsored by Oracle India Pvt Ltd
Painted the Cement rings

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Water Bottles, Toffee Wrappers, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, Ice-Cream cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.
Amount of Plastic collected in volume: 192 Kg of plastic !!!!

Sponsors: The complete trip end to end was sponsored by Oracle India Pvt Ltd. Oracle India also sponsored 4 cement rings at Muthathi, that was placed at the site a week before the trip.

Volunteers in Action

Painting the Bins

THE GROUP

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Proposal to Intel : 14 Sep 2009

2009-09-14T01:55:00.000-07:00

Vee Clean and Green has submitted a proposal to Intel (India), seeking their support for implementing the long term solution of employing local tribals in keeping Mutthathi clean of plastic litter.

This is such a key part of the Vee Clean and Green vision.

Awaiting the declaration of the contest that this proposal is a contestant of.

Secretary, Dept of Forest, Govt of Karnataka

2009-09-02T01:35:00.000-07:00

http://veecleanandgreenmeetingminutes.blogspot.com/2009/09/dialogue-with-secretary-department-of.html

See the link above for updates on the dialogue with the Govt of Karnataka with Vee Clean and Green

Saahas and Rotary Club

2009-08-08T01:03:00.000-07:00

See details of the synergy between Vee Clean and Green and other groups/clubs

http://veecleanandgreenmeetingminutes.blogspot.com/2009/09/rotary-club-and-vee-clean-and-green.html

http://veecleanandgreenmeetingminutes.blogspot.com/2009/09/saahas-and-vee-clean-and-green.html

Initiative at Coorg

2009-07-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

See details in the link below

http://veecleanandgreenmeetingminutes.blogspot.com/2009/09/vee-clean-and-green-at-coorg.html

Waiting for the monsoons to get over to embark on this project.

Mahadevapura Clean up with Life Dream Students : 17 May 2009

2009-05-28T00:26:00.000-07:00

Vee Clean and Green volunteers : Sachin, Sheetal, Roopa, Jayashree, Pratibha, and Sachin's friend.
Life Dream Coordinators : Sabitha and Salina.
Life Dream Volunteers : 15 in number
Sponsor of Equipment : Life Dream
Waste Collection : KK Plastic Waste Mgmt Pvt Ltd.,

Location : 120 housese hamlet in Mahadevpura.
Clean up time : 10AM to 1 pm.

Collection : 8 Sack loads of plastic

Value : Tremendous satisfaction to see the Life Dream volunteers throw themselves enthusiastically into the cleaning process and the awareness they built in the community while doing the clean up. Priceless.

Clean up Trip : Sangam : 18 Apr 2009

2009-04-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

There were two events on the same day 18 Apr 2009. Sun Microsystems for the 3rd Year running worked shoulder to shoulder with the help of Vee Clean and Green volunteers to clean plastic litter from Sangam (~45 Km from Kankapura).

Pradeep Singh and Rakesh Chandra - key volunteers from Vee Clean and Green.

Trip Details :

Sun Microsystems World Wide Volunteer Week, 2009 kick started on 18 April from the Sun office at Divyasree Chambers, when two buses, full of volunteers, started at 7:00 AM for a Clean up Drive. We were headed towards Sangam, Confluence of Arkavathi and Kaveri rivers.

In the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary amidst forests, 100 Kms from Bangalore this is a beautiful picnic spot which attracts thousands of picnickers every year. Like many other picnic spots Sangam is also littered with lots of plastic bags, bottles and plastic cups which is very harmful for environment.

55 people from all walks of life, Sun Employees, their family and friends, students form UVCE, RVCE, PESIT and RNSIT and volunteers from Vee Clean and Green joined in for this drive. We had introductions and fun games on the way before stopping for breakfast at a school campus in a village. We reached Sangam at 10:30 AM.

Here people formed small teams. With rakes, gunny bags and gloves in their hands volunteers were collecting and segregating plastic under 3 categories. From the stretch of both sides of Arkavati river, bringing the loads of plastic in gunny bags to the team doing stuffing and stitching of these bags. Another team of volunteers took charge of installing and painting four dustbins. When this all was happening some volunteers took care of supply of enough water and fresh lime to all volunteers and also spreading awareness among local people and picnickers. Overall it was a great team work, with volunteers working in hot summer, which resulted in collection of 140 Kg of plastic and a lots cleaner Sangam.

Jungle Lodges and Resorts are helping Vee Clean and Green to deliver the collected plastic to KK Plastic Waste Management Pvt Ltd., for recycling, and they offered their help in this event too.

After lunch at 2:00 PM people took some rest under the trees. There we could feel the serenity of nature. Its a bliss being being so close to nature.

One Bus started back at 3:00 PM. Some people stayed back to explore Mekedatu and started back in second bus at 5:00 PM. We had some snacks on the way back in bus and had as exciting round of Antakshari. This bus reached back by 8:00 PM.

Life Dream and Vee Clean and Green - A social Initiative

2009-04-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

An introduction to Life Dream : http://www.lifedreamfoundation.org/insidepages.html

At Life Dream, the 3 months program is conducted FREE, and the students are suggested to give a gurudakshina. The students will champion the environment issue facing the locality and work towards solving them.

Towards that on 18 Apr 09, two of Vee Clean and Green volunteers conducted an awareness program for the students of Life Dream on Environment, Plasitc litter, effects and how Vee Clean and Green is making an impact.

Cooperation with Jungle Lodges and Resorts : Meeting 23 Jan 2009

2009-01-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

This post you will find on the main Vee Clean and Green blog and on the Vee Clean and Green : Meeting Minutes blog. This is really the most important step forward towards a long term solution..

Deepa Mohan and Roopa represented Vee Clean and Green team in this meeting with the MD, Jungle Lodges and Resorts (Mr N D Tiwari)

We were invited to a meeting with the MD, Jungle Lodges and Resorts. An honour to have such an opportunity. Clean and Green was represented by Deepa Mohan and Roopa Sankaran. As remarked by Sandeep - another Red Letter Day for Vee Clean and Green.

Mr N.D Tiwari, MD, JLR received us on time. Thanked him for the support extended so far. He asked what are the other areas that we can work together on. Just minuting the discussion :

1. JLR will have some staff (identified number of staff) working in Mutthathi and Sangama to do the clean up during weekdays. Weekends being very busy at JLR, the staff will work duing the weekdays on cleaning up.

2. JLR property managers will now become part of the EDC and actively participate in involving the locals in maintaining the picnic spots. Clean and Green volunteers to be prompters to the Managers to ensure this is taking place.

3. JLR vehicles will continue to bring back the plastic from this cleaning to KK Plastics Waste Management - as has been recently accomplished. Again Clean and Green to play the prompter role, to ensure no slack in the continued activities. Note 1 : Mr Tiwari, assured that he will direct his staff at Galibore and Bheemeswari about the role they have to play in ensuring these above mentioned points. Note 2 : Mr Tiwari expressed his concern over the problem of litter and assured that having a clean environ is a felt need. He was very appreciative of the efforts from Clean and Green so far.

4. Provide a proposal for review to Mr Karthik of JLR, who will then coordinate a meeting of Clean and Green with Director Tourism Subhash Hari Singh. Note 3 : Mr Tiwari, reassured that Clean and Green will face no challenges and will enjoy and recieve support from his office and his staff in the implementation of the key points (above) in ensuring Muttathi and Sangama clean.

Painting Dust Bins at Sangam Trip : Honeywell : 14 Dec 2008

2008-12-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

Honeywell sponsored a trip and items required for the painting of bins at Sangam (confluence of Arkavathi and Cauvery) picnic spot.

There is no report from this trip. This trip coordinator was Pradeep Singh. Sandeep sent detailed notes on the procedure and items required as a preparation for this trip. Which is a Painting Bin 1-0-1 at its best. Refer group mails for the same.

Clean Up Trip to Mutthathi : Wipro Cares 22 Nov 2008

2008-11-27T21:32:00.000-08:00

The Wipro Care trip to clean up Mutthathi was preceeded with a short corporate presentation to the volunteer group, conducted by Deepa.

This trip too does not seem to have followed the trip report format. There is a personal post by Deepa Mohan.

http://deponti.livejournal.com/468244.html

The formal notes of the Clean Up Event
On the 22nd of November, the Wipro and the Clean and Green Volunteers left rather later than usual, as the caterers did not deliver the food earlier.

Meanwhile, Roopa had spoken to the Forest Department officials regarding our use of their campus for lunch.
It was nice to meet the people from Wipro, and luckily for us, though it remained cloudy for most of the day, the rain held off. We had breakfast on the bus, and Geetha organized tea/coffee from a nearby teastall as we stopped.
However, we were in for a further delay, as the bus got diverted at Kanakapura town, due to ongoing road work; we had to crawl over very bad roads,and reached the cleanup site at 11.30 am... a record of sorts for such a cleanup I think!
Deepak and a few friends had also found the going pretty rough but had got there by car and were waiting for us.
I gave the volunteers a short talk about C'n'G and our objectives, and also about how to segregate and collect the plastic. Rakes, sacks and gloves were unpacked and the volunteers fanned out and set to work. I must say that in my opinion, the picnic area trash has come down in volume.
Once the work was under way, Deepak, Anush, and I went to Bheemeshwari and met Mr Sundar Raj (landline 08231 694248/695249/218252/ 218232, mobile no. 94495 99768, email: Sunder@gmail.com) , the Resident Manager of JLR, and told him that the sacks would be ready for collection in a couple of hours' time. He said that he would send a jeep at about 5.30pm.

Mr Sundar made the suggestion that instead of concentrating on repeated cleanups, C'n'G could change its approach. He said that for Rs.6000 p.m, he could organize the local tribals to patrol the area and clean up the litter regularly, and the practice of collection by JLR and delivery to KK Plastics could continue, and that he could supervise this.

