Mountain Clean Up - Shivagange

Sitting ideal in a 1BHK home and watching favorite series in Netflix is not going to help in relaxing my mind and staying healthy. I opened my laptop and searched for events happening in Bangalore, mainly trekking. Events high posted there is a mountain clean up activity happening on 16/03weekend, organized by moutainclean up group. This activity sounds good to me as I will be involved in both mountain trekking in cool sunshine and cleaning up trashes, created by humans. As this was not free event, initially I hesitated to register for the event. But one point of time we need to trust all and move out of comfort Zone to enjoy the life which we are expecting. I registered for the event and got the notification that my registration is confirmed and received a mail that event coordinator will be reaching out on the pickup points and the timings. A whatsup group was created and all the questions are answered in the group. I started packing things to a minimal, mainly packed couple of natural energizer < Banana, oranges, Water and some Cane sugars>. All set for the trip next day.

Alarm rang at 3.30 AM, my hands tempted to snooze it but somehow got up and ready for the trip. Booked ola, reached Silk board and waited for the vehicle to pick me up. Boarded the vehicle and took a short nap. When I woke up I saw the TT was full, felt happy that there are people in the world who cares about environment. Hats off to all of them. Reached Shivagange<Tumkur> around 6 AM. I had a hard feeling whether I will be able to trek as it has been long time I haven’t trekked and not sure how my body is going to respond. With confidence, got the packed breakfast by organizers and started to climb. As there are many monkeys roaming around, placed the food packet inside the bag. For everyone, two plastic sack bags are handed over. One for Plastic bottles and another for Misc. wastes like bottle caps, Rubber materials and Plastic covers. They also gave pair of gloves for picking the wastes.

 The NGO which organized the event, collected around 500 bags of plastic waste last time which was a huge. This shows how humans destroying the eco system without awareness. Started climbing the hill and spotted many plastic wastes. Monkeys searched for food and water, they filled the stomach whichever they got. This sight made me sad.

 
 After a long 2 hrs trek, reached the top of mountain. Felt the cool breeze and beautiful sun shine. Top view looked mesmerizing and romantic. No Mobile rings, silent environment. There were around 40 members, each team had 8 members. Each team had a guide. He guided on the plan and said safety is the priority and no exploring on thick bushes, sloppy places. Had breakfast and the food left over was served for the pity monkeys.

 

More crowd started to come as it was weekend and we started to pick up the trashes. Plastics was left over all over the mountains, mainly plastic bottle caps <huge numbers> . As I was picking up the trashes by leaning down , one monkey climbed and started exploring my bag . They know how to unzip the bag, took banana from my bag and disappeared in no time. Also while cleaning found many 1 and 2 rupees coins, collected and kept inside my mini pocket 😊.

 

 Bags started filling up, filled bags are passed on to another person where he knits it. People going down sometimes pick up the bag and deposit in the main entrance. This activity went almost for 3 hrs, there were couple of shops provided fruits and juice. Took rest under the tree shades, sweating after a long time. Almost 100 gunny bags are filled up with plastic wastes but there are many left around the mountain. if one mountain had this many non-biodegradable wastes , how about thousands of mountains in the world. Mean time I am thinking on this , I saw a college girl throwing plastic bottles in a fashionable way  without any awareness even though the dustbins are few meters away. Collected coins are provided to the beggars on the way.

 

Started feeling thirsty after hectic work out, No water in bottle. Asked people nearby is there any water tank to fill the water. They pointed to a water tank , water was good and  it was clean. Even though the water tasted good , people wasted money in getting water bottle in the shop. Whom to blame, is it government who doesn’t care in providing quality water to people for free or the people who always things only Water bottles are safe to drink. No time to blame , walked away by carrying gunny bags. Reached the bottom of the hill, temple trust committee provided free lunch . Had a good food and slept for some time. Took team picture and headed towards Bangalore. Watched KGF Action movie on the way.  World will be a better place only when humans understands , ecosystem is more important for future generation . Let be aware of the action we do, sometimes it benefits others , sometimes ………….  

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. God is dead.