Gurgaon residents turn into green soldiers for a cleaner and greener city
A group of residents gathered for a cleanliness drive to raise awareness about rampant littering in the Millenium City.
As residents of Gurgaon geared up to vote in the recent MCG elections, a group of volunteers, armed with brooms, gloves, carts and bin bags, set about cleaning a one-kilometre-long stretch from Hewo Part 1 Apartments to HUDA Market Road in Gurgaon’s Sector 56 area, at 7 in the morning. What began with a small plantation drive by a couple of volunteers has grown into full-fledged group of green crusaders, who go by the name of Green Soldiers.
The drive was organised on the day of the MCG elections, September 24, because the volunteers wanted to highlight the problem of rampant garbage-dumping in the area. “As we were watering the plants, we realised that saplings were dying because of the constant dumping of garbage in the street. There aren’t even dustbins in the streets. We thought of taking the issue in our own hands, by cleaning it first, in order for the plants to survive. Over 100 people gathered, and we even went door to door, asking more residents to join in,” says a volunteer, Nupur Agarwal Kalra, a Gurgaon resident.
Formed three months back, the self-funded group has decided to conduct cleanliness drives on a monthly basis, with participation from almost all age groups. “The group was formed with the intention to make Gurgaon cleaner, by planting saplings across the city. We started off with a WhatsApp group, and gradually more people joined in. Our first step was a plantation drive a couple of months back. At that time, we planted 70 saplings across the kilometre-long stretch near HUDA Market. We have started with one stretch at a time, and hope to spread to other areas of Gurgaon, too,” adds Nupur.
“What could I do to contribute,” is what another Gurgaon resident, Deeksha Babhoota, would wonder everyday while passing through the littered street in Sector 56. “I would pass through the street every day, wondering what I could do to help the place become greener and cleaner. We may have solved the problem temporarily, but we need the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) and more volunteers’ support to continue our efforts. Our next step will be waste segregation in our society, Hewo 1 Apartments.”
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