He pointed out that probably the cost of that day's cleanup was more for Wipro; so, if we could organize a regular supply of money from the corporates, it would be a sustainable way of dealing with the trash. Deepak feels that this should not pose a problem at all. I think we should meet and have a discussion about this, and if we really can organize a regular source, then putting the tribals to work on a daily basis would certainly be a better solution than repeated cleanups. We have to work out the modalities of how to get the money, and also, how to disburse it in the most effective way possible.
After about two and a half hours, we called a halt to the trash collection, and the sacks were stitched up and weighed; a total of 167 kgs was the day's collection. I must say that the Wipro volunteers showed a lot of enthusiasm! It was great to work with them. The rakes, sacks and gloves were packed away (Roopa, do let us know where they are being stored now...are they with you?)
Roopa spoke to several of the Forest Department officials, and the locals also. can give the details of her conversation. The Forest Department was supportive, as always.
We all walked to the Forest Department campus where lunch was served and eaten;in spite of the caterer's warnings that lunch should be consumed at 12.15, the food was still perfectly good at nearly 3pm!
Many of the volunteers then opted for the pleasant walk (4 km) from Muthathi to Bheemeshwari, and the others packed up the food, and came in the bus, picking up anyone who was tiring, on the road. It was delightful to walk down, and Anush and I managed to spot several birds as well, and I had earlier seen a couple of mongooses on the path too, so it was truly a Nature walk!
The way back proved slightly less tortuous, but still the diversion at Kanakapura took some time. We stopped to have tea/coffee at Harohalli, and came home, tired but happy with what we have achieved, at about 7pm.
Sandeep Sanwal of Wipro has already joined the egroup as a C'n'G volunteer. I am sending a separate email to Geetha to be forwarded to the volunteers, giving the details of how to join the egroup, and where to upload the photographs that one volunteer took. I have already uploaded the photographs I took to the C'n'G Photobucket site and have forwarded them to Geetha too.

We must all thank Geetha for a lot of hard work that she put into this day's outing; I think the food, in particular, cost her a lot of effort! But she not only did a great job, but was smiling through it all, even though she has a tremendous backlog of work to address!

Looking forward to getting more volunteers to strengthen our hands, and hoping that the next meeting will bring about more fruitful solutions to the ever-present problem of trash,

Clean Up Trip to Mutthathi : Wipro Cares : 30 Aug 2008

2008-08-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

Sandhya Ranjit : Wipro Care and Vee Clean and Green join hands to conduct a massive clean up drive at Mutthathi on 30 Aug 2008. See the excerpts (duly edited) of the thank you note from Sandhya to members of Vee Clean and Green in the note below

From: sandhya.ranjit @ wipro Date: Sep 1, 2008 12:59 PM
Subject: thanks for making it
Hi, A big thank you to all of you for making the visit to Muthathi happen last Saturday. And a bigger thank you for the opportunity you gave us to contribute our mite to the environment.

….now that we have done it once, we will be at it on a regular basis. Wiproites enjoyed it very much and want to have more such trips.

Clean Mutthathi Trip with Honeywell : 14 Jun 2008

2008-06-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

Number of Volunteers : 28 from Honeywell + 4 from Clean and Green

- Trip Briefing:

On Saturday, we all went by bus for a Clean and Green cleanup drive to Muthathi. We left Bangalore at about 8 am and reached Kanakapura about an hour later, and we halted for a hot breakfast at Ratna Upahara, our customary joint! The other bus with Roopa and the medical camp volunteers went independently to Alathahalli village.

Post-breakfast, we arrived in Muthathi village, and drove up to the picnic spot, where all of us alighted, and brought out the rakes, sacks and gloves. Sandeep gave all the Honeywell volunteers a short briefing about the different kinds of plastic to be picked up...bottles, plastic covers and cups, composites like Kurkure packets, and so on. He advised them not to pick up glass, to drink plenty of water, and use gloves if necessary.

The volunteers fanned out and began working with a will. Meanwhile the Range Forest Officer, Mr Kempe Gowda was invited over to the site. He came along with a few of his colleagues, and inspected the work going on. He also gave Sandeep the quotation for making boards at the picnic site. Clean and Green is glad for this support from the Forest Dept, and hope to be able to put up the signboards and place some waste bins soon.

Several visitors to the picnic spot were curious about our work. "How much are you getting for all the stuff you are collecting?" one lady asked Deepa. The concept of cleaning up the waste, and how it might affect the area if left unclean was explained to her. She looked thoughtful as she left!

It was great to see the Honeywell volunteers working so hard. Mutthathi needs as many volunteers as we can have for every clean up. All of us stopped from time to time to exchange jokes, drink water, or wash our faces...it was rather hot, dusty and sweaty work. The volunteers displayed great enthusiasm!

The work went on until about 1.30pm, when all the trash that was collected was stuffed into the HDPE bags, which were sewn up, and weighed. This was also great fun, with Sandeep asking, "how much will THIS sack weigh?" and estimates being made loudly, from 10 to 30 kg (that particular sack weighed 12 kg) We found that 31 volunteers had collected 74 kg of plastic!

All of us then got into the bus and adjourned to the Forest Department campus, where we all had a much needed wash and then had the delicious lunch which Honeywell had brought along. We also invited Mr Kempe Gowda and his colleagues to join us. Meanwhile, Sandeep had made a very valuable contact.

Mr D C Raju, a social worker who works for an NGO, and who is a member of the EDC (Environmental Development Council.) His mobile no. is 98456 02265, and his landline (residence) no is 08231 698002. He has promised to let us know, a week in advance, when the next EDC meet is going to be. Getting our foot in the door at the EDC meeting is very important for us to have a dialogue with the villagers, so this contact is really important.

So leaving some people to clear up lunch and wind up at the Forest Dept, the rest of us set off on the walk. On the way, we saw a goddess astride a tiger being taken in a procession to the river.

The road to Bheemeshwari was green and beautiful, as it meandered along the banks of the Cauvery. We had lovely view, and we really enjoyed walking along.

At the JLR camp there, we were unable to meet Lokesh,but met Mr Pampapati, and told him about the trash waiting to be collected at the usual place. Some of the volunteers had a look at the JLR property (oh, the Giant Grizzled Squirrel was very much in evidence today!) and then we all drove back contentedly to Bangalore.

All in all, the cleanup part of the day was a great success, and I got to meet several people and exchange views.

Kind of plastic collected:

The usual Bottles of Water, and other beverages, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

- Amount of Plastic collected in volume and weight: 74 Kgs of plastic

Clean up Mutthathi with Honeywell

2008-06-20T23:14:00.000-07:00

Week of Giving in Jun by Honeywell. The second time with Clean and Green. In tandem a Health Camp at another village in Mallavalli District.

Honeywell's CSR group joined hands with Clean and Green again to conduct a Clean up trip to Mutthathi on 14th Jun 2008.

There has been a lot of activity since Apr. Sun Micosystems Clean up at Sangama, Kiosk at HP, Presentation at Wipro and now again a cleanup with Honeywell at Mutthathi.

Medical Camp at Allathahalli : 14 Jun 2008

2008-06-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Honeywell as part of their Week of Giving, on 14 Jun also organised a medical camp at a village close to Mallavalli, called Allathahalli ..

Close to 800 villagers were assembled at the school village to greet the volunteer team when the team reached at about 10am. Young, old, men, women.. educated, aware, completely unaware.. there were all of them. Waiting to pour their woes and get free medicines..

We assembled to for a bit of a "do", of lighting the lamp and soon after that school children were engaged in various competions. In the meantime, the doctors - a GP, a Gyeanec, Optho, Nuero, ENT and Dentist setup their respective consultation rooms. Each of these rooms were assigned numbers. The volunteers setup benches where the people were recieved, name, age, weight were entered in slip. The volunteers would ask the people what the primary complaint was and put the room number they had to go for consultation to.

For the very old a volunteer would lead them by hand to the room they had to meet the doctor at. Much commotion prevailed all through the day, as the weary people did not want to wait their turn. The problem was, they had assembled at 6am for the medical camp to start. Yet the volunteers tried to streamline the people/patients to some extent. This was extremely tiring but the exchanges were generally pleasant during the entire transaction.

Breaking up for lunch proved even more difficult as the patients all wanted to sure, they were examined before we left.
The wash up, the simple lunch at the caterer's house (who works on a contract basis with Honeywell), the simple hospitality, the amble back to the school made one feel very welcome in the community. Genuine respect for what the volunteer represented felt appropriate.

Time at the dispensary that was setup was very well thought out.. The recieving of the prescription, filling it out, the handing it out the correct patient, explaining the dosage, worked well, almost without hitches. The experience of setting up a mobile medical camp. the logistics involved, the coordination that takes place in the background to put together a camp of this size, which appeared effortless, was am sure an outcome of tireless work by many in Honeywell.

Clean and Green Kiosk at HP : 9th and 10th Jun 08

2008-06-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

World Environment Week !! Here we come ! Sharing the same space as the Environment espousing giants such as WWF. Clean and Green made its presence the large cafeteria of HP in their CV Raman Nagar facility.

A small table, a few pictures a banner and a few spirited volunteers behind the desk complete the picture of the Clean and Green kiosk at HP.

With interested employees coming to the kiosk to get more information about the group, the common comment has been .. this is a wonderful initiative.

The whole exercise enabled Clean and Green to socialise its philosophy with the HP employees. Some of the enthused employees are now members on the e-group of Clean and Green

Fotos on display at the Kiosk :

Presentation at Wipro Electronics City

2008-05-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Mail and telephonic discussions with Wipro and we decided to do a plastic awareness presentation and on how to responsibly use and dispose plastics at each of the 15 locations of the Wipro offices. Each presentation is to be followed up with a trip to clean ..

The first of the Shrinkhala or series is set for the 30 May ...

