Bengaluru: Several young volunteers Saturday began their day clearing a more than 1km-long stretch around Jakkur Lake as part of The Times of India’s #IamBengaluru – Volunteer for Parks initiative, presented by Multigen.Kicking off the campaign’s fifth week, students of Kristu Jayanti University participated in a plogging and deweeding drive at Jakkur Lake, facilitated by Jalaposhan Trust.Fr Augustine George CMI, vice-chancellor of Kristu Jayanti University, said the initiative aligned with the university’s mission of transforming individuals into integrated personalities while contributing to sustainability. He said volunteers from the Centre for Social Activities (CSA) participated in the renovation of Jakkur Park as part of the citywide movement to restore and revive parks.Alongside plogging drives, sessions were held at Doddakallasandra, led by Youth for Seva, and at Girinagar and Rajajinagar, led by Hasiru Dala.Ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi, Women of Wisdom organised an eco-friendly Ganesha idol-making session at Dhanvanthari Park, JP Nagar. The session drew enthusiastic participation from children and families while promoting sustainable celebrations. Together, the activities highlighted the campaign’s focus on combining environmental action with community participation.Participants SpeakPriti P, BCA student
Priti P
We need to keep our surroundings clean and spread awareness. As much as we can keep our society clean, there are more people who don’t understand it and continue to litter. In this scenario, we all students are stuck with screens… if we don’t want to be lost in that and want to give back something to the upcoming generation, we have to turn upChirag Darshan, BCom student
Chirag
Everyone has their own life cycle, every day they work and it involves pressure. But weekends are for refreshing and energising ourselves by breathing in some clean air before going back to the same cycle. We can’t force anyone to volunteer for lakes, but we can make sure that once they start doing such activities, they carry on and don’t stop. We among ourselves create a bond through such activitiesJagan J, resident of Bagalur Cross
Jagan
Despite the NGO cleaning the boundaries of the lake every week, plastic waste keeps appearing. We’ve shown up because I was interested; some people don’t show up because there might not be a nudge to participate. If there is better awareness, I think more people will participate. When I see litter around the place where we walk, it is a big deal to step in and make a differenceAnnapurna S Kamath, founder of Jalaposhan Trust
Annapurna
Today we chose the road bund because that is the one which gets the most litter. Once there’s litter in the bund, through the breeze it ends up in the lake. We cleared all the waste along the spot; even the footpath had a lot of weeds, and we also made it usable today. In one day, not a lot can be achieved, but it can give a feeling of ownership among the youth and a sense of responsibility as well. They’ll now feel that it is their lake as wellSanjay, resident of Doddakallasandra
Students volunteers create awareness among public on garbage segregation and in collaboration with the environment lovers and public, clean up garbage as part of the #IamBengaluru – Volunteer for Parks, a citizen led civic movement by The Times Of India at Jakkur Lake Park Jala Poshana Plogging and waste segregation Jakur in Bengaluru on Saturday.
I felt really happy after participating in the plogging activity. Youngsters these days need to stay fit, given the rising sedentary lifestyle, and park volunteering is a great way to be physically fit while participating in a noble cause
