Days like today were preceded with a lot of planning. Avoiding plastic, planting trees, cleaning beaches, switching off lights. But all for one day. When the Environment Day got over, the plan ended. Plastic came back, trees were forgotten, beaches littered, electricity lavished. And then, suddenly, that changed. There was no waiting anymore for the special day to remember the environment. Big events in Kerala — that were once scary for the amount of plastic or other non biodegradable waste used — suddenly turned green. With lots and lots of effort from the people who manage them, and the people who willingly followed what has come to be known as the green protocol. A young officer sitting at one corner of the Suchitwa Mission in Thiruvananthapuram — K. Vasuki, executive director — simply began executing it for major events in the capital — National Games, LDF government’s swearing in, and most recently the Attukal Pongala. In a different corner in Kochi, another officer — district collector Mohammed Y. Safirulla with the District Suchitwa Mission, quietly pulled off a green protocol for the Malayattoor Pilgrimage and has also begun work on green weddings.
“It is slow but a significant cultural change is underway. I know this is not going to happen in a day. This is only the beginning. My appeal to everyone is that we all do what we can so we pass on a healthy planet to our children,” says Vasuki. “They are going to live longer than us, and will face the brunt of climate change which is a reality many people are not realising. The society has to adopt a lot of change in lifestyle, ” she says. “The waste issue is going to destroy humanity and that is a reality lurking just around the corner,” Vasuki says. “In Kerala, however, people are generally more environment-conscious than any other society in the world, I’d say. Whenever a pro-environment campaign is happening, they welcome it with open arms. I didn’t expect it (Green Protocol) would become such a big movement in such a short span of time. Schools have started implementing it too. I go to school as a parent, where few know me, and listen to teachers instructing students not to bring lunch in plastic boxes. So awareness at individual and institutional level has happened. The Trivandrum Club has implemented a green protocol on its own. So have communities, like the Link Valley in Kochi.”
Green protocol being implemented for Malayattoor pilgrimage.
Her ‘better than any in the world’ comment comes at a time US President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the 195-nation Paris climate agreement, a move that environmental organisaitons have condemned. But India remains rooted, and down here in Kerala, love for the earth will come out as one crore saplings that the government is planting today. “I think there is a lot of awareness in Kerala. The problem is that people give priority to other factors like personal comfort or loyalty to caste, religion or party when taking an opinion on environmental matters. Thus environment suffers,” says environmentalist R.V.G. Menon. It probably helped that the state is so aware when the green protocol was brought to a festival as big as the Attukal Pongala in March. Later, in April, the Malayattoor pilgrimage too followed suit. Collector Mohammed Safirulla visited the pilgrim centre to study the environmental hazards caused by non- biodegradable waste. Last year, the green protocol was introduced there, banning plastic and other non- biodegradable waste.
“This year we have tried to perfect it. We conducted training for people visiting, and people selling at the counters there. We have tried to include students of the local community too,” says Safirulla. Students of St Teresa’s College had come with paper bags that they made and distributed it among the pilgrims. “There was also support from the church authorities. We conducted inspection with the combined squads of revenue, forest and local panchayat, and tried to put some fine on people violating the green protocol.” They have also started introducing green protocol at weddings in Kochi. “On an average, a wedding will create a waste of 150 - 200 kg. From the drinks to the plastic plates and water bottles, this becomes a huge waste problem for the civic authorities the next day. So we are trying to implement a green protocol for weddings. So far we have covered about 35 weddings.”
