Dialogue with Secretary, Department of Forests, Government of Karnataka

Sandeep Chakravarthy met with the Secretary of DoF. Here is the mail exchange on the same.

This refers to our recent meeting at the Tree Plantation function on Aug.29th,2009 organised by the Rotary Club of Koramangala. As mentioned to you briefly,I am a volunteer in a group called "Clean and Green". We have focussed our attention on cleaning the plastic waste left behind by tourists / visitors who visit two popular "picnic spots" in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.Our group has been in existence for over three and a half years.

The efforts of our volunteers have been supported by 8 Corporate sponsored clean up drives, as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. Jungle Lodges and Resorts have also supported us by bringing back the plastic to Bangalore in their vehicle, and delivering it to K K Plastics for re-cycling. We have removed well over 2000 kg of plastic,possibly close to 3000kg from the Wildlife Sanctuary.

We have the permission from the PCCF to install garbage bins and erect signboards at both Mutthatti and Sangam. With the help of Sun Microsystems,one of our corporate sponsors, we have installed a few bins at Sangam.

Since plastic is still not banned from being brought into the Sanctuary, we are working on a locally sustainable model,of recruiting some families who live in and around the Sanctuary to collect the plastic which is littered and also to educate the visitors / tourists not to litter. These families will have to be remunerated for the work they do.

While corporate sponsorship is one option, the sale of plastic to re-cycling agencies is another way to remunerate those involved in collecting the plastic. We are exploring both possibilities. Sir, we would like your support to ban the entry of plastic in all the protected forests of Karnataka and make violation of this a punishable offence.

Our group realises that enforcing the law is difficult by the Forest Dept, due to a shortage of manpower,and this is where "Clean and Green" can help by persuading corporate sponsors to pay for security staff who will enforce the law and penalise offenders.

If we have your approval to proceed along these lines,we shall approach our corporate sponsors for assistance. "Clean and Green's" vision has been to keep our Forests plastic free and we seek your support to realise the dream of hundreds maybe thousands of volunteers.

The RESPONSE !!!

Thanks for your e-mail expressing concern on the plastic littering in the wild-life areas. I have spoken to Chief Wildlife warden to ban the plastic in the wild life areas.

Sandeep is attempting to meet with the Chief Wildlife Warden and is communicating with him to get the time.

Saahas and Vee Clean and Green

Adarsh and Sandeep went to Lalbagh to meet Ms Wilma R of Saahas.

She was very busy engaging a large number of corporate volunteers to keep Lalbagh clean during the week long flower show. Their plan:

- Man the entry gates and prevent plastic from being brought in by visitors.

- Place bins at the food court and the stalls and request visitors / vendors to deposit the plastic there.

- Segregate plastic and take it to the re-cycling centre inside Lalbagh.

- Supervise the Lalbagh staff to see that they implement the removal of waste.

If any of you have the time do visit Lalbagh ( the flower is on till Aug.15th) and see how the Saahas team actually works in building awareness and educating the public. If we learn something new we can implement it at our sites. Ms. Wilma R is in touch with:

- Indian Council for Plastics and Environment ( ICPE ) Mr. Vijay Merchant

- Indian Plastics Institute ( Mr. Thakkar )

Both these organisations want to support groups like ours. Wilma will give the contact details to Adarsh.She would like us to contact them directly and ask for their support.

Rotary Club and Vee Clean and Green

The first round of discussions and exchange of information between Rotarian Dr Basu and Sandeep Chakravarthy has taken place.

Let me explain my new found Rotary connection. The President of Rotary Koramangala, Dr. Anirban Basu, lives in my apt. building and I know him well. His club wants to launch a program in Koramangala aimed at the residents living there to segregate plastic and help in the re-cycling activity.He wanted my inputs / learnings as a C & G volunteer, which I shared with him. Through him I now have the following contact :

- Frank Coelho, Environment Chairman, Rotary Koramangala

- Narendra Kumar, President Rotary Kanakapura

- Bhanu Prakesh,Secretary Rotary, Kanakapura.

I could email / call them and brief them about C & G and ask for their support but before doing anything I need to get your views.

