Plastic Baba’s ‘satyagrah’ against plastic

Allahabad: He could have settled for a lavish job after completing his engineering. But Rohitansh Sharma was meant for something bigger and noble — Satyagrah against plastic. And there could have been nothing better than declaring a war on plastic at Kumbh, the world’s largest congregation of pilgrims.
Notwithstanding the nip in the air, Rohitansh Sharma, popularly known as Plastic Baba, and his seven volunteers are creating a mass awareness on plastic pollution on Kumbh mela campus. After collecting more than 250kg plastic from the river Ganga as well as the entire Kumbh area, Plastic baba and his followers are compiling the recyclable and non-recyclable materials at a camp located in sector no 16 and would hand it over to local scrap dealers for their proper disposal. After attempting his bachelor of engineering from a Nanded college, Rohitansh devoted himself to theatre and later took to social work. Sharing his experience, Rohitansh said, “We decided to move to Kumbh mela about one month back and started raising awareness against plastic.” He said: “I found Kumbh mela a good opportunity to create a mass awareness among devotees about the ill-effects of plastic on human life.”

“I was basically devoted towards social work since 1994, but after releasing the harmful effects of plastic on human health, I worked tirelessly in different states of the country to educate people about it,” he said. Rohitansh said that he and his volunteers were inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission.

Unmindful of its harmful effects, several people were casually tossing plastic in the open until they met Rohitansh. Aditya Sobti, a volunteer working with him, said: “I met Plastic Baba about two years back in Mumbai and joined his campaign for a novel cause... A total of seven volunteers, including three from Allahabad, are working on environment protection and apprising people about the dangerous effects of plastic on human life”.