Ashutosh Pandey, an environmentalist from Uttar Pradesh, who is on a 10,000-km padayatra (trek) from Ayodhya to various parts of the country and back, reached Visakhapatnam city on Sunday.
He participated in the 2-km Eco Walk, organised by the district administration on the Beach Road.
Interacting with media persons, near the statue of Alluri Sitharama Raju, Mr. Pandey called upon youngsters to shun ‘single-use plastics’, which were causing destruction of the environment. “I have stopped using single-use plastic, and it is our responsibility to protect our oceans and preventing them from turning ‘lifeless’.”
He explained that the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere was going down, and called for measures to increase it. Global warming should be arrested by preventing the felling of trees and growing more trees. He also sought that chemical pollutants shouldn’t be released into the oceans to safeguard marine life.
Mr. Pandey said that indiscriminate and destructive use of natural resources was resulting in natural calamities. He said that he had quit his job, and launched the ‘padayatra’ to create awareness among youth on the importance of eco protection. After starting on his trek from Ayodhya on December 4, 2022, he has planted 1,100 saplings, so far, as against his target of planting 10,000 saplings, apart from creating awareness among students of 62 schools.
He regretted that though youth constitute 55% of the total population of India, the quality of the environment was degrading, and the number of people planting saplings was also very low. Saying that his efforts were targetted at promoting awareness among youth, he expressed confidence that his padayatra would evoke good response among the youth. He said that he was shocked after seeing the high eco pollution levels in Delhi, and was keen that such a thing should not happen anywhere else in the country.
Earlier, Mayor Golagani Hari Venkata Kumari and GVMC Commissioner CM Sai Kanth Varma participated in the Eco Vizag beach walk.
District NGO Forum secretary Pragyan Kumar and Green Climate NGO secretary J.V. Ratnam also spoke.
