Current mood:	accomplished
Entry tags:	fun, photography, savenature, trip

Save Nature
Everytime i go to any tourist place i feel disheartened by the amount of garbage littered around the place. Who is to be blamed for the mess?


I guess its us the tourists and the authorities ( Forest department, KSTDC etc ) who should share the responsibility for this. On our part we should make sure that we dont litter the place, and as for the autorities they should atleast provide dustbins for the tourists to dump the garbage and also make an effort in educating the visitors. There have been times when i have felt like doing the same ( educating and collecting all the garbage ), but many times i have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the mess( like in yedakumeri trip i did not ask the group members to collect all the garbage with them as we did in earlier trips ). On sunday i did something that i had never done before - i did what i always wished somebody else did, clean a tourist place.

On Sunday i went to Mekedatu with the a group of volunteers who wish to call themselves Save nature , their only goal is to find an end-to-end solution to the problem of plastic, especially in tourist places in and around bangalore( currently concentrating on Mekedatu and Pearl Valley) . Basically they go to these places collect as much plastic as possible and dump it in proper dumping yards. The group started in Feb 2006 mainly onsists of 13 nature enthusiasts who are willing to dedicae their free time for a noble cause. Every month they decide on the days when they plan to visit these places and then try to get volunteers for the event, currently they are trying to publicize the event through word of mouth only. Save Nature ( need suggestiong for a better name ) is not an organisation or a trust, it is just a group of friends sharing similar ideas as such all the cost of the trip are shared by every member of the team who is involved in the trip ( including the volunteers ). Recently they have reached an agreement with the Jungle Lodges ( who run the Cavery fishing camp at Mekedatu ) who has agreed to provide food for the team members and also provide transport of garbage. We also get to address the visitors of the Camp and educate the guests about the program ). They are also trying to convince the forest department to help the group by installing a few Dustbins and other facilities so that the tourists can dump the garbage safetly. Incase you want to know more about the group join the Yahoo group get involved in the programs and help publicize the events. In return you get the satisfaction of doing something for a good cause.


I heard about this event in one of the threads on Bangalore-trekkers community on Orkut, i contacted the person and got all the info required, later i spoke to a few of my friends who were willing to join me for the trip. Finally on Sunday we started from Bangalore at 5:45 and reached Mekedatu around 8, first we went to Cavery fishing camp to address the guests there



Then we collected our food and left to Makedatu. The moment we landed at Sangam we knew that we had a mamoth task at hand, so we did not waste any time and immediately got into the bus to reach Makedatu. That was the first time i got to do the work i had gone there for. - since most of the people in the group did not know to talk Kannada i had to try and educate the passangers about the group and about our purpose, we passed around the pamplets that the team had prepared and requested them not to dump any garbage at the place. On reaching Mekedatu we distributed Gloves and garbage bags to all the team members and started the plastic collection work, withing a couple of hours we had covered most of mekedatu and collected 11 ( thats right ) eleven huge bags of Plastic. Water bottles contributed to most of the garbage followed by Plastic plates and cups. We took a short break and then tried to educate the public about the harmful effects of plastic and requested them not to litter the place. After that we took some time to enjoy the beauty of the place and returned to Sangama. Few members of the team ( who did not want to walk across the river ) collected few more bags of garbage while waiting for the coracle to come. On crossing the river we had food and then went to shops and educated them about the harful effects of Plastic. We handed over the notice boards we had prepared to the forest department officials who agreed to post it in public places. then we returned to bangalore after a very satisfying day of work.

Inspite of all the work we had our share of fun too:












For the first time after a trek i felt very good about myself for having done something good ( usually i feel bad for some mistake i might have done in arranging the trip ). Propbably my first selfless act. Iam definetly looking forward to do more such trips, and to take active part in the groups activities.

If you want to help the group please help us with the following:

1.) Publicize the events - we are badly in need of volunteers - post about it in your blogs, post it on message boards, spread the word.
2.) Suggest a good name for the group. We are planning to create a website for the group and we need a proper name. The name should emphasize on the goal of cleaning the nature and also should represent a group of volunteers.
3.) IF possible suggest a few ideas for the logo.
4.) Join the group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/savenature/ ) and take active participation in the groups activities.

If you have any questions please leave a comment or send it to the group.

PS: other ljers who were in the team are: sandy_tr , chandrahasa