Volunteers invited to keep Lalbagh flower show clean

Barkha Kumari

Citizen groups and an NGO assisting Lalbagh Botanical Garden authorities in keeping the Independence Day Flower Show litter-free are inviting the public to volunteer. They include Saahas, Beautiful Bharat, and The Indian Ploggers Army.

The flower show opened at Lalbagh on August 8 and will conclude on August 19. It is expected to draw around 12 lakh visitors.

M Jagadeesh, joint director of horticulture (parks and gardens), says, “Lalbagh’s footfall goes up by two or three times during the flower show. We need 200 volunteers on top of our existing cleaning staff. We expect them to educate visitors and vendors to not litter the place.”

Beautiful Bharat is focussed on promoting cleanliness. Its cofounder Odette Katrak says they aim to encourage people to use bins, to not spit in the open, and bring their own water bottles and use filling stations on the campus. To drive this behavioural change, her team will make announcements in English, Kannada and Hindi, and talk to people during the show.

“Today, I saw an old man spitting. I walked up to him and said politely ‘Sir, spitting in public spaces is not a healthy practice’. He apologised and promised to discourage others from doing the same,” Odette told Metrolife on Thursday.

Her team will also educate visitors to not accept banned items from stalls at the show. These include silver foil plates, aluminium foil pouches, thermocol bowls, plastic spoons and NWPP bags. NWPP stands for non-woven polypropylene. The NWPP bags resemble cloth bags. “We will also do surveillance of stalls and report defaulters to BBMP marshals,” she says.

Saahas is a waste management NGO. Its volunteers will sensitise the public to use separate bins to dispose of dry and wet waste. They will walk around and pick up stray trash, and also inform the cleaning staff of overflowing bins.

“We require 60-70 volunteers every day. They can either do the morning shift (10 am-1 pm), afternoon shift (2-5 pm), or volunteer for the full day (10 am-5 pm),” says Shraboni Chowdhury, manager (partnerships), Saahas.

The Indian Ploggers Army invites joggers to clean trash from Lalbagh once a month. “Since most of our volunteers are students, this time, we plan to issue them a certificate if they clock in eight hours of volunteering,” says founder G Nagaraj.

To volunteer, connect with @saahas_ngo, @beautifulbharatorg, and @theindianploggersarmy on Instagram.