An eco warrior on a mission to get rid of plastic

Tirupati: A 22-year-old eco-warrior from Tirupati C Yashwanth Kumar has embarked on a fresh mission with a slogan ‘Save the Coast line-Beat the plastic’. Expressing concern over the pollution that haunts the sea coast like oil spills, dumping of plastic such as picnic plates, plastic bags, bottles, etc., he decided to create awareness among people on the hazards of polluting the coast line as 60 per cent of the people depend on revenue from coast line.

“It is important to see that their lives are changed for the better. For this, creating awareness among the people will be the first goal,” he told The Hans India.

Speaking before starting his cycle tour along the coast line in AP from Town Club area here on Wednesday, Yashwanth said he will continue his tour for 20 days covering about 160 km every day. His tour will proceed from Tirupati to Tada, Nellore, Ongole, Machilipatnam, Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Itchapuram, Sambavaram, Rajamahendravaram, Eluru, Vijayawada, Guntur, Kurnool, Anantapur, Madanapalle, Chittoor and concludes at Tirupati.

He will keep on pedalling for 10 hours per day. An enthusiastic and energetic Yashwanth was sitting on a cycle that costs about Rs 1 lakh. However, his father C Rajani Kumar is a small merchant and mother C Saraswathi a housewife. Both of them have seen off their dear son and felt proud that he was contributing towards a cause that helps thousands of people.

However, without the guidance of Colonel Balaji Dayal and K Vinod Kumar of ‘V Bikes’ and T-Ryders cycling club he could not have ventured on such a task. Col Balaji motivates Yashwanth by looking after the coordination with NCC cadets and other staff wherever he reaches so that he can create awareness there for groups of people. On the other hand, K Vinod Kumar provides him all the accessories and accommodation at all places.

For a degree passed out student from Sri Vidyanikethan degree college in Rangampet near Tirupati, this was not the first feat. He embarked on two such ventures in the past. With a slogan of ‘Billion trees for Billion people’ he went on a cycle tour from Tirupati to Rameswaram in October 2017 for six days covering 700 kilometre.

During that tour he planted a sapling at each school en route, in a bid to create awareness on Kalam’s vision 2020 before reaching Rameswaram on the birth anniversary of Abdul Kalam on October 15 and participated in local programmes there. His second cycle yatra titled ‘Pedal for Eco friendly India’, which aimed at plastic-free and pollution-free country was held in January 2018 for 20 days covering 3,000 km from Tirupati to Jammu. He talked to the local people en route and explained the importance of plastic-free society.

In both the trips he met with a few accidents too and during his second tour his cycle was completely damaged which could not stop him from going ahead with his tour. Yashwanth says he likes to hold many awareness yatras in future too with the main motto of fighting pollution.