Techies are in the grip of cricket fever as India and New Zealand go head to head for a T20 international match on November 7, the first cricket match at the new stadium in Karyavattam.
However, the techies of Technopark are not only going to be cheering on team India on the day. Members of Prakruthi, a green club in Technopark, are teaming up with the Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala Cricket Academy, to make the match a zero waste and green protocol event.
“Apparently, a huge chunk of the tickets for the match were bought by techies from Technopark. We want to get the green message across to them and so invited Prakruthi to partner with us,” says Anoop Roy, project lead of ‘Ente Nagaram Sundara Nagaram’ of the Corporation, who is leading the green protocol for the event.
“Prakruthi usually involves itself in green initiatives in and around Kazhakoottam and Karyavattom, which are like our second home, given the area’s proximity to Technopark. Our domain is the web and hence we thought of a green campaign online,” explains Divas Sadasivan, a corporate communications executive and a member of Prakruthi.
The techies idea is to run an awareness campaign on social media under the hashtag ‘My Waste, My Responsibility,’ keeping in mind the fact that where there are spectators there is bound to be garbage, mainly plastic water bottles, soft drink cans and food waste.
According to Anoop, the Corporation already has an exhaustive waste management plan in place at the stadium, a notch up on the green protocol implemented for the Attukal Pongala, the Kaloltsavam and the National Games, such as using paper cups for hot beverages, banning bottles, cigarettes, tins and cans and the like, organising serving plates for food made of eco-freindly sugarcane fibre instead of the usual disposable plastic ones, proper disposal of pet bottles plus certain other green initiatives with BCCI’s corporate sponsors. The Corporation will also be deploying a crew of its Haritha Sena personnel who will be in charge of the waste management activities on D-day.
“However, we believe that the onus of managing waste should not be left to the Corporation alone. It should be a collective responsibility. Each spectator needs to be aware of the waste he/she generates and for that we need to change the mindset of the people,” says Biju Sundaran, who spearheads Prakruthi’s activities.
The plan is to encourage spectators to carry the waste they have generated during the match and deposit it in labelled, segregation bins kept near exit points. There will be Haritha Sena volunteers on hand to help responsible spectators.
“Our aim is to bring this cultural and behavioural change in one stroke,” says Divas, as Biju adds: “We are not aiming for 100 per cent participation from the spectators but if we get the message across to at least a few of them then we will consider the campaign a success.”
The techies are also planning a ‘Tree20’ campaign in connection with the match. “It will be a real challenge to achieve a 100 per cent green protocol at the match, due to technical and logistical challenges of wading through the BCCI’s contractual obligations. The approximately 50,000 tickets printed for the match would have used up a lot of nature’s resources. So, we thought it would be a nice idea to plant 20 trees to give back to nature,” explains Divas.
The techies plan to plant saplings of fast-growing native trees such as Kumizhu, Rakthachandanam, Jacaranda, Neermaruthu and Kanikonna in the locality of the stadium and maybe in and around the city as well.