PATNA: Bihar-born Siddhant Sarang, 21, is an undergraduate student of history at Delhi University’s Satyawati College. A keen observer of global climate-related occurrences since his school days, he is set to launch a podcast in Bhojpuri dialect called ‘Dharti Maiya’.
Through podcast, he wants to reach out to the rural people in Bihar and UP on climate change. Bhojpuri is the 8th most spoken language in India and 3rd most spoken in Nepal too, with 51 million native speakers as per the 2011 census. Sarang, as one of the youngest environmental activists, is also getting an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled app in addition to his podcast to create awareness on environment and ecology.
Born in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, Sarang went to school where his passion led him to make a short documentary film on climate that won him an award. “Climate change is a stark reality. It is our fundamental responsibility to save the climate by becoming eco-friendly in our activities,” he said. Sarang’s podcast, launched in February, will soon be disseminating information through 22 other regional languages listed in the Indian Constitution.
“Being a student I don’t have funds to appoint translators. So, I have decided to take the help of the AI-enabled system to make both the podcast and the app multilingual,” he said.