Vee Clean and Green at Coorg

This really is not minutes of a meeting, but an action item that needs following through :

A friends' friend Simha has a resort close the forests in Coorg http://www.greenvalleyresort.in/ . The pathway which is accessible as a picnic spot is littered. The activity has to be carried out in the Nagarhole Reserve Forest, we start with the road coming from Hunsur to Gonikoppa, the road inside the Reserve Forest is about 10 kms, so we clean up either side of the road and pick the palstics and put up a signboard as well.

The place needs a volunteer movement to kick start the clean up drive.

We will plan to arrange for local volunteer support in large numbers but since it is the first drive, it is suggested that an experienced crack team from Vee Clean and Green would be advantageous.

Generous offer of stay and food at the resort to the team !!

Meeting : 11 Jul 2009 : Koramangala

Attendees : Sheetal, Pradeep, Anitha, Sandeep, Adarsh, Sachin, Sadhana, Roopa. Was hoping more volunteers would be in, there were a few tentative acceptances..

1. Sign Boards group - Pradeep, Sandeep, Sheetal and Sachin will each call for sign board quotes and meet/discuss coming sunday 19 Jul with a probable list of sign board makers. This quote will then be used for the discussions with the corporate sponsors. This team will provide their updates to Sheetal - else Sheetal to follow up ...

2. Adarsh, Anitha, Rakesh (he was volunteered in his absence) along with remote participation from Roopa - will prepare a presentation for our corporate sponsors - for various sustainable solutions participation from the sponsors. This team is now coined as the Corporate Liaison Team :The main one of these is that a sponsor company adopts a place and employs one or two safai karmachari (from the local society). The onus of maintaining the pcinic spot is with these staffers. They will engaged as an employee and will report into the volunteer team of the corporate sponsor. Clean and Green will interface with the volunteer team of the sponsor company, help identify (through JLR resident manager) a local who is amenable for this Job profile.

The other ways that corporate sponsors can engage in sustainable solution at picnic spots - is have the same employees or a set of volunteers in bringing about awareness against littering.

Placing / sponsoring of bins and boardsAdministrative support for Clean and Green.

This team will also actively seek new sponsors and follow through on various new leads - to be provided by RoopaThe presentation sequence to start with Wipro (from where we left off) : start by 22 Jul 09. Bi-Weekly progress from the team - should report to Sandeep on various activities and updates.

3. Roopa to seek time with MD JLR. Discuss the following with the MD/ED Request for a slot for presentation to the JLR properties Resident Managers at their Monthly meeting.Propose if the Resident Managers at the JLR properties can help identify a few locals for employement with the corporate sponsors for cleaning up the picnic spots. Check with the MD if a rewards mechanism can be put in place, for recoginising above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty response from any Manager. Suggest a feedback mechanism from the resident managers on a monthly basis on the progress/update on the cleaning, quantum of plastic collected, date of delivery to KKPWM.

4. Roopa to ::At the presentation for the Resident Managers : give a brief on Clean and Green. Provide a background for the request to clean up of the nearby picnic spots - by sharing the past discussion with MD JLR. Give a Std Operating Procedure for accomplishing a plastic/litter free picnic spot. Introduce them to KK Plastic Waste Mgmt Pvt Ltd.

5. Education Cell : Based on the success of Sachin and Sheetal in the events (teaching and cleaning for Life Dream NGO, in urban area), this two member team will form a small group from friends and foes who are interested. This group will be responsible for providing Awareness about environment, issues affecting it, awareness campaign for school children. Adarsh to provide a list of NGO that work with underprivildged children who are to be contacted for the educations sessionsSheetal and Sachin to contact Azim Premji foundation to see how we can take the education programm to the vast network of school the foundation works with.

6. Considering a name change for the group - not a complete revamp but either a prefix or suffix that will uniquely identify the group.

7. Adarsh proposed that it is now time for Clean and Green to meet with some of the groups operating on environmental issues. He will coordinate a meeting with Saahas.

Meeting with MD, Jungle Lodges and Resorts : 23 Jan 2009

We were invited to a meeting with the MD, Jungle Lodges and Resorts. An honour to have such an opportunity. Vee Clean and Green was represented by Deepa Mohan and Roopa Sankaran. As remarked by Sandeep - another Red Letter Day for Vee Clean and Green.

