CAMPAIGN BRIEF: TV9 Network in collaboration with the AKAM Division of the Union Ministry of Culture launched the My India My LiFE Goals campaign on World Environment Day on June 5th. Since then the initiative has been mainstreaming Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), an idea floated by our honourable PM Shri Narendra Modi.
Celebrating 75 years of our independence, this campaign encourages citizens of the country to Protect and Improve Natural Environment, one of the 11 Fundamental Duties enshrined in the Constitution. With this campaign, we also awakened people to pledge and to protect, and preserve the natural environment and follow LiFE Goals.
From Kashmir to Karnataka we dwelled stories of environmental activists “ Green Warriors” who not only practise to Protect and Improve the Natural Environment but are also an inspiration to the world.
GREEN WARRIOR: 1: GREEN WARRIOR: DAVENDER SURA- TREE MAN OF HARYANA
Devender Sura is a constable in the Haryana Police. An athlete, the father of two turned environmentalist after observing the loss of forest cover in his state and climate change, he decided to reverse that on his own. His journey began in 2011 when he started pla¬n¬ting trees in Son¬ipat. Devender Sura along with his team of volunteers, ( Paryavaran Mitra ) pla¬nt 30-40 thousand tre¬es every year, with a focus on Indian species. With his father bearing all family expenses, he spends his entire salary on tree plantation. Not just his salary, Devender has taken 5 loans through his journey of tree plantation.
To connect with the masses and spread this initiative, Devender Sura has opened a “Janata Nursery” along the Son¬i¬pat-Gohana highway, where around 25,000 sapli¬ngs of various species of trees are prepared every year for distribution free of cost. It was in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the nation, Devender Sura started another initiative called " OXYGEN BAAG ", where he along with his Paryavaran Mitra began to plant thousands of trees in different regions of Haryana to build an oxygen-friendly ecosystem. Devender Sura, not just plants the trees but treats them like his children. He lives and breathes trees. Though he believes, it is not just his duty, but each individual to preserve the environment.
GREEN WARRIOR: 2: AFROZ SHAH FROM MUMBAI
A lawyer based in Mumbai, he is an ocean lover, took responsibility to clean 5 million kg of trash from Versova beach. He started this mission in 2015, later it took the biggest cleaning revolution among citizens and as world's biggest beach cleanup mission which has grown into a movement that has inspired people around the world to clean up their surrounding environment. It took 85 weeks to clean 5 million kgs of trash. In 2016, Shah was named by the United Nations as a Champion of the Earth for leading the clean-up of Mumbai's Versova Beach. Inspired by Afroz Shah's effort to clean beaches in Mumbai, the United Nations Environment Program launched the Clean Seas campaign globally. PM Narendra Modi praised Shah's work for transforming Versova beach from filth and garbage to clean and beautiful during the radio program 'Mann ki Baat on 28 May 2017.
GREEN WARRIOR:3: JADAV MOLAI -FOREST MAN OF INDIA FROM ASSAM
This is a story of passion and perseverance, this is the story of the Padma Shree Awardee, Jadav Molai Payeng. 1979, a 16-year-old started planting a tree sapling a day. Today, with that one-tree-a-day practice, he has single-handedly created a forest over the size of 550 hectares. That truly is the power of one man called The Forest Man Of India.
GREEN WARRIOR: 4: Md. IQBAL LONE FROM URI
Mohammad Iqbal Lone, a resident of URI has been doing forestation for more than 25 years in the valley. He has his own nursery and a greenhouse through which he provides plants to the Indian army and naps. He is been doing plantation around LOC, Barapulla, and also in deserted areas of Ladakh. He focuses on planting chinar and deodar plantations because these trees have a life of more than 200-300 years also nobody can cut these trees without Official permission, so it results in a permanent green belt area. During plantation season Mr. Lone and his teammates plant more than 5000-6000 trees.
GREEN WARRIOR:5: KANA RAM MEWADA- RAJASTHAN
According to a report of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2019-20, 3.5 million metric tonnes of plastic waste is annually generated in India and will remain in landfills for the upcoming hundreds of years. In a small tea shop located in Bisalpur, Rajasthan, one can spot unique furniture like stools and tables made of brick-sand recycled plastic. Other than customers, tourists who come to visit the nearby Jawai Dam often stop by here to hand over plastic waste to the shopkeeper. Run by Kana Ram Mewada, the shop not only sells steaming cups of chai and snacks but also leads a campaign to reduce the use of single-use plastic in his village. He recycles about 200kg of plastic every week and launches campaigns in his village to encourage people for the same.
GREEN WARRIOR 6: RAJESH SHUKLA -VARANASI
This is the story of a Ganga activist Rajesh Shukla who daily along with his team of activists cleans a stretch of the Ganga along the Ghats. Shukla, with his team, collects the waste, including plastic bottles, old clothes, and polythene, while cleaning Dashashwamedh Ghat. They put the collected waste at the stairs of the ghat, which is later picked up by a team of sanitation workers and taken to the dumping yard. It nurtures greenery and protects the environment.