Delhi – September 25, 2019
Earth Day Network (EDN) is an international environmental NGO. It grew out of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Today, it engages with over 75,000 organizations in some 192 countries to mobilize and broaden the environmental movement.
The Great Global Cleanup is EDN’s worldwide campaign to remove billions of pieces of trash from neighborhoods, beaches, rivers, lakes, trails, and parks — reducing waste and plastic pollution, improving habitats, and preventing harm to wildlife and humans. It was piloted through more than 3,000 cleanups in cities across the U.S. for Earth Day 2019. The event was scaled up for global reach to kick off the largest coordinated environmental volunteer event in history.
The India program “The Ganga River Cleanup” – a landmark citizen-led cleanup of the iconic River Ganges was inaugurated at Devparayag (the assimilation point of two rivers where it gets its name as “river Ganga”) on April 13, 2019 with a 9-day Rally. The first phase was expected to evolve over the next 15 months to encompass 100 cities and towns close to the Ganges till it meanders to the famous Sunderbans Delta. Awareness programs were taken up in over 100 schools starting from Rishikesh, Haridwar, Varanasi, Patna and near Sagar Island.
In Rishikesh and Haridwar towns alone, more than 10,000 kgs of plastic waste was collected during these programs and disposed of. 4,500 students and 200 teachers were sensitized about the menace of single use plastic. 1,500 trees were planted around river Ganga and 2,000 cloth bags to replace plastic bags were distributed free. Another large scale program has been launched on September 20th, 2019 by EDN’s partner, CARITAS in six States, i.e. Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (including one in North East) on cleanliness, waste management, tree plantation.
Way Forward: In order to reach the momentum to larger communities, a team comprising of 10 members along with more than 300 volunteers will take up a Foot March (Padyatra) from Rishikesh on October 2nd, 2019, i.e. on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It will start from Triveni Ghat at 11.30 a.m. on October 2nd and terminate at Kankhal (Haridwar) on October 4th, 2019. The important religious Ashrams are being roped in to provide support through their volunteers to make this ‘Foot March’ a great success.
This event also coincides with the country-wide campaign launched by the Government of India to completely ban the single use plastics from this day.
Ms Anita Mamgai, Mayor of Municipal Corporation, Rishikesh (Uttarakhand State) will flag off the ‘Foot March’. The other prominent supporters who have confirmed their participation are:
- President, Rotary Club, Rishikesh (Mr. Jatinder Singh Bartwal);
- President, Ganga Sabha, Rishikesh (Mr. Shekhar)
- President, Hindu Parishad (Mr. Vishal Tayal)
- Manager, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (Mr. Anil Bhatt)
- Manager, Gurudwara Shri Hemkunt Sahib (Mr. Darshan Singh)
The event is expected to be widely covered by the local Press as well as the Press from Dehradun which is the capital town of Uttarakhand State.
It would be our pleasure if the larger community of Press could join in large number in our common aim to ensure that the Holy Ganges waters are as pure as our ancestors found them to be. Your presence on October 2nd at Triveni Ghat, Rishikesh would be much appreciated.
For further information please contact:
Mr. Shyam Lal Bhai, Chairman, Lok Paryavaran Shiksha Sansthan, Rishikesh (Distt. Dehradun)
Phone: 91+9639821390, 91+9627904029. Email: info@lpss.in. or
Mr. Anil Arora, Director-Partnerships, Earth Day Network, New Delhi. Phone: 9811888994, Email: 1951anilarora@gmail.com; arora@earthday.org.
