Kochi: Going green seems to be trending. Keeping in mind all the terrific effects of environmental degradation and climatic change, it is impossible to stay the same and sip your morning tea or coffee. Considering this the students of the Government Model Engineering College here decided to conduct a session of plogging, i.e., picking up litter as you jog.
The event #KochiPlogs was conducted on October 28 at the Central Park, Panampilly Nagar, in association with ANERT (Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology) as a part of Excel 2018, the annual techno-managerial fest of the college.
While jogging helps you stay fit, picking up litter helps the environment stay so too. The run started at 7 am in the morning and had over 300 ploggers including students and residents.
"We are happy to be the first community to bring the tradition of plogging which improves the environment and health at the same time," said Haritha Paul, the social initiatives manager of Excel 2018. "More and more students should take up such initiatives in the coming years as the future of the planet is in our hands at the moment."
All the ploggers were given the #KochiPlogs T-shirts. The run was followed by the ‘Plogging party’ wherein the distinguished guests who had come spoke. The speakers for the day were Soumini Jain, the Mayor of the Cochin Corporation, Hibi Eden, MLA, Sana Khader, craftsperson cum-entrepreneur, and Valmakry, a popular social media influencer.
The Mayor and the MLA spoke how the students had become a model to others in the society and appreciated the college for introducing this practice in Kerala and the ploggers then had a fun-filled interactive session with Khader and Valmakry.
A small street play was later organised by the second- and third-year students to promote awareness on energy conservation. “Our play was focused on the ill-effects of using conventional sources of fuel and we believe that we could spread that message effectively through this platform," said Pavithra Lakshmi, a member of the street play team.
The event concluded with the college band, Seven Eight, performing for the audience.