Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Environmental Action Group

During the season of elections, amidst all the political rivalry and drama, we complain of the utter futility of the process. After all at the end of the day, none of the groups that will come into power will really address serious problems faced on campus. So we play our little role in the election process, cast our precious vote and step back. That’s where our 'democratic duty' as a student and as part of this institution ends. We go back to our chai and bondas, giving up all responsibility towards the university. and we continue our criticism of those in power. Unfortunately what we do not realize is that we are limiting ourselves and our value as students. By turning the word 'political' into a dirty word we have become powerless. Not to mention the sheer diversity on campus makes it close to impossible to mobilize all students by appealing to a single political stand. But there is one thing that affects us all equally and that is the environment.


It is very difficult to not care about the environment on a campus like ours. Increasing amounts of garbage on campus have become an eyesore for many. Moreover we share this campus with a great diversity of wild life: deers, wild boars, peacocks and buffaloes. The large amounts of plastic thrown around campus may not affect us as much as they may affect these innocent bystanders.  Plastic waste is not the only issue. Glass, chemical waste and domestic refuse pollute our campus. To make matters worse, there is no actual waste management system on campus. All this waste is generally dumped around campus, or worse, burned. Since these issues were never taken up by any political party, some of us decided to come together to do something about this. This group later came to be known as the Environmental Action Group. Formed by students from across disciplines, the EAG hopes to get students together for a cleaner campus through cleaning drives, petitions to the administration and awareness programmes. Till date, the EAG has conducted two cleaning drives, on the 30th of July and on the 15th of August. We have also looked into alternative methods of waste management, and petitioned the Vice-Chancellor and the administration, who have promised to take our suggestion into consideration. However, things  are not easy. Being an non affiliated group, has its challenges. Neither do we have any political power, nor we get many volunteers because its a non-profit, non-glamorous and a politically independent organization. And then there's the fact that no real change can take place, unless the people change. Then again, its a start.


5 comments:

Unknown said...

How do I contact you guys on campus?

Unknown said...

Hey.. do u mean the editors.. or environmental action group?

Unknown said...

The environmental action Gp buddy

Unknown said...

you may contact Sipoy @ 9394788698
Anu @ 9951161099

Unknown said...

hey, you can also contact EAG at : environmentalactiongrouphcu@gmail.com