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Earth’s safe in their hands

They took up the responsibility of making their 40 acre community in Whitefield – Laughing Waters – as environmentally friendly as possible.

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“Adults just do a lot of blah blah and hardly any work. So we keep them out,” says eight-year-old Nihar. “Yeah, so we took matters into our own hands,” adds Parthiv, all of 12. Before you dismiss it as a couple of juvenile, smart alec comments, chew on this: The kids, in less than a year’s time, have probably done more for the environment than what many ‘grown-up’ environmentalists ever have.

They took up the responsibility of making their 40 acre community in Whitefield – Laughing Waters – as environmentally friendly as possible. After some serious brainstorming, the children decided to name their group ‘Ecolife’. This was in June, 2008. With hardly any brouhaha, they planted over 200 saplings in and around the Laughing Waters. “Fruit trees in the park and flowering trees by the roads,” that was their scheme.

“We then wondered, ‘what next?’ And thus came the idea of garbage collection,” says Anju, 7. Thirteen-year-old Roohi explains: “We split into smaller groups, each of us going in different directions. We cleared all the littered bio-degradable waste inside the layout.” It did not end there.

Ecolife met again and this time, the agenda went one step further: door-to-door garbage collection. Each one on their bicycles (a couple of tricycles too) descended at every doorstep and rang the bell, asking for plastic waste. “We collected quite a bit. The highpoint was when the whole lot which I thought was around five kg turned out to be over 60 kg!” exclaims Parthiv. They then sold the waste to KK Plastic Waste Management Company, which uses plastic waste to lay roads. “We made a couple of hundreds,” 10-year-old Yara adds.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Parthiv quips, with a shrug. The door-to-door trash collection drive, since then, became a routine. “We cleared the gutter outside the compound gate too,” adds Indu, 9. When the trees they planted showed signs of wilting, the children claimed ownership and have been watering and caring for those green lives. The large layout has several unoccupied plots, where the children, scurrying to clear all space of litter, found a few stray puppies. “We contacted CUPA and gave them away. Since then, I am always looking out for puppies,” says animal lover, Nihar.

These Ecolife activities thus became the Sunday rote for these children. “After every activity, we play games – cricket, basketball, lagori till it is dark,” says Adya, 8. “Until the mosquitoes swarm around,” adds Roohi. Parthiv quickly lists another of Ecolife’s triumphs: Laughing Waters Olympics – a sports day for the entire community, organised by the children. “But in summer, we run low. For, many are out on vacation, and the few of us who are here find it tough to manage all by ourselves,” he adds.

At Ecolife, there is no hierarchy. “Everyone helps in everything. Nobody holds any posts — you see, it’s a democracy,” Parthiv says. Strangely, when these children tried to extend their activities to their schools, they found few takers. But that hardly dissuaded them. “We are trying to link up with other communities around ours, let’s see,” says Roohi.
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