Mr N.D Tiwari, MD, JLR received us on time. Thanked him for the support extended so far. He asked what are the other areas that we can work together on. Just minuting the discussion :

1. JLR will have some staff (identified number of staff) working in Mutthathi and Sangama to do the clean up during weekdays. Weekends being very busy at JLR, the staff will work duing the weekdays on cleaning up.

2. JLR property managers will now become part of the EDC and actively participate in involving the locals in maintaining the picnic spots. Vee Clean and Green volunteers to be prompters to the Managers to ensure this is taking place.

3. JLR vehicles will continue to bring back the plastic from this cleaning to KK Plastics Waste Management - as has been recently accomplished. Again Vee Clean and Green to play the prompter role, to ensure no slack in the continued activities. Note 1 : Mr Tiwari, assured that he will direct his staff at Galibore and Bheemeswari about the role they have to play in ensuring these above mentioned points. Note 2 : Mr Tiwari expressed his concern over the problem of litter and assured that having a clean environ is a felt need. He was very appreciative of the efforts from Vee Clean and Green so far.

4. Provide a proposal for review to Mr Karthik of JLR, who will then coordinate a meeting of Clean and Green with Director Tourism Subhash Hari Singh.
Note 3 : Mr Tiwari, reassured that Vee Clean and Green will face no challenges and will enjoy and recieve support from his office and his staff in the implementation of the key points (above) in ensuring Muttathi and Sangama clean.

First Meeting of 2009 : 10 Jan !

Epoch making meeting. Minutes are below :
The meeting started with introductions and mingling at 10AM on 10 Jan 2009.

Attendees : Shekhar, Deepak, Pradeep, Anitha, Sandeep, Rakesh (he is doing well), Adarsh (he is back in Bengaluru), Ajith, Roopa.

1. It has been acknowledged that Clean and Green needs to completely focus on getting the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary declared a plastic free zone. The options are a) stop the ingress of plastic into these places b) responsibly manage the waste generated there
The decision on which of these options will be implemented would be arrived at, as part of the discussions and negotiations with the Administrative machinery of the Taluka. Admin Dept - meaning DC of the Taluka and/or the Tourism Dept of the State.

2. Activities ahead to accomplish this objective :
We need to establish contact with the Administrative system :the DC of the Taluka. As a team, we need to present a proposal to the DC and get a complete buy-in to the solution proposed. Presently we need to take the first steps to find out how to connect with the DC - members who are taking this forward are Deepak and Anitha.. They are to revert on the milestone dates of all their activities.the Tourism Department as a stakeholder, to check if they will participate in ensuring a litter free Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The contact to be established through the MD of JLR. Sandeep will be setting up a meeting with the MD in the coming week. Roopa to represent Clean and Green with the MD to get his buy-in and a reference to the Tourism Department in the State Govt.

Imparting Eduation to the Local Population :
There has been no doubt that educating the local population and thereby get their participation is paramount to making this plastic free implementation successful. Therefore we need to make regular and systematic visits to Mutthathi and Sangam, and interface with the locals.
A small team of 3 to 4 members is required to be formed. This team will coordinate weekly visits to Mutthathi and Sangam (in an alternate manner).
The core team will be the coordinating team. They will seek volunteers from within CnG, other environmental related e-groups, our various Corporate sponsors and their volunteer teams, to form a team of 4 to 5 volunteers for each week.
Such team of about 4 to 5 volunteers, would make a visit to Mutthathi and Sangam with the purpose of educating the local population, shop keepers, the priest, the temple purohit. These visits and the education imparted would help to gain the confidence of the local population in the measures to be implemented for a plastic litter free picnic spots
We are seeking volunteers from within Clean and Green to coordinate this part of the activity.

Bins and Boards : The success of the implementation of the project also depends on adequate infrastructure being available at the picnic spots. So the team of Rakesh, Adarsh, Sandeep and Pradeep will handle the placing of bins and signborads on a turn-key basis. This task entails assessing how many bins and signboards would need to be placed, order them and get sponsors to fund the infrastructure, and execute the same.

Roopa to provide a list of contact who have envinced interest in sponsoring these items

Am hoping I have captured the essence of the meeting, please add in case ...