“On a regular college day when I was on my way back home, I saw a huge tree being chopped off in Suchitra. Coming from a rural background, this was my first! I went to them and asked them to not cut trees. But nobody listened. They laughed and sent me away. I thought about it all night and realised that people will listen to me only when I have a little more power. Either I need to be in a group or should have my own NGO. That’s when I started working with an organisation that deals with environmental issues. It helped me learn a lot – how to approach such situations and what to do. But a couple of years later, they shut down, but the fight isn’t over. So I started my own NGO – Earthlings. Our first project was to paint the walls or Begumpet railway station. We were a team of 7 and it took us 5 hours. But we made an impact! If you walk around that area, you’ll notice that nobody sticks bills or spits on those walls. Starting from there, we did more such projects and cleanliness drives and with time, our team kept increasing. We started to work with marathon organisers to clean the route after the run. That’s where our funding started, though minimal.

Looking at the worsening climate issues, I’ve also started creating awareness on why we shouldn’t use plastic and save water. I notice that because I have some authority, in terms of a background of work and impact, people listen to me – be it my relatives, friends or regular citizens on the roads. About 5 years earlier, they didn’t. But today, they do. It only started because I believed that the environment needed saviours and we can all be one. A common man can reduce the usage of plastic by carrying their own cloth bag, own water bottle and using dustbins for garbage disposal. Most importantly, by planting at least one sapling near their home and taking care of it will change the world. Swachh Bharat was a big thing when it started, but now it has slowed down. It’s not about doing it on one single day. It’s about a process that we need to follow everyday. On this 150th birthday of Gandhi, we should pledge to stand up for our environment.”

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