Delhi Police has decided to walk on an eco-friendly path to commemorate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday. In keeping with the current push for environmentalism, Delhi Police is organizing a 'Plog Run' in delhi near the Yamuna river bed at Geeta Colony.
The event will entail collecting plastic from the Yamuna river bed. The run will be flagged off by Lieutenant General of Delhi Anil Baijal.
@DelhiPolice is organising a Plog Run on 2nd October at Geeta Colony Turn near Vijay Ghat along with @unitedway_delhi. Hon'ble @LtGovDelhi will be the Chief Guest and flag off the Plog Run. #ShantiSewaNyay pic.twitter.com/8eZvLxITjQ— DCP North Delhi (@DcpNorthDelhi) October 1, 2019
What is Plogging?
Plogging comes from athe swedish term "plokka upp" which roughly translates into "pick up" and jogging. A relatively new 'sport', plogging rose in popularity with the growing awareness of plastic pollution. Essentially, plogging involves jogging but while picking up plastic scrap and pollutants from the road. One of the first plogging events was held in 2016 and since then, the Swedish fitness trend has grown immensely in popularity.
Fit and Clean
Delhi Police is not the only one to initiate a plog run this Gandhiu Jayanti. Municipal corporations of several areas such as Ghaziabad, Ambernath and others are organising plog runs. In fact, the government of India has also been promoting plog runs as part of the Fit India movement launched by PM Narednra Modi on August 29.
As per Union sports minister Kiren Rijuju, fitness and cleanliess are the two sides of the same coin. In an interview to Republic, Rijuju said that by combining fitness with cleanliness, plogging insures fitness for individuals and cleanliness for nations. The Fit India Plog Run, a pan-India event organised in collaboration with the US-based non-profit organisation United Way, will take place on Oct 2 and is expected to draw 2,50,000 participants from across 50 Indian cities. The event will be flagged off by Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna.
As India responds to the clarion call of PM @narendramodi to eliminate single-use plastic, join us for picking plastic on the run at the India Plog Run on 2nd October. Hon’ble Minister @rsprasad to flag off the event in Patna.#IndiaBeatsPlastic #SwacchtaHiSeva #IamlessPlastic pic.twitter.com/N6ujBMD2Hq— United Way Delhi (@unitedway_delhi) September 27, 2019
About 1200 Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country, CBSE-affiliated schools, industry bodies such as FICCI, CII, Phd Chambers and Assocham, 2500 RWAs in Delhi and NCR are joining hands to organize the Fit India Plog Run across the nation, PTI reported last week.
This is not the first plog run in India, however. Last year on October 2, Bengaluru organised a plog run to celebrate the Mahatma's 149th birthday by clearing over 30 tonnes of plastic from the city.
Initiatives such as plogging help in improving citizens' awareness towards the cause & contributes in #MakingCitesPlasticFree. pic.twitter.com/45cfGqHdWx— Durga Shanker Mishra (@Secretary_MoHUA) September 29, 2019