Deepa Mohan conducted the session, at the Electronics city office .. Notes from her mail about the presentation.

I was really happy that there was a lot of questions and interaction from many members in the group after I finished speaking...and I found that many of the members of the audience were brimming with ideas, not only to partner with Clean and Green, but also about trying to make a
difference in small ways on their campus itself.

I was very happy to see that we were addressing individuals who are already pretty socially
aware.

Citizen Matter : 29 May 2008

2008-05-29T00:22:00.000-07:00

Clean and Green has been media shy for a long time, wanting to truly make a difference than just talk about it ...

Yet when one of the key volunteers is also a regular contributor to one of the most read blog in the country / definitely in the city.. some drums to sound .. some trumpets are raised

Here is the Latest write up about Clean and Green @ Citizen Matters : Titled No Talk, Just Clean and Green by Deepa Mohan
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/209-no-talk

Sun Microsystem : 2nd Year Running

2008-04-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well, what do you say when you are overwhelmed .. I guess just the trip report and allow that to speak for itself..

Yet a few noteworthy highlights ...

2nd year with Sun Microsystems and the operations are much smoother, operating on a groove. The discussion that Adarsh had with some of the shopkeepers to have them maintain the Sangam picnic spot..

Clean and Green – Trip to Clean

Date: 26 April 2008

Place: Sangam [Arkavathy and Cauvery]

Number of Volunteers that participated: 65 + 8 = 73

Trip Report:

Sun Microsystems kicked off their World Wide Volunteer Week of 2008 on 26th April from Sun office, where two buses, full of volunteers, started at 7:00 AM for a Clean up Drive. This year the location was Sangam, Confluence of Arkavathi and Kaveri rivers. 100 Kms from Bangalore under the forest, this place is one of the favorite places for picnickers.

73 people from all walks of life, Sun Employees, their family and friends, students form UVCE college, BITS Pilani and volunteers from Clean and Green participated in the trip. The team stopped for breakfast at a school campus in a village. The team reached Sangam little before 11:00 AM.

Here people formed small teams. With rakes, sticks, gunny bags and gloves in their hands volunteers were collecting and segregating plastic under 3 categories. From the stretch of the bank on both sides of Arkavati river, bringing the loads of plastic in gunny bags to the team doing stuffing, stitching, weighing and loading of these bags.

At 1:30 in afternoon the vehicle from KK Plastic Pvt Ltd., was fully loaded with the plastic. After a quick lunch all the volunteers took some rest under the trees.
Sun Microsystems, sponsored 5 dustbins for the Sangam, which we installed there a week before the trip. The tempo took the collected plastic to KK Plastics, where it will be used in the bitumen mixture for laying roads. One Bus started back at 3:00 PM. Some people stayed back to explore the Mekedattu and started back in second bus at 5:00 PM.

Highlights of the Trip:

5 dustbins sponsored by Sun Microsystems
Sponsorship for 2 signboards approved by Sun Microsystems. Clean and Green needs to implement
Discussion with local shop keeper, with one of the shop keepers suggesting that he can take on the onus of cleaning up Sangam on a regular basis for a small consideration.

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Water Bottles, Toffee Wrappers, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, Ice-Cream cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

Amount of Plastic collected in volume: 226 Kg of plastic !!!!

Sponsors: The complete trip end to end was sponsored by Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems also sponsored 5 dustbins at Sangam, that was placed at site a week before the trip.

Other Expenditure : NA

Expenses Shared By: NA

Dust Bins at Sangam

2008-04-12T10:03:00.001-07:00

As part of the Recce trip in preparation for the Sun Microsystems upcoming WWVW Clean up trip on the 26 Apr, Pradeep Singh and Anitha Majji, went on bike to check out the facilities at Sangam for a large group.

The major accomplishment on this trip has been that they coordinated the purchase of 10 cement rings, forming 5 dust bins at Kankapura, transported it to Sangama and placed it at vantage points.

This is a major accomplishment, kudos to them for making this happen with no prior plans either !!

Way to go !!

A Month in Advance : Sun Microsystems

2008-03-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

The World Wide Volunteer Week for Sun Microsystems starts on the 26 Apr 2008, so the plan is to kick it off with a Clean up trip to Sangama [instead of Muththathi].

So the planning has already started ... with still a month to go for the event ... Gives us loads of time to figure out all the details ...

Lull Before a Flurry ?

2008-03-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

Just a few meetings and a lot of finding out about how to progress the Greening Part ...

A sudden one to one meeting with Wipro, Honeywell sharing thoughts sometimes

Then some more meetings.. at least we are meeting sometimes.. It is not completely out of circulation

Honeywell Trip : 29 Dec 2007

2008-01-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Here is the usual trip report from the first activity with Honeywell... After the initial discussions with Paramesh and his team a while, this has now come up and successfully completed. Dont have any snaps from this trip ...

Anitha's injury is another thing ...

Clean and Green – Trip to Clean

Date: 29 Dec 2007

Place: Mutthatti

Number of Volunteers : 27 from Honeywell + 3 from C & G

- Trip Briefing:

Anitha joined the group at Banshankri and the Honeywell team with 2 volunteers from C & G were on the way to Mutthatti. Sandeep the other trip co-ordinator had left earlier as he was on a camping trip. Roopa had risen early to deliver the rakes to the Honeywell office,while Rakesh and Anitha had procured 30 pairs of gloves. Food, drinking water in the bus and a team of enthusiastic volunteers were speeding down the highway when a speed breaker taken at high speed levitated Anitha and her head hit the air-conditioning vent above. A cut in the scalp and probably a mild concussion was the result.

After breakfast at Kanakapura the team reached Mutthatti. Sandeep joined the group soon thereafter and after the customary briefing the volunteers were at their task. Lunch break was taken at 1.15 pm in the Forest Dept. premises.As the RFO was not at Mutthatti it took a bit of convincing to allow the guard to allow the team in but the words 'plastic' was understood and the rest was easy.

- Kind of plastic collected:

The usual Bottles of Water, and other beverages Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups. Volunteers had to go further into the picnic spot to pick up the plastic.The cement bins placed by the last clean up team were hardly used.( Education and supervision required if visitors are to made to use the bins).

- Amount of Plastic collected in volume and weight: 7 sacks weighing 55 kg was collected.

Logistics: The trip planning was done by Honeywell and Clean and Green. All the logistics of the trip was shared. Equipment for the trip was arranged by Clean and Green, transport etc was by Honeywell.

Sponsors: Honeywell sponsored the entire trip and paid for the transport, food and the gloves. Jungle Lodges supported the effort by agreeing to dispose off the waste in their jeep.

-Volunteers in action:

Some pictures.

Muththati Trip 1st Dec 2007 – One to remember for a long long time

2007-12-03T23:24:00.000-08:00

Number of volunteers participated: 17 Volunteers

Plastics collected: 34 sacks

Trip Briefing : Departed from Indiranagar Park, Opposite to KFC at around 6:45 AM in a 20 - seater swaraj Mazda making pit stops in between to pick up a totally new gang of volunteers expect some of them and headed towards our mission.

We started off the fun by playing anthakshari but later people were about to sleep hearing some people sing so we shifted to dumb charades. That was fun, not very tough as most of them guessed the movie even before it was enacted fully. Meanwhile we reached Kanakapura for the much awaited breakfast at our famous hotel – Rathna Upahar.

After a nice breakfast, we left for Muththati, stopping in between to purchase “Cement Bins”, arranged separate transportation for the bins. We reached Muththati around 10:45AM. We 17 volunteer gang breaking into groups swung into action immediately after a brief by Roopa on what to collect etc.

Before we could see, there were plenty of sacks collected and still going on with full energy while talking short breaks. In between the cleaning, volunteers got involved in placing the “Cement Bins” at the appropriate places and inaugurating them too.

Also volunteers spoke to couple of visitors (the number of visitors was less as it was a Saturday I feel) on what we do and how they can help protect the environment. They understood the problem and said they would not litter and would use the cement bins for the waste.

Finally, after 2 ½ hours of working, we decided to end the cleaning as the weather was at its extreme peak and also all of us were tired and hungry. Volunteers completed by stuffing in the plastics into sacks and stitching them making a total of 34 sacks by 17 volunteers.

We then headed towards Jungle Lodges and Resorts for the much awaited lunch. Some of them relaxed by enjoying the nature on the banks of River Cauvery and some went on a walk which had no end point and had to come back as there were people waiting for them to get back to Bangalore.

Overall, it was a great, fun-filled trip in terms of cleaning, setting up Bins as well meeting different kind of like-minded people who like to contribute for such a noble cause.

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Bottles of Water, and other beverages Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

Amount of Plastic collected in volume : 34 sacks – the plastic this time was not weighed.

Logistics: Clean and Green took care of the Logistics arrangements viz, Transportation, equipment for cleaning.

Noteably : All the volunteers together made arrangements for the procurement of the cement bins and the transportation of the same from Kanakapura to Mutthathi.

Supported by: Jungle Lodges and Resorts for transportation of the plastic collected for re-cycling and for permitting the volunteers to use their wash room facilities. Jungle Lodges and Resorts also provided lunch for all the volunteers, along with permission for the volunteers to enjoy nature from their premises. Forest Dept represented by the RFO’s staff during the clean up in deciding the placement of the Cement Bins.

Expenses :

Trip Cost :

Transport: Rs. 3200

Breakfast: Rs. 337

Total: Rs. 3537

Per person: Rs. 210

Cement Bins:

4 Bins: Rs. 1000 ( Each Rs. 250)

Transportation: Rs. 500

Per person: Rs. 90

Meetings and Cancelled Trip

2007-11-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

Since the trip we did to clean up Mutthathi, the group has been having regular fortnightly meetings, some well attended, some thinly, but the meetings all the same.

