Enhancing beauty quotient of city

Hyderabad: They call themselves ‘Earthlings’ and ‘friends of the planet.’ You would find them here, there and everywhere, at marathons, flyovers, street corners and bylanes, sprucing up the place with gusto. Founded by an HR manager, Sriram Arumilli, 27, and a post graduate student, Gautham Reddy, 24, in 2016, they have become a voice to reckon with. Earthlings plans to conducts at least two awareness drives a month. Till date, the NGO has beautified half a dozen places in the city including the Begumpet flyover.

Sriram says, “A lot of marathons are conducted to spread awareness on the environment, ironically people who participate throw plastic bottles on the road. It is here we come into the picture. Our team picks up the waste along the way.” Earthlings have been ‘Go Green Partners’ for various marathons including Airtel Hyderabad Marathon, Saveathon-2019 and many more. Sriram says, “People do run for a cause but forget that the environment has to be kept clean too. They just throw away the plastic bottles and wrappers of food items when they stop for refreshments.

Hence we took up the initiative of managing wastes for cleaner and greener outcomes of such efforts.”It is not just marathons but Earthlings also distributes blankets to the needy. Sriram used to work with another NGO since 2013 and in 2016, Sriram founded Earthlings along with his friend. He joined as a volunteer but rose to the position of the president of Hyderabad division. The NGO Earthlings was established in October 2016 in Hyderabad and Chennai and November 2018 in Bangalore.

Earthlings team separate segregation teams of volunteers who segregate the wastes as biodegradable/non-biodegradable and recyclable and non-recyclable and send it to respective places/bins.Earthlings is a team of 200 volunteers and are given certificate of appreciation. “We volunteered for Airtel Hyderabad Marathon last time where we gathered 450 volunteered in total”, said Gautham.

On Sunday, February 10, Earthlings team members numbering about 150 volunteered for Saveathon-2019, a marathon organised by HDFC Bank at Necklace Road, Sanjeevaiah Park. “Getting volunteers is not a big issue for us. We’ve got a good image in public so people do join us without any constraints”, said Sriram.

  -Asna Khundmiri