The District Administration Kohima in collaboration with Züb Züb India, Nagaland Forest Department, Kohima Smart City Development Limited, Kohima Municipal Council under the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) organised a mass cleanliness drive with the theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ in Kohima on World Environment Day 2023 on Monday.
A program was held before the cleanliness drive at Capital Cultural hall, NSF Martyrs’ Park, Kohima where Deputy Commissioner, Kohima Shanavas C, IAS flagged off the NCAP promo video. In his speech, he mentioned that though we are small in number, each and every person can make a change. The DC hoped the students who participated in the program would go out and educate people, how to protect the environment and maintain our surroundings. He said we Nagas are very conscious of keeping our own private space clean and hygienic but when it comes to government properties, we fail to do the same. It is every individual’s duty to protect the government property as well.
Deputy Commissioner, Kohima Shanavas C, IAS
Züb Züb India founder Pelenuo, narrating her journey on how she started the company said that in January 2021 she wanted to study human behaviour and told herself that she would pick one location and see people’s reaction. She found a place at TCP gate, Kohima opposite Oking hospital where the Smart City Kiosk and City Bus stop are. Pelenuo then wrote a letter to the CEO of KMC, asking them to give her that space to clean for a month.
For the first week of the month, she started cleaning the space at dawn but whenever she would go to check in the evening, the result was always disappointing with trash lying around. So, she changed her timing to 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm, but it still remained the same.
Züb Züb India founder Pelenuo
Pelenuo again changed her plan and decoded to clean during peak hour of the day, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm and that was when she started getting positive response. The moral of the story being that when people saw her putting the effort to clean the space every day, they also got conscious and felt the responsibility to do their parts by not littering.
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Forest department RFO, Pezaneinuo Chielie shared her speech on the topic “Time to contribute to planet earth ” where she started by quoting Lucy Larcum “He who plants a tree plants a hope”. She also administered pledge on “Life Style for Environment” (LiFE).
Forest department RFO, Pezaneinuo Chielie
We can all contribute to saving the planet earth by changing our lifestyles, Chielie encouraged. She said that we are facing the wrath of climate change, pollution, global warming because of our lackadaisical attitude towards our own actions. She added that we should consider ourselves lucky because we also hold the power to reverse much the problem by planting trees. Chielie stressed that it is our sole responsibility to be more conscious about our actions in saving our environment.
KMC administrator Lanusenla Longkumer mentioned that Lifestyle for Environment was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021 and everyone in the country is working hard to promote this action for a better environment.
She mentioned that the Reused, Recycle and Reduce (RRR) centres launched on 20 May 2023, where unused/ used items can be donated, reused or recycled, were doing really well. 2000 kg of clothes, 30-40 kg plastics, 801 pairs of shoes, 250 kgs of electronics etc, have been collected so far from the wards in Kohima. She also mentioned that the clothes are in plenty because of these pre-loved clothes which are cheap and are easily accessible to all.
A student of Oriental College, Kohima shows his message on WED 2023 at Kohima Town
Officials from the Administration, KMC, KSCDL, ZÜB ZÜB India, NGOs, public leaders from Wards/ Sectors/ Colonies, and a large number of students from different schools were part of the programme.
22 Schools, 19 Wards, and 48 colonies were covered under this National Clean Air Program (NCAP), tree saplings were distributed to the participants.