Some of the highlights of these meetings :

1. Wiki page - contents decided, Page to be constructed for events, updates, notes exchange etc

2. Deepa is collating the database of active members

3. To place order for the signboards

4. Procure bins and place them in Mutthathi

A trip to Mutthathi was planned in Oct and was cancelled due to poor response to the call for volunteers.

Oracle Volunteers ! Clean and Green Mutthathi

2007-09-24T03:37:00.000-07:00

Folks, most of you on the google group, know about our trip to Mutthathi and this time with Oracle's volunteers, during their Global Volunteer Week. Honoured to have so many hands helping us clean up.

Some many more bent backs, tiring, sweating, with all the filth, grime, plastic and to top it the stares and glares before we befriend and educate...

Some videos, the Deccan Herald write up about the trip ..

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Nov202007/spectrum2007111936623.asp

Wonder Why !

2007-06-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hi, Have you ever wondered what we would achieve with all the cleaning we have been doing ! Why are we doing, what difference does it make !

Well some pictures from Deepa Mohan who is a friend of Sandeep Chakravarti says it all. Follow this link to her blog. See the pictures but a statutory warning : It will make you feel poignant.

http://deponti.livejournal.com/245829.html

Trip 17 Jun 2007 ! Single Handedly !

2007-06-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

This is the trip report of the trip done on 17 Jun Sunday ! Mohan was the only experienced Clean and Green member on the trip. He was the trip coordinator all in all - one man show ! Bravo !

The Team - You cant see Mohan as he is the photographer

Date: June 17th, 2007
Place: Muttati
Number of Volunteers who participated: 10

Trip Briefing: we departed in a 12 seater tempo traveler from Indiranagar at 6.15 am and from Banashankari Temple pickup point at 6.50 am, a ten person brigade left the town (seven adults and 3 teens) for a mission. Nine of them were new to the act. We had the breakfast at Kanakapura and the team played housie (Tam bola) on the way, The prizes went to the teens. Guess the prizes (table portraits of greenery pictures, wish list for greenery being a reality for many of us).

Reached Muttati at 9.07 am and immediately started the business of picking up the plastic litter after the quick induction. The team was very energetic and put a fantastic effort to collect 54 kilos gulping in 18 bags. As usual the bags were firmly stitched and placed for the forest officials to collect and send it to recycle firm.

The team went on enrollment conversations with the visitor’s onsite on the banks of river Cauvery. Many of them understood the litter issues and have pledged to reduce the use of plastics and make use of the bins effectively.

The team left the site onwards to JLR for much needed lunch. On the way, there were further enrollment conversations with the Muttati shopkeepers in and around the main streets and the temple. The shop keepers do understand the impact and will support the cause as much as possible. There is more work to be done in this area dealing with the shopkeepers. (Things can be further explored – like putting posters i.e. Do not litter in Kannada / English, placing bins in front of the shops, use paper cups instead).

In summary a very effective trip and the volunteers have showed interest to enroll their communities (i.e. schools, colleges and at workplace). Good job!!!!!!!!!

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Bottles of Water and soft drinks, plastic cups, plastic covers and trays, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it.

Amount of Plastic collected in volume and weight: 18 sacks weighing 54 kg.

Logistics: C & G took care of the planning and executing the trip.

External communication: Radio City announced about the Sunday trip details on Saturday 16/7/2007. Very effective, People were curious about the Clean and Green initiatives and some of them participated in the trip.

19 May 2007 : First in the Fortnightly Series of Meeting

2007-05-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

A small capsule of the discussion today

Attendees : Sandeep, Mohan, Rakesh, Yenne, Roopa.

The meeting started with moving from the venue to Megh Sagar on CMH Road for the hungry souls to have a stomach load of food. After which we came back to the Indira Nagar Park.

Some notes before I list down the actions and decisions that were taken in the meeting :

During the meeting we had a call with the DFO Mr Kumar Pushkar and the ACF Mr Shiv Kumar to discuss the following :

¨ To get the wording for the sign boards – one volunteer needs to call Mr ShivKumar on Monday 5/21 to get the material from him

¨ Seek permission to place the sign boards to which Mr Kumar Pushkar suggested that we approach the PCCF (WL) in Aranya Bhavan

After the initial discussions here are the list of Action Items that were identified :

List of phone numbers of all the known volunteers to be prepared by Vijay and the same forwarded to Roopa
Roopa to send the list of phone numbers to Madhu (volunteer who is willing to spend some time each week during working days). Roopa to speak with Madhu and explain what is required for discussions with each volunteer
Roopa to speak with ACF (with the help of another Kannada speaking volunteer and get wordings of the sign boards from the Forest Dept
Roopa to also get the costing and a sample sign board and details of fabrication required before the 2 Jun meeting
Rakesh to identify good, durable, eco-friendly bins and buy a sample before the 2 Jun meeting
A suggestion that we work with a corporate to employ additional security or on weekends when security needs are lesser – deploy four security folks at Mutthathi to screen people from carrying plastic and provide alternative cloth bags at the road heads. Roopa to speak with Mr Anil Rai – another volunteer who is willing to implement small projects end-to-end.
During this week – Sandeep and Mohan are planning to make visits to Aranya Bhavan to meet the PCCF (WL) in case the PCCF (WL) is not away on travel.
Roopa to prepare a brief proposal by Clean and Green to state our intention towards a Private Public Partnership for placing signboards and bins and also provide security service to monitor plastic traffic in Mutthathi
Vijay to send all the trip reports to Mohan who will create a dossier for the meetings with the PCCF (WL) this week
Sandeep volunteered to coordinate a trip for Mohan’s contacts – many of whom are wanting to do a trip – the trip is planned for 17 Jun. Separate mails on this follows.
Vijay is to follow up with Mrs SenGupta – HOD Dept of Sociology in Christ College (w/o Principal Secretary Environment, Conservation and Ecology) for building awareness and also explore possibilities of doing a trip with the students.
Sandeep will get in touch with some of the other members of the team to setup a visioning exercise.

A Dose of Process

2007-04-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

Most of us from the software industry who get a daily dose of exposure to processes of mature organizations : will also bring the work experience in all their other activities. So yes we did a great trip on 14 Apr ! Well did we do well, did we not, is there a learning to carry forward, are we a learning, and continuously maturing group or are we always thinking on our feet.

The answer to some these questions did get addressed in an After Action Review of the 14 Apr Trip (on 21 Apr 2007 at 9AM at IndiraNagar Park) and here are some of the highlights of the discussion. Before we present the Strengths and Opportunities - am listing the Action Items and owners (which we need to complete as part of the closure of the 14 Apr Trip).

Participants: Roopa, Sandeep, Rakesh, Mohan, Anita and Vijay

Action Items

Collect all the equipment rakes, sticks, gloves - Rakesh, Anitha and Sandeep volunteered to help
Blog Updates - Roopa
Hard Copies of the latest Trip Report to be sent to - Sandeep, Vijay

a. RFO Mr Kempe Gowda

b. Prinicipal Secretary [Forest, Ecology and Environment Dept]
c. PCCF [WL]
d. WASI
e. KK Plastics

4. Send Mail to

a. Jungle Lodges and Resorts
b. Karthik (?)

5. A Thank you letter on Clean and Green Letter Head to Sun - Sandeep, Vijay
6. Request for a testimonial letter from Sun about their expressions of the day with Clean and Green - Roopa to speak to Vidya
7. Since Sun has expressed to work with Clean and Green - request them to send a letter from the corporate to the Forest Dept. Roopa to speak to Vidya.

Strengths

Well - well done - the whole trip
First time coordination with a sponsor and the group was well represented in the face to face meeting with Sun
The sponsor is willing to work with and through Clean and Green to work out the optimal long term sustained solution at these picnic spots

Opportunities

The face to face and subsequent discussions could have started earlier than a week before the trip - best time 2 weeks to 3 weeks
We should have planned a site visit before the trip with the representatives from the sponsor company
The face to face should have been done thru a presentation and not a casual discussion. The powerpoint to cover the following points

Video of previous trips
Maps
Before and after photos
Do's and Donts
Safety and Security Instructions
List of activity that the sponsor should cater to
Clean and Green Vision and Mission and testimonials with blog link etc

April 14 2007 - Mega Acitivity @ Muttathi

2007-04-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

First Trip of this magnitude and this splendour : From all walks of life and diverse organisations involvement - Sun volunteers, parents of Sun employees, family, friends, students from three colleges [BMS, RNSIT and RV], KK Plastics with their team of four and their own vehicle, Jungle Lodges and Resorts.

The convoy : two bus loads of volunteers, 1 car with breakfast following, 1 tempo for garbage. 1 more car for lunch later.

The word Splendour is used to describe the trip because :

The whole community at large - the concerned community from Bangalore all rolled off so early in the morning to work towards a cleaner environment to help conserve Forests
Coordination during a hectic work week for all concerned : Sun volunteers working to arrange the transporation, the food arrangements, all the other logistics.
KK plastics continues to participate in the Clean and Green activities
The Forest Departments involvment and commitment to the Clean and Green volunteer represented by the RFO Mr Kempe Gowda and his staff participating in the cleaning activity
Jungle Lodges and Resorts exntending their support and hospitality during the trip.
The coordination of the entire trip was well executed.
There is no hestiation to mention a few names from each of these organization and express our small note of gratitude

Sun Microsystems who have worked tirelessly to make this event a success :

Vidya Srinivasan
Ramesh Naidu
Atishay Kumar
Vidya Sakar
Ganesh.Hiregoudar

Special thank you to KNR and Ravindra for their whole hearted participation in the activity with their families.

Hospitality extended by Mr Pampapathy from Jungle Lodges and Resorts (washrooms and water), and providing a Trekking Guide for the trekking enthusiasts in the team.
Mr Rasool Khan and Mr Sameer from KK Plastics and their team for their untiring, committed work

A special thank you the Temple pujari and his family for his continued hospitality to Clean and Green member.

Plastic Collected : 301 Kgs !

15 Apr 2007 : Upcoming Event

2007-03-30T03:27:00.000-07:00

Sun India - volunteer week being cashed in on to further Clean and Green work ! Should be big trip. Lets hope for the best.

27 Jan 2007 Meeting Notes

2007-03-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

There was a meeting on 27 Jan 2007 (the weekend after the BIG trip to Mutthathi). Attendees :
Rakesh, Pritesh, Yenne, Suprio, Ananya, Sandeep Chakravarty and Roopa

Discussion centred around what needs to be discussed with the Panchayat and the RFO - with which are the focus areas for which that we need to drive forward with them.

RFO : Can assist by identifying one family for doing the regular clean up. While the Gram Panchayat can authorise the same family with a letter so as to enable them to collect the plastic.

Clean and Green volunteers along with the Forest Department officials can identify areas within the Forest Office premises where the collected garbage can be stored, the locations where the garbage bins are to be placed along with the sign boards.

Assistance from the Forest Dept can be sought for financing or actually employing the family who will do the regular garbage collection and monitor the work.

Some of the existing functionaries within Forest Dept like the watermen and others can be encouraged by the Panchayat to do the tour the place on weekends and police the place and ask people to desist from littering. Collections from vehicle parking etc or collectively from the village contribution could possibly be routed for funding the garbage bins.

The 21 Jan Trip !!!

2007-01-24T23:24:00.000-08:00

The Big Big Clean Up at Mutthathi on 21 Jan - was a runaway success so to speak ! In all 37 volunteers ! From all walks of life.

Amount of Plastic collected : 33 sacks weighing 164 kg !!

Here are the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/contactcleanandgreen/CG21jan

Excerpts from the Trip Report of 21 Jan 2007

This was a big event so we hired a 50 seater bus and picked up the volunteers before leaving Banashankri at 7.15 Am. Sandeep and Sreepathi left at 6.40 am in Sandeep’s Scorpio to meet the Panchayat President, Fr. Abraham and the RFO.After breakfast at Kanakpura, the bus arrived at Mutthatti shortly before 10.00 am and after a short briefing from Sandeep on plastic collection and segregation the volunteers got to work.

Working in small groups and in pairs we collected the plastic which was largely poly bags, plastic cups and glasses and some amount of PET bottles.We also collected paper plates which were laminated or coated with silver foil. Volunteers took breaks in between but continued to collect plastic till about 12.30 pm, after which teams of 2 to 4 people started compacting the plastic in the large gunny and HDPE sacks which we had carried. As the sacks filled up we stitched the mouth with rafia to prevent the plastic from spilling out. With all the sacks stitched we came to the exciting part of weighing the sacks.

Sandeep had carried a spring balance and a nylon hammock in which 2 sacks were weighed at a time. In all 33 sacks with a record 164 kilos of plastic was carried into our bus and we headed for Bheemeshwari Fishing Camp for a well deserved clean up and lunch. Post lunch we shared ideas of how to improve our efforts in future and involve the local community. After a cup of tea the volunteers left for Bangalore at 4.45 pm.

The plastic was brought back to Bangalore and handed over to K K Plastic, who would recycle it. The highlight of this clean up trip was the presence of emminent members of the Forest Dept and the local community

The Panchayat President Sakri Bai, along with 3 other panchayat members
RFO, Mr.Kempa Gowda who interacted with our volunteers and spoke to the picnickers requesting them not to litter.
Fr. Abraham also volunteered to speak to the important community members to keep the place plastic free.

Mr. Nahar, Resident Manager, of JLR was kind enough to bring these people to the clean up site in his vehicle. He also spent time with the volunteers.

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Water Bottles, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

Note from a Visitor

2007-01-15T23:34:00.000-08:00

This is a note sent by an angler and a frequent visitor to India and of course the banks of Cauvery.

From: Steve Lockett

To: pccfwl@vsnl.com

Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 3:12 AM

Subject: Clean and Green

Sir,

I am a regular visitor to India generally, and Karnataka in particular. On my last visit, I attended a conference in Mysore, where the Guest of Honour was Mr D.T.Jayakumar, the Karnataka State Minister for Tourism.

Mr Jayakumar asked me what I felt could be done to improve the image of India in th eyes of Westerners, and I told him the most simple step would be to tackle the problem of littering.

I will be visiting again from February to April of this year and will be pleased to report to both Mr Jayakumar and Mr Singh at the Incredible India office in Bangalore what an impact the Clean and Green scheme is having on the fishing stretches of the middle Kaveri.

As the main protector and guardian of the forests in Karnataka, I hope you understand the importance of the work that Clean and Green are doing. Not only for those who want to fish on the middle stretches of the Kaveri, but for all those whose lives revolve around the river and everyone who wants to enjoy this unique environment.

Under the Constitution of India, article 48a states that there is a duty to improve the environment, particularly with regard to wildlife. Hopefully Clean and Green can assist you in this valuable work.

Many thanks for your participation,

Steve Lockett

Coarsefish-Torbay for:
News and views from the West Country

Prep Work Bonus

2007-01-12T23:08:00.000-08:00

Though this was not the inital agenda for the Prep Work - Sreepathy, Sandeep and Nahar met with Fr Abraham. Meeting with Rev. Father Abraham - Local Social activist and Christian Missionary. Participants:

M/s Nahar - JLR
Sandeep - C&G and Outrigor
Sreepathi - C&G

Mr Nahar suggested that we meet Father Abraham, who has been working with the local population since 1990. A person who has been in Muttatti area for a long period and knows the people and the problems. Excerpts below.

He understands the garbage problem and the need to address it
Has agreed to play an active role in Awareness Program and subsequent sustenance.

Prep Work Updates

2007-01-12T22:56:00.000-08:00

This update is from Sreepathy's report on each of the agenda points

Meeting with Village Panchayat Members: Visited Byadarahalli Gram panchayat members at Hosadoddi Village. Participants:

Nahar - Manager JLR, Bheemeswari
Sandeep - Member of Clean and Green and MD of Outrigor
Sreepathi - Member of Clean and Green

Met the member Govinda Nayak and Shivanna. The panchayat President is Sakri Bai, wife of Govinda Nayak.

The Participants explained the purpose of the visit and solicited the Panchayat members help, excerpts below.

Gram Panchayat wanted to carryout this activity on their own but could not due to iadequate funds. They are willing to support the cause and are willing to involve the panchayat machinary for the same.
Are willing to attend a preparatory meeting before the awareness program and also participate in the event.
Agreeable to get the local youth to participate in the awareness programme for "Shrama Daan"

2. RFO - Mr Kempegowda - could not be met as he was away at Sangam.

3. Could not meet the people identified by him, for the colllection of garbage.

4. Meeting with Mr Khan, Principal, Govt Junior Collge and Shadakshara Swamy, President Eco Club, Kanakapura and NSS co-ordinator. Participants: Sreepathi - C&G

Met them and explained the awareness program and solicited their help in providing NSS Volunteers for the day. Mr Shadakshara Swamy, who is aware of the environmental issues was enthusiastic but wanted to make sure that his students study schedules are not disturbed. As the Awareness Program being planned on a Sunday, he was willing, however we may have Transport and Food issues. Follow up meeting for Friday to iron out these and confirm number of Volunteers.

Prep Work - Initial

2007-01-12T22:45:00.000-08:00

As you all know we have a mega event planned on 21 Jan. As part of the preparatory work, Sreepathy had volunteered to visit Bheemeswari and attempt to get local stakeholders involved. He took a day off on 9 Jan from his busy schedule and made this trip.

He went with a five point agenda :

1. Meet the Gram panchayat President and explain the acivities and impress upon the need for local participation and self sustained activity. Get them involved.

2. Meet the RFO (Mr Kempe Gowda) and chalk out action plan for Forest Dept participation in ensuring a sustained mechanism to clean Mutthathi clean.

3. If possible meet the family/members identified for the clean up activity

4. Visit the Kanakapura Govt college and look out for NSS volunteers

5. Action plan for an Awareness Program/Drive

Notes on each of the agenda points and what needs to be carried forward in separate posts.

Jubilations and Celebrations !

2007-01-07T04:47:00.000-08:00

Some of the commitments made and decisions taken on this Trip on 7th Jan I consider would set the tone for a sustainable solution.

1. Mr Vijay Vidyarathi (WAASI member) has volunteered to fund the retainer for the local family that can undertake routine cleaning of Mutthathi. A family that can take up the task has already been identified by Mr Nahar (Manager, Bheemeswari CFC) and Mr Bhojuraju (member Clean and Green).

2. Mr Sreepathy (member Clean and Green) has volunteered to make a trip to Kanakapura to visit colleges there to get the NSS teams to participate in the 21 Jan Clean Up activity.

3. Mr Praveen Dwarkanath (Director) MN Infocom Solutions Pvt Ltd, has volunteered to participate in the 21 Jan Clean Up and also get some more participants.

Jaathara - 7th Jan 2007

2007-01-07T04:37:00.000-08:00

A Cleaning Trip of a kind !!!

A small set of volunteers of 7 adults and one child went to Mutthathi - all brave and ready to clean up the galeech at the bank of river.

lo and behold ! what a sight that greets the team. A throng of about 4000 worhshippers at the river bathing, washing clothes, cooking, eating, merry making. Should I utter the words I dread to - well litter all over. The task at hand even with a 17 member team on the last trip was too small to tackle the problem at Mutthathi.

So consider with the Jaathara going there was no way that we could have even attempted a clean up. The team went on to Bheemesawri to the CFC and had a meeting with the Manager there. Details of the meeting at CFC are in the trip report - to be posted here soon.

Yet some of the most remarkable decisions and greatest of commitments recieved on this trip need a highlight, so see the next post for the same !

First Step at Muththatti - Trip Report

2006-11-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

Date : 26th Nov 2006

Place : Muththatti

Number of Volunteers that participated: 17

Trip Report: Yet another good cleaning drive by the “Clean & Green” team, with a good turnout on the volunteers’ front. Much Planning had to go into this trip primarily for 2 reasons 1) Good Number of Volunteers 2) It’s a new place that the team has adopted. With so many phone calls and mails hitting the inboxes finally the day had come for the team to visit Muththatti. Though the vehicles reached slightly late to the initial pick up point we managed to pick all the volunteers and were off to Kanakapura from banashankari by 6.45 Am. A short stopover at Kanakapura village for breakfast and then moved ahead towards the spot where we were destined for, reached the place well in time. At the very first glance it gave us an impression “this place is an awful mess”. This place is littered left right center and in magnitude of 50 times Sangama or Pearl Valley our previous cleaning spots. However the volunteers didn’t lose hope. Somewhere a beginning has to be made and we could clean whatever we can and clean little part of the stretch. The operation continued for more than an hour or so and soon we ran out of sacs. We tried compressing few of the sacs to create space and collected some more plastic. And finally we are done with the cleaning, all the 15 sacs were full but the very sight of the place doesn’t bring any smiles on the faces for the task undertaken. The place is littered so badly we might need the entire village to take up this initiative and make sure the public visiting maintain some decorum. After a pep talk by Sandeep we left to JL&R Bhemeswari for lunch. Few of them trekked to this place that is about 6kms from Muththatti while the rest left in the vehicle. We had a sumptuous lunch followed by discussion on what should be the future course of action. We took rest for more than an hour and left to Muththatti. We could see the place where we segregated the garbage bags were out of shape and it’s purely a monkey business. At the outset all of them were let down looking at the scene, however we rolled up our sleeves segregated the plastic and dumped into the JL&R vehicle, which came right on time. And then left for Bangalore on a good note. We reached Bangalore at about 7 pm. Though the task undertaken was minimal most of them feel it’s a good starting step to make a difference.

Learnings from the Trip:

Regular visits to this place with good number at least 18.
We should look at other alternatives along with cleaning drives – talk to the panchayat, educate the locals, involve them in the activity.
Posters or Notice Boards need to be in strategic locations than hidden elsewhere.

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Water Bottles, Toffee Wrappers, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, Ice-Cream cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

Amount of Plastic collected in volume: 15 bags with overall weight aggregating to 80-90 Kgs.

Sponsors: Jungle Lodges and Resorts sponsored Lunch. Garbage disposal from Muththatti to Kanakapura was sponsored by JLR. We would like to thank Ms. Jija Hari Sing MD JL&R for encouraging the group drive this kind of cleaning activities and Mr. Nahar Resident Manager of JL& R for his assured support to the C&G team for future trips also.

Other Expenditure (Food, water, Gloves, Garbage Bags, Sticks, Parking and Misc): This ran into Rs 3740/-

Expenses Shared By: Overall the expenses amounted to Rs.3740/ and were shared equally among the 17 volunteers who turned up for the trip. Essentially each individual who turned up for the trip contributed Rs.220/ for the Clean and Green program.

Volunteers in action:

Scene before the cleaning activity:

Scene after the activity: Garbage Being transported in JL&R vehicle.

Great Job folks...Keep Volunteering for a Good Cause - When you give something to the nature , mother earth will definitely reward you in some other form.

Until Next Activity....

Vijay K Yenne

for "Clean And Green"

Revisiting Pear Valley!!!

2006-09-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday We had Been to Pearl Valley for the regular cleaning activity. Though people were slighly skeptical for it has been long that we visited this place and the number of volunteers were less in number. Fortunately we had support from KK Plastics who chipped in the right moment when we wondering what to do with the garbage we collect at this place. They were sensitized with the C&G's initiative and were ready to help us in whatever form they could. We appreciate their social committment . Thanks to Shamala for her efforts in coordinating with them and making them participate in the cleaning activity along with carrying the 40 KG of Plastic waste. Should definitely thank Kamal,Karthic, Ravi, Madhavi & Lakshmi in helping us to carry the task succesfully. Now that we have support from KK Plastics, we should definitely go in huge number and make "PEARL VALLEY" indeed a "VALLEY" which is plastic free.

For "CLEAN AND GREEN"
Vijay K Yenne

Remarkable Trip!!!!

2006-07-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Baggages with Garbage Beneath!!!!

Would be wondering why i titled this trip as a remarkable trip.As a matter of fact its phenomenonal too. Before i proceed further let me give you a brief statistics about the trip that we made to MekeDaatu on 16th of July 2006.
Number of Volunteers turned up for the cleaning activity - 16
Number of new people for this trip - 10
Number of Posters - 8
Number of Garbage bags used- 12
Number of huge Rag Picker bags used - 3
Number of vehicles we used for the trip- 2
Amount spent on the whole trip - Rs 3520/-
Individual contribution towards this initiative - Rs 220/-
Number of people addressed about the initiative at MekeDatu: 35-45
Amount of Plastic collected - 75-80 kg

Well these are some of the numbers that i remember off the cuff. I always look at the quantitative aspect because it always sets the tone for a qualitative work. So why did i mention all the above statistics - for "Statistics are like miniskirts - they reveal more than what they hide" and the numbers above display our accomplishment and i guess i need not say anything more on this!!!! Absolutely this trip is a remarkable one for many reasons primarily the amount of plastic collected is huge, we sensitized the people visiting the place by displaying the huge amount of garbage collected and ultimately we started making an impact in big way!!! We are heading in the right direction for which the group has formed.

This blog is dedicated to all those people who made it on this trip. Let us put the thoughts of few people who participated in this trip for the first time in their very own words :

Abhinav Says : I am very glad that we did such a wonderful work which will make us proud all the time. The environmental clean and green mission is a very good initiative started by you guys. Although today my back hurts and have some pain but the work which we did was great and it melts down every bit of it when I remember the amount of garbage we collected and the good that we did to our own planet.we had a very good time, Cheers to everybody.

What Karthik Seshagiri Feels : Everyone were committed in the activity - kudos to the people for identifying such a committed team.It was a good chance to meet with people from different walks of life.Well organized in terms of travel to the spot organizing people on the activity to be performed.

Kamal's thougths : It is a great initiative, we need to save the environment and make it a better place for our decendents. It was memorable day for me, I enjoyed every bit of it. Got a chance to meet many people, every one of them where very jovial. This made our cleaning activity more fun. The activity was well planned.

Somashekar opinions: I feel that I had not wasted a Sunday in my life, as the usual way which I do it by just sleeping the whole day. I more interested towards working for a such a cause. It makes me proud.

Ravi's View : It was a very good experience and no doubt I would be interested in going back again. Since the activity was two folds, one to clean up the existing garbage and secondly to educate the people not to litter, it has meaningful impact, I am sure people atleast some people would take care while littering if not all. Also the activity was not hectic or boring, probably because of the kind of people who came were also enthusiastic about the whole thing. The amout of garbage collected obviously shows the enthusiasm.

And Let me end it since i started it .......

This activity is an absolute display of TEAMWORK : It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit, in the end its the team and only the team that did the work gets the credit!!!! So let us cheer up for each and every individual who made for the trip. This trip will surely be remembered as one important milestone and we have many more yet to accomplish!!! Keep up the spirit guyz..lets save these beautiful places of Nature for If you Save the Nature ...Nature will Save you!!!!

PS :Most of them did give their suggestions for improvement which will be discussed in the next meeting, i didn't want to put them here for the blog will run into too many words!!!!

Letz have more and More Trips to Clean and Make these places Green!!!!
Vijay K Yenne

Odds

2006-05-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

It started with a vague idea of joining with some trekking groups to do a cleanup when one is in the outdoors. Yet with a difference – you don’t just collect the garbage and dump – but see it to its logical end – reduce use, reuse or recycle.

When the participation from these groups was not as forthcoming as it could have been – then the option started with roping in friends with similar interests – outdoors and keeping them clean – this group started taking shape.

Against all odds – the first meeting had just four members in it.

Today we stand as group of 22 members registered on the e-group and others who have been attending our meetings or been outdoors to do the cleaning. We have four field trips under our belt. Meetings with KSTDC, Jungle Lodges and Forest Departments have been immensely satisfying. They volunteer to help us with our agenda.

Other waste management groups and organizations are willing to meet us, train us and provide that little nudge towards solving the problems of reuse and recycling.

This has been possible because of every ounce of energy that you have provided, time you have spent, ideas you have shared, experience and knowledge that you have volunteered.

Think of the odds we have surmounted – from a point where we did not know what direction this team will take – to knowing a clear plan of things to do. Milestones to achieve, targets to reach.

All this in just about three months – the first meeting was sometime in early Feb in Barista on MG Road.

Now is also not the time to rest on your laurels – as there are miles to go before we sleep.

MekkeDatu - trip 2 in three parts

2006-04-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

Guyz, Galz and others if any... with your permission let me take the first few lines of Charles Dicken's "Tale of 2 cities" (May not be in the same order)

It was Worst of the times. ( Great Legend Raj Kumar's Death shook blore with anti-social elements showing thier true colors) It was the Best of the times. (Come what may we have decided to go for trip to clean to Mekedattu - Nothing can shatter a good cause ) It was the Age of Wisdom.( 8 people sharing a common consensus working out for a good cause) It was the epoch of belief. ( We beleive people will get inspired and more numbers will join us in carrying our work on a larger scale.) Let me stop here with Dicken's.

For quite sometime we have been planning a trip to Clean to MekkeDattu. Series of mails exchanged , lotz of phone calls between jungle lodges and sameer. Initially the plan was to camp at Mekedattu in the night and carry the field work in the morning.Somehow it didn't work out so we shifted our gears to plan B. We decided to spend the saturday night at roopa's house and leave for mekkedattu early in the morning. Earlier in the evening at around 8.35 PM I met bindiya collected the stuff (food..lotz and lotz of food - probably enough for a 2 day trek!!!) and reached KFC CMH Road, where roopa was waiting. We were waiting for the other folks to join. Pritesh landed up exactly on time. Both Roopa and pritesh managed to get the early bird choc's from me. Soon Shamala and Dileep joined us followed by Lakshmi. There were 2 dropouts in the last moment. Thereafter we had to wait for shilpa. Her delay is accepted for she stays too far from the point where we were supposed to meet. Having realised we reached the head count we reached Roopa's House. There were some strict instructions on how to use the loo from Roopa. For people interested please land up at her
house to get to know the instrucions. Having had a cup of tea we stared the nite show with "Dumb Charades". It was a great fun moment. People got to know lot of innovative ways of dumb actions. However Shamala and myself were adjuged the best Dumbers .) for the Really @ Actually and "Oye Bubbly" for "OY" of Troy respectively. While we were having fun with DumbC's sameer joined us and he too added fuel to the fun we were having. It was almost 1.30 AM we decided to have a short nap, so that we can really (Actually) contribute during the day. It was 3.30 AM Sameer and myself got up and found that Qualis guy is gonna reach us only by 4.30. So took one more short nap...while the guyz were having naps in intervals , all the women were sleeping on a single Cot in the form of a SINE wave Finally the qualis arrived at 4.45 AM . With in few minutes we transferred whatever stuff is required for the trip.

At around 5 we headed towards Kanakpura. We reached Sangam at 7. This 2 hours of drive allowed people to recharge their batteries for they had very short hours of sleep. Soon we unloaded some amount of food, water and sticks and started our trek crossing the river. Its a 4 km Trek from Sangam to MekkeDattu. We decided to start the cleaning programme right from where we had begun. The collection amounted to 2 baggages of plastic on the way itself.
Roopa , laksmi and Myself reached MekkeDattu at around 8.30. We took rest for a while to recharge ourselves for the next course of action. Soon the rest of the folks joined us. Having given them enough time for refreshing themselves we started our part2 of cleaning. We carried out the operation for about more than 2 hours. Collected huge chunks of junks of plastic. At around 11.45 we had refreshened ourselves and had some fruits and other stuff. We had few puzzles of both PJ and X-rated Genre, for which Shamala was one of the Victim. ) Soon it was ended by a short Jive Performance by Sameer and Roopa with Roopa leading all the way...

Just before dumping the garbage into the pit out there we thought we clean up the parts around this place too. so soon the part3 of the operation followed. With in 30 minutes our folks finished cleaning that place. Finally we collected very good amount of plastic. We took few snaps with the garbage bags dumped into the pit and started our journey back to Sangam.
Since the bus which is supposed to arrive hadn't turned up (reason being forest dept on strike) we trekked back to sangam. On the way back we picked up the Garabge bags we collected initially on the way up, dumped it into the pit near Sangam. On the way back few people had the privilige of a glimpse of my Sun Dance .) Though it was quite hot but not to a greater extent we were relentlessly trekking. At around 2 PM we reached Sangam. We had good amount of Coconut water with avg being 2 coconuts per head.

Having had enough water we decided to head back to bangalore. Since few of us atleast me was looking completely toned out we stopped in the middle of the town to wash our face ofcourse after spotting the place where we can get water to do the same. Myself, Dileep and Shamala were enjoying the ride with ABA songs by singing it out loudly..while the rest were also enjoying with in themselves...ABA is Aashiq Banaya Aapne for the absolutely clueless .) We stopped once we crossed the village had food for the noon. Roopa prepared the sandwiches, while laksmi and myself doing the cutlery job. Had to settle the accounts since few of the folks wanted to get down on their way. Shamala was the first person to get down, followed by Pritesh and then Shilpa. We reached roopa's house where dileep and lakshmi dispersed. Sameer, Roopa and myself exchanged few thoughts about the trip. distributed the left over stuff among ourselves. After that me and sameer departed to where we belong to.

Before i proceed to Lighter amounts and take aways from the trip, Here are Laksmi's thought's in her own words :
Guys/gals i must tell you the job you did the first time around had been really good. In comparison to last time, the place was less dirty. Of course since it is summer, there were lot of water bottles and pepsi cups. Of course the pan parag and kure-kure numbers were not far behind too. Great work to the team who got into cleaning right from where we started walking towards Mekedatu.

Some Lighter Moments :

How to clear a session/cache when acting dumb, please ask me .)
How to scare a monkey with your dance get to know the steps from me. Roopa n laksmi what say??
You should have watched Shamala's facial expression when instructing few group of guyz who were there with some alcohol in the water bottles. I could see a glimpse of Medha Patkar in her. Probably these guyz who got scared and started collecting stuff and putting in the garbage (even card boards) will start "Shamala sey Bachaoo Aandolon".
Though Shilpa is quiter among the group she concentrates on execution of the task.

Few Take Aways & Suggestions :

Letz avoid field work during summer and brain storm on activities that can be carried out for future.
Come up with a cost estimate metrics (me already looking at it), since the team is already shelling out their time and energy and on top of that they have to bear the costs which at times might be slighly overhead.
We may need to brain storm and come with a process for maintaining a central pool amount. One thing that comes right away is to collect Rs 50 per head from the group members for every trip we make, and what ever difference of amount to be taken care by the actual trip goers.
Find out some potential sponsors (Individuals) who are very much interested in our activities but cannot dedicate time. These individuals would definitely like todo a monetary support which will add into the central pool amount. In the long run when we grow big and establish ourselves as an organization this expereince of maintianing finances will help to a great extent.
Instead of buying food from retail stores which is amounting to be expensive, we can probably prepare minimal stuff at home , carry few cucumbers and lemons which will serve the purpose.
Every field worker should carry a back-pack with atleast one water-bottle.
Work out something on camping overnite which might reduce the transportaion expenses.

Well i think i should stop here.

Team work displayed by the folks is just phenomenonal. Great Going folks. Special acknowledgements to Sameer for arranging the Qualis at that odd hour of the day. We appreciate efforts by Dileep and Pritesh for joining us for the first time. Cheers for everyone else who made it for the trip. I hope everybody enjoyed the trip. Though the effort we spent is drop in an ocean, probably more and more groups will get inspired and more droplets of efforts will spent thereby making atleast these few good sights of nature plastic free.

Nothing in this meant to be offensive.(My disclaimer)

Looking forward for more people to volunteer.

Cheers
Vijay Kumar Yenne

TMM 2 - Trip to Mutayala Maduvu

2006-03-23T06:37:00.000-08:00

It was bright sunny afternoon. Rather than bright i should say it was sulking hot but the excitement surpassed the heat!!! I was coming back from my rehersal spot to catch up our eco-friends. Gosh it was already 2.20 the traffic was getting on to my nerves. Called up our CEE (Chief Execution Expert) to find out if they are waiting for me, But realised that the rest of the resources are yet to turn up at KFC. Finally reached the spot ofcourse 10 mins late. There i see CEE is all charged up with a different attire all together to rock the day inspiring people around. In few mins i met other folks FM (Facilities Manager), Feeding Expert, Don sisters, analyst, K Guru and the Scorpion King!!! and not to forget an Angel !!!! More on these people later. We started off with quick introduction among ourselves, somebody was shouting we dont have a camera...and with in few minutes comes the Camera (Angel hain naa!!! ). A smooth journey from KFC CMH road to Electronic city. On the way ahead we started off the traditional "Dumb Charades" ..ooff what movies tora tora tora..uncle tom's cabin..it was great fun...With in no time we realised we entered one Zammed narrow lane which was slight a tussle for our gaddi to move out. Here entered the jumbo ride. The entire path till mutalamadavu was horrible, inspite of this the journey was quite comfortable. As soon as we reached the main spot our CEE has given the instructions how to carry about the operation and quickly we were ready to pull over the sleeves and join the hurdle. Our main focus was only to collect forms of plastic. We carried our operation for more than an hour and half. Gosh we collected somewhere around more than 12 bags of Garbage (Remind you only plastic). The worst part of the garbage is the pepsi cups and the ghutka packets. They are just innumerable. For a moment i thought the Govt should increase the cost of Ghutka by 100 times.We loaded the bags into the Tempo that has been specially booked for this purpose by our offsite consultant alias Quick Gun Murugan!!!.
Ofcourse we had a snap session with the garbage we collected, followed by a snackdin session... i mean something more than snacks and less than dinner...thank god I didnt have my meal in the noon!!! Our feeding expert (with lotz of zeal even aftert hat tiresome operation ) was on a run, literally feeding everyone. He is just unstoppable. The elder Don Sister was just taking every chance to grab the Dahi having executed her task gracefully!!! After having a nice food session facilated by our FM we were on a move, for we have to get back to the city to dump our garbage. At this moment i would like to tell little about our silent chota Don sister - she executes her work silently ofcourse sticking to the basics perfectly. On the way back we discovered singer SHAAN in the form of our analyst (waise tho baaki sab bhi achha gaa rahen hain except that my songs were dumped!!! ). He has given one fantastic advice (analyst jo hain!!!! ) details of which will be told later. We were trying to figure out on the way where to dump the Garbage . Thanks to KGuru...for his kannada skills has helped us in negotiating the driver to tell exactly where to dump it. finally We decided to dump it near tippasandra.....ending with Our FM calculating the economy of the trip and spelling out the exact costs and future plan!!!

We were back to where we began. It was over before one realized it had started. But that the fate of every great experience we‘ve had!

Few key points out of this expereince :

We should involve local people in ensuring they participate in these kindaa programmes. We can pay them on per bag basis. Very well said Mr Analyst!!!

One it reduces the operations cost. people can volunteer (on a rotation basis) to get the garbage collected probably once in fortnite.
Two you are providing some means of living through a good cause.

