This student gets people to keep streets clean from Pune to UK

Gurav is currently on a tour of 30 cities in 30 days across the UK in a fight against climate change.
Vivek Gurav, popularly known as the Plogman and a climate activist from Pune. (Photo Express)
Vivek Gurav, popularly known as the Plogman and a climate activist from Pune. (Photo Express)

VISAKHAPATNAM: Climate change is a catastrophic existential threat that begs an immediate human reaction. Although many people around the world understand the seriousness of climate change, most of them are clueless about how to transform their climate concerns into action.

In a conversation with TNIE, Vivek Gurav, popularly known as the Plogman and a climate activist from Pune, shares his insights about how an incident changed his life and people around him, won him many accolades, and earned him global recognition.

“When I moved to Pune for my bachelor’s degree in 2014, I was forced to buy water bottles every single day due to lack of drinking water facilities. This triggered me to clean rivers and pick up trash on the streets. This initiative took the form of plogging, the act of picking up trash and jogging in 2019. This led me to start a community of ploggers called Pune Ploggers,” recalls Gurav.

He moved to Bristol last year to study master’s in environmental policy and management. Over the past four years, he and his fellow ploggers have covered 675km litter picking on 120 plogging missions and collected over 10 lakh kilogram of litter. The constant efforts to clean the environment earned him global recognition. Gurav was awarded the ‘Points of Light Award’ by the former U.K PM Boris Johnson for being an inspirational volunteer in bringing about a change in society. In October, he was invited to 10 Downing Street by UK PM Rishi Sunak. In November, he spoke at COY17, the youth version of the COP27 climate summit.

Gurav is currently on a tour of 30 cities in 30 days across the UK in a fight against climate change. Addressing the climate change concern, he said that the world needs to act on top priority.
“The crisis has already hit us and has become a question of our existence. There should be no doubt about whether climate change is real or not. It is already affecting us. There is no time left for us to think about it; we must start fixing it right away. Being careless about it would leave us with no option other than losing our lives in the future because there will be no clean air to breathe, no clean water to drink, and no safe home to live in,” he lamented.

Citing waste management, vehicular pollution, and consumerism as the three main reasons for climate change in India, he opined that climate change is a holistic approach, which is lacking currently. “One must understand their share of negative impact on the environment before reacting. Each one of us generates waste daily. If we can properly dispose of it and control waste management, then we are surely taking a step towards protecting nature,” he recommended.

“If individuals and communities act stronger against the cause, it will pressurise the government to take strict actions and pass bills that will help fight climate change. The economy, development, and environment go hand in hand. But India has always set an example of what it can do in terms of sustainability or anything else. So, I believe India can be a leader in this as well,” he said.

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