It was while sitting in Qahwa, a cafe in SDA market that he read a newspaper report about a street littered with trash. A rattled Ripu Daman Bevli went to the place (with a friend) and cleared the area. Soon Bevli started cleaning the streets during his morning run and would post pictures on his Facebook group, My City = My Responsibility.
It drew in other runners, cyclists, walkers and joggers across India and ultimately they formed Ploggers of India, where ‘cleaning up other people’s litter the coolest thing to do’. Bevli has organised over 500 clean up drives across India.
He also holds the World Record (Golden Book) for the longest Plogging run (50K in Kota on January 5).
Born and brought up in Delhi, Bevli had a very middle class upbringing by a single mother.
“She is the strongest person I know. Whatever little good that I have, is inherited from her,” he says. An engineer by qualification, he worked with MNC tech companies till 2018, when he left it to focus on his mission to make India li t ter- free.
Where does the Ploggers of India stand now?
We have touched over one crore citizens. The government has adopted our mission and honoured me with the ‘Plogman of India & Fit India Ambassador’ title. We want to take this to all the 700+ districts of India, and assign Regional Champions who will plog in their localities so that we are able to realise our dream of litter-free India.
You also organise #Trash- Workout workshops at schools.
When I began, I knew my biggest target audience would be school children because they are the flag bearers who can lead us to a better future. To involve kids, I took the route of fitness and sports and created a fitness trend called the ‘Trash Workout’. This holistic full body workout improves overall wellbeing and fights the misconception that litter on the street is not our problem. Kids love it. A half-anhour trash workout workshop Kundapur (near Mangalore) almost became a fourhour clean up drive. The kids continued cleaning up the beaches for the next couple of hours and then took the pledge for Swachh Bharat.
What is the #PlasticUpvaas campaign?
I strongly feel we will not be able to clean up our country till we stop littering. For that, we have to reduce the waste we generate at our homes. Unfortunately, our life is filled with waste; disposable items and single- use plastic packaging. It can get overwhelming, but you can begin by shunning one single- use item from your daily life. Once it becomes a habit, you can move on to other things. The plastic upvaas is that first step, something that I lead my life with. Last year, during the ‘Make India Litter-Free’ campaign when I ran and cleaned up 50 cities in about two months, I was on a plastic upvaas, which means I wasn’t consuming anything wrapped in single-use plastic or disposables.
Why are people not interested in keeping their public areas clean?
Maybe because they don’t believe that the public space is ours. But the entire planet is our home and we have to take care of it. Hopefully, we will become more socially-responsible. We have made people bend down to pick up somebody else’s litter and the kind of awareness that gets raised by this single action is unparalleled.
What are your future plans?
With the lockdown, our fight against single-use plastic waste and littering has become even more relevant. People should shun the single-use surgical mask and switch to reusable masks. We have also started a plantation drive on August 15, 2020. With people staying indoors, nature has started to bloom and we don’t want those gains to be lost. Our goal is to plant 15,100 trees across Delhi- NCR by October 2, Gandhiji’s 151st birth anniversary.
Any message for our readers?
Leave your footprints, not carbon footprints.