Nagpur: Green Vigil Foundation, a city-based NGO working in the field of environment protection and sustainable development, conducted a Citizen Outreach Campaign at Children’s Traffic Park here on Friday, encouraging citizens to celebrate an eco-friendly Holi.
During the event, members of Green Vigil Foundation appealed to citizens to adopt Dry Holi or Tilak Holi, which involves restricting water wastage, using natural colors like Gulal or other herbal colors, avoiding water balloons, sparing dumb domestic animals from the color hazard, and stopping the burning of plastics and other materials during Holika Dehan, which emanate harmful gases in the air.
Kaustav Chatterjee, the founder of Green Vigil Foundation, stated that saving water during Holi is a symbolic initiative, and water conservation needs to be an integral part of our daily routine. Most of us waste water knowingly or unknowingly without realizing that water is one of the most important natural resources and that it reaches our taps at the expense of huge amounts of energy, manpower, and treatment.
Surbhi Jaiswal, team lead at Green Vigil Foundation, explained that the colors available in the market contain hazardous materials like copper sulfate (in green color), aluminum bromide (in silver color), Prussian blue (in blue color), mercury sulfate (in red color), as well as lead, chromium, cadmium, nickel, zinc, silica, etc., which are highly injurious to health, and some of them are even carcinogenic.
Green Vigil members have been conducting door-to-door campaigns for the last 15 days advocating the need for water conservation. The Green Vigil team, including Kaustav Chatterjee, Surbhi Jaiswal, Mehul Kosurkar, Sheetal Choudhary, Bishnudeo Yadav, Priya Yadav, Shriya Jogey, Parth Jumde, and others, worked hard for the success of the campaign. Students of Sevadal Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur, also joined Green Vigil for the said campaign.
Overall, the Citizen Outreach Campaign by Green Vigil Foundation was a step towards creating awareness about water conservation, minimizing wastage, and encouraging the use of eco-friendly practices during Holi celebrations.
