Nagpur :- The devastating oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in the year 1969 was the incident that developed an insight and consciousness in the mind of Former Senator of US, Gaylord Nelson , to initiate a movement in America that led to bringing million Americans on street on 22 nd April 1970, making it the First Earth Day to protest against the deterioration of Environment.
Each year, Earth Day is celebrated to demonstrate support for Environmental Protection and is co-ordinated globally by Earth Day Network. Today, Earth Day has become the largest civic observance, being celebrated in 195 countries and 1 billion people.
Supporting the movement, Nagpur Municipal Corporation and Green Vigil Foundation, an NGO working in the field of Environment Protection, who is an official partner of Earth Day Network, India observed ‘Earth Day 2024, by conducting a citizen outreach campaign at Sitabuldi market area, Nagpur.
Propagating this year’s Earth Day theme – Planet vs Plastics, members of Green Vigil Foundation engaged shopkeepers, customers, citizens on plastic menace, plastic pollution, its effect on environment, human & animals, using colourful and informative placards & posters. Along with this, Green Vigil members also advocated phasing out single use plastic completely, rejecting fast fashion, investing in innovative technologies and materials to build a plastic free world.
A rally was led throughout the sitabuldi market by Nuisance Detection Squad, NMC staff and Green Vigil members calling out for action and commitment to end plastic pollution for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040.
Karuna Singh, Regional Director, Asia, EarthDay.org, appreciated the efforts being taken by Nagpur Municipal Corporation & Green Vigil for Environment Protection in the city. The Earth Day Celebrated under the guidance of NMC Commissioner Dr. Abhijeet Chowdhari.
Prominently present during the campaign were Prakash Warhade, Deputy Commissioner, Dr. Gajendra Mahalle, Deputy Commissioner, Manish Soni, PRO, Amol Tapase, Rohidas Rathod, NDS Chief Virsen Tambe, Kaustav Chatterjee, Founder, GVF, Burdi merchant association’s Kisan Agarwal, Anup Khandelwal, Vijay Mehadia, Pradeep Gupta, Sharad Pardhi, Kisan Ganwani, and Arjun Bhojwani.
Surbhi Jaiswal, Team Lead, Mehul Kosurkar, Sheetal Choudhary, Bishnudeo Yadav, Priya Yadav, Tushar Deshmukh, Deepak Prasad, Parth Jumde, Nitin Kukekar and other members of Green Vigil Foundation along with Staff of NMC worked hard for the success of the campaign.
