NGO Volunteering @ Velliangiri

It has been a long time since I posted in my blog. This post is about the eco-volunteering I rendered along with my classmates on behalf of OSAI, a NGO, at Velliangiri near Coimbatