Dehradun: With the festival of lights barely a few days away, a bunch of environment-conscious youngsters of Dehradun has got busy exhorting locals to go in for a green Diwali. From gifting plants and holding signature campaigns, to conducting workshops on the ill-effects of crackers, they are calling upon residents to celebrate the festival in a way that allows them to have fun without harming their surroundings.
Youngsters associated with Making A Difference-by Being the Difference (MAD) group have started visiting morning assemblies of city-based schools to appeal students to become a “generation with a difference” by finding “alternate ways” of celebration. “We’re citing our example of how we’ve planned a sustainable picnic where we’d be holding a clean-up session followed by fun activities like a small DJ party,” said Abhijay Negi, the founding-president of MAD.
The young volunteers have also planned a rally, a convention and will roll out a signature campaign on Sunday to urge locals to eliminate or at least minimize the use of firecrackers. “You don’t really need that light, noise and pollution to be happy…we’re specifically focusing on highlighting the health hazards of crackers in our presentation at schools,” added Negi.
G-Force (‘G’ for Green), a brigade of youth volunteers from different walks of life, has been using ‘gandhigiri’ for the past few years to discourage locals from using firecrackers. “We gift plant saplings to locals as Diwali presents...our volunteers encourage locals to save not just the environment but also their money,” said Hemant Nav Kumar, president of G-Force’s parent body, U Turn Foundation.
{{/usCountry}}G-Force (‘G’ for Green), a brigade of youth volunteers from different walks of life, has been using ‘gandhigiri’ for the past few years to discourage locals from using firecrackers. “We gift plant saplings to locals as Diwali presents...our volunteers encourage locals to save not just the environment but also their money,” said Hemant Nav Kumar, president of G-Force’s parent body, U Turn Foundation.
{{/usCountry}}Doon Residents’ Welfare Front, an umbrella body of city’s resident welfare associations (RWAs), is playing its role at large. It has been urging all its member RWAs to go in for as many earthen lamps as possible over electric lights. “Going in for mitti ke diye instead of lights for decorating households will help in checking energy consumption while ensuring an eco-friendly Diwali,” said Mahesh Bhandari, the president of the Front.