If at all you are wondering why the !$%^ you are getting the garbage all the way to blore, remember it those people from out of that place who are the main source for that innumerous amount of garbage. Had it been like every individual visiting that place get the garbage back and puts in his locale bin the scenario would have been different. So no harm in getting the garbage back to Blore. However we need to identify some means of recycling this garbage rather than the plastic getting its place in land fills.

Well thats all about the trip in brief!!!

Want to know the real characters out of these Pseudo Terminolgies i used , then here I introduce the resources :

CEE - Chief Execution Expert - Ms Roopa
FM - Facilities Manager - Ms Bindiya
Feeding Expert - Mr Mayur
DON Sister's - Shamala (Elder Don ) & Aruna - ( Chota Khamooshi Don )
Analyst - Vishnu - (!!M B speaks...)
K.Guru - Kannada Guru - Tejaswi
Scorpion King - Sandeep Chakraborty with his Scorpio - thank you so much for reducing the expenses!!!!
Offsite consultant alias Quick Gun Murugan!!!. - Sameer Tupaki -
Angel - always Ahead of us for everything we need - Lakshmi

Guessing what I will call myself !!!!

Letz catch up soon in another Fun Filled activity

This is Save-Nature's spokesperson (Bhakwas bolu!!! )

Vijay Kumar Yenne

reporting from BloggersSpot....Over and out!

Meeting with the Commercial Manager, KSTDC(Hotels)

2006-03-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

Here's updating you all with a morning well-spent !

Thejaswi and me reached Khanija Bhavan at around 10:30 this morning and met Mr. M. Subramaniam, a very approachable person:

Minutes of the Meeting:

1) Waste management ? - initially he was reluctant and tried to brush it off saying it was not their concern since they do not own the place, but then he was honest enough to accept that they were the cause for most of the plastics around and he'll definitely work with us to get that sorted out -one of his ideas being that "We'll transfer food contents in plastic covers to Paper bags before selling to customers, as per the process followed at Bannerghatta"'

2) He suggested we present our thoughts about resolving the issue and what we expect from them, over mails and keep him updated about our activities.

3) He mentioned the make-over of Muthyalmaduvu - A project that will be started in a month or so. Said they would definitely keep in mind spreading awareness about cleanliness and place dust-bins along the path. [Shared info about the architect who would be involved too, not sure if this is of any importance ? ]

Well, he did give us a very rosy picture of what will be done and that he would be glad to help us out, but this can happen only if we are able to approach him as a more professional group. Maybe we should again have a meeting with him and think of ways to get him to actually back us up and since he seems to be open to our objective it shouldn't be really difficult.

His visiting card:

M. Subramaniam
Commercial Manager (Hotels)
KSTDC
#49, 2nd Floor, Khanija Bhavan, West Entrance,
Race Course Road, Bangalore - 560 001
Off: 22352901, 902, 22352580
Fax: 080-22352963
E-mail: kstdc@vsnl.in
Website - www.kstdc.nic.in

Thanks,
Shamala
for Save Nature

first step in mekedatu...

2006-03-22T20:01:00.000-08:00

Let me start from the day 1 plan. On march 4th we(Shilpa, Hari,Lakshmi,
Suresh, me,Bindiya,Amar) met and decided on where to go and we had 9 in
our list but due to various reasons only 6 could make it.

We started our journey from Bangalore early in the morning at 6.45 AM
(definitely early on Sunday!!). We met; sat in the car started the
journey we were getting to know each other as most of us were strangers
till we met. We were talking about what we are supposed to go do there
and were planning how to educate those localities.

The climate is becoming hotter and  we are tired before we reach there!
We reached there finally!! Wow we could see very little water and few
people (as were early) and loads of waste. We took a quick glace of the
place around and the beautiful stream.

But no body spent much time looking and admiring as all of us knew why
we were there!!!
And the scariest part was how we will complete if it gets hotter!!!!!
We all started to plan which place to cover how'll look after the stuff
who'll remind all of us to take water(very imp) in between within few
min we started and we are picking up the plastics!!! Strange really
strange I could never imagine people can make any place so dirty. What
not they use and throw!! '

We were amazed…. Our garbage collection bag is getting filled faster
and faster and the climate is getting hotter and hotter. We all worked
to our best to clean the place…Some people saw us doing it and instead
of throwing the candy (plastic) on the ground they gave it to us some
really felt responsible!! We wish there was dustbin!!!!

We actually didn't foresee the outcome before we stared. The outcome
was just amazing… We look back at the place from top.
How clean it looks!!!!...
How satisfied we all were!!! We forgot the pain we went through…
We came to the place we catch the bus to our surprise with in few
hours people have dirtied that place too…!! How insensitive!!!!!
We took rest for 5 min there and stared to clean that place too!!
Guess what....
There were other people who came to have fun were inspired by us!!!
And helped us clean the place!! Is not that amazing!!.

We could achieve the target to some extent. :-)

We had great fun cleaning….  :-)

Regards,
Shweta S
for Save Nature

Converting plastic waste into petrol

2006-03-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

"ALKA Zadgaonkar believes in creating something of value even out of waste. Since 2002, she has been demonstrating to Indian and foreign experts how waste plastic can be converted into petrol, offering a solution to one of the world’s biggest environment problems—-waste plastic disposal.

Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry at Nagpur’s G.H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Zadgaonkar recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for manufacturing and marketing petroleum products generated from waste plastic. She has been given Rs 5.9 million for the pilot project.

How did she hit upon the idea? "Both plastics and petro-products are hydrocarbons. The only difference is that in plastics the chain of molecules is longer. So, I wondered if it was possible to break the chain into small segments to convert it into value-added fuel. I started working on this idea in 1995 and my first successful experiment was in 1998-99," says 40-year-old Zadgaonkar.

Zadgaonkar’s method is simple: shredded plastic waste - free of oxygen – is heated with coal and a secret chemical. The products include fuel range liquids, coke and LPG range gases. About 1 kg of plastic and 100 gm of coal churn out a litre of fuel, which contains the gasoline range. More processing, Zadgaonkar claims, yields refined petrol.

"We can use any waste plastic recycled any number of times," says Zadgaonkar. She has received a patent from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)."

Above are some parts of an article in The Sunday Tribune dated Sunday, September 28, 2003. Full article can be read here. Now this is something we have been looking for a long time in our mission of Clean and Green. As soon as we came to know about it, we contacted her. Following are the important points from that discussion:

The plant can not be rented as it costs around 6 crore rupees.
The product has been launched commercially recently so it brings some complications of its own.
Currently there is no plant installed in Bangalore neither they are collecting the waste from Bangalore (through any agency etc) as capacity of this plant is 5 MT/day and Nagpur is producing 30 MT/day of waste.
She does not have any plan to install one such plant in Bangalore in near future.

Now we have seen a ray of hope. Do we have something like this in Bangalore? If you know, please share it with us. More about Alka's effort can be read at http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Magazine/story/alkaZ/

Pritesh Jain
for Save Nature

ps: photo copied from goodnewsindia.com article. For illustration purpose only.

first step....

2006-03-15T19:19:00.000-08:00

The IDEA of "Save Nature" is in the hearts of many people for a long time. Just that due to some reason it was not coming to life. Finally on 19th Feb, the group decided to take the first giant step. Muthyalmadu became the chosen one destinition. Amar, Hari, Abhay, Sashi, Shyamala, Bindiya, Roopa, Tejaswi chose to spend one fine Sunday with nature nurturing their DREAM. Dream of Plastic Free Clean and Green Environment.

Thanks to the dedicated effort of Amar and Bindiya all the logistics of food and transportation was taken care of. A little bit of antakshari, a little bit of stopping to pick up water, look for batteries that no-one had and a film roll, the group reached Muthyalmadu pretty early before the sun got too hot.

The place was litter strew and so awful that initially seemed like we have hit a jackpot. We armed ourselves with the gloves we had carried and the garbage bags and we spread ourselves over the stretch from near the KSTDC restaurant to where the staircase leads you down to the stream and the temple.

The amount of plastic we encountered was phenomenal, plastic bottles, ice cream cups, gutkha cover, toffee wrappers (small bits lodged in difficult places), on tree branches, under thorny bushes, in the stream just about everywhere where the eyes could see.

we collected and disposed off with 16 whopppppiing large sized bags of plastic !!!!

Really an amazing start. A fulfilling experience. Moreover this trip showed us the challanges in front of us. An eye opener in true sense. More about the discussion later.
keep watching for more....

Pritesh Jain
for Save Nature
(based on the mail sent by Roopa to the group)

an introduction...

2006-03-14T18:54:00.000-08:00

Save Nature is not just any group. Its an IDEA, a DREAM. A dream, that we can have plastic free green and clean environment. Started by a group of young enthusiastic people, it is right now based in Bangalore. In our modest means, we have started with most popular picnic spots and trekking routes (as most of us have been to these places and could see the garbage spread there). So right now, we are funded and supported on individual contribution. Here is some more information about the group (taken from the presentation made by the group members)

Our Aim:

To route plastic out from often visited picnic spots in and around Bangalore.

To find out ways to Dispose the plastic in eco-friendly way.

To create awareness about the idea of sensible usage of plastic.

Our slogan: Reduce Reuse Recycle (RRR)

Our Karmabhumi: To start with we have chosen two places around Bangalore - Muthyamadu (Anekal) and Mekedaatu. We plan to visit these locations every alternate weekend (mostly Saturday) and have a round of clean up.

Our funds and accounts: Right now we are working on the principle of "spend and split". Each person is assigned a responsibility; finally cost is split between the members who went on the trip. All money is from personal contribution as of now, though a proper account of usage is maintained.

You can look forward for a fun-filled satisfaction-rich experience with us. We have a yahoo group to keep the information about the activities. You can join it at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/savenature/ . Lots of good and relevant discussions take place on the group.

Pritesh Jain
for Save Nature