SSA09

SAVE SOUTHERN AVENUE 2009
Score: 9471 kgs.
(82 kgs + 137 kgs + 506 kgs + 117 kgs + 513 kgs + 730 kgs + 915 kgs + 1000 kgs app.+ 1492 kgs + 1051 kgs + 1500 kgs app. + 808 kgs)*


More than 3000 kgs of waste cleared in three days. That pretty much sums up what we achieved last week.

Three highlights:

* While cleaning the stretch across Birla Academy of Art on Southern Avenue, we came across two ten-year-old installations by prominent sculptors surrounded by filth and obscured from public view
* KMC trucks turned up on schedule outside Menoka and stayed till 8 pm, enabling us to lift a tonne and a half of concrete across the green sidewalks of Sarat Chatterjee Avenue on Saturday last!
* We discovered a new problem – consistent disposal of ‘pooja ke phool’ inside plastic thelis around trees across the small mandir on Southern Avenue (a really small stretch yielded 800 kgs!)
* Students of Ashok Hall joined in on Thursday for the first time. Welcome!

As we near the 10,000 kg mark, we realize that this Dilli is far. The parks of Rabindra Sarobar (on the menoka side) are awash with plastic (one plastic bag hung from a tree 30 feet above the ground; how did it get there?) The sidewalks of the same road are ful of concrete litter.

Our forthcoming agenda:

Regroup on Thursday, 2 April 2009, diagonally across Birla Academy . Crack the magic 10K figure!
Regroup on Saturday, 4 April on the same stretch as Menoka Cinema to load concrete debris on to KMC trucks
Co-ordinate with the KMC for help with soil and plants so that we can green the one km stretch on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue
Co-ordinate with the Kolkata Improvement Trust on how we can collaborate and lift plastic waste from inside the parks.

This is how you can help:

Help us with introductions to the right people to speak to at Kolkata Improvement Trust.
Join us to pick the litter. It is more fun that you think!
Do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help? Send him / her our numbers.
Can you identify some really dirty spots (full of plastic and paper waste) in the city that we can possibly clean? Lead us!

Please contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.

Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!

* Our collected waste has comprised wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, coconuts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc.