NGO rallies people to save environment

Hyderabad: In order to protect the environment, an NGO named 'Earthlings' has been creating awareness among people for not using plastic and promoting cleanliness in society.

Under the cleanliness drive the NGO is beautifying the places, which they had cleaned earlier, by painting and writing slogans. Till date, Earthlings participated in around 15 marathons and removed 15,000 kgs of garbage from Hyderabad.

The NGO was started with just two friends but today there are more than 100 volunteers who participate in different campaigns and marathons with a motto to make the city clean.

Sriram Arumili, founder of the Earthlings, has been fighting against the plastic waste that has been choking the city. He founded the NGO in October 2016, which carries out clean-up activities across Hyderabad. Sriram said, "The kind of work we do in this NGO is much more important than earning funds. Being an NGO we rarely get money from marathon organisers."

During the marathon drive, the volunteers are placed all across the marathon track and they collect the waste that is generated there and segregate all of it at the end of the day. The ones which are recyclable are sent to recycle bins and the plastic ones are sent to landfills and other use. The NGO has also organised various tree plantation drives at schools and orphanages. The NGO is also aiming to promote rainwater harvesting in their campaigns.

Sriram said, "Once I was going back home from college and saw a few lumberjacks chopping of many trees. I confronted them and tried to stop them but they flipped over onto me. That's when I realised that you can't confront such people alone you need a platform to fight."

"In 2012, I joined an NGO, Green Nest but due to some circumstances the NGO had to shut down in few months. I dint wanted to stop this work of mine and, so in 2016, I came up with Earthlings'," added Sriram