BENGALURU: It’s good to follow your passion but it’s better to be conscious of not damaging the environment in the process. Moto Tourers and Biking Community Federation are hosting their annual initiative, Save Earth Ride (SER) by planting saplings on August 6 at Sri Rakum School for the Blind, Devanahalli.
The event will have police officer-turned-politician Bhaskar Rao, minister for forest, ecology and environment Eshwara Khandre, and child actor Shernik Arora, who was seen in Adhura and The Night Manager series.
SER was conceived in 2019, to negate the biking community‘s carbon footprint. The event since then has grown to 85 plus Indian cities and to other countries like Malaysia and Singapore. Ashish Singh, founder of the federation, says it was an effort to give back to the environment. “As a biking community we try to do a lot of trips and ride to various places.
It leaves a carbon footprint and to negate that we plant as many trees as possible. It is our duty to be conscious of these small things. Passion is good but not at the cost of something precious,” explains Singh, adding that in India itself more than 300 motorcycle clubs take part in SER in the month of August every year. “We do it in monsoons because it’s ideal for planting,” he says.
The community is planning to plant around 700-1,000 saplings. “It’s on the outskirts of the city and is government land. It’s a part of the six acres of land which was completely barren. The villagers close by had planted some plants and now we are taking it further. We are on official agreement with the forest department that we will be taking care of the saplings for the next three years,” says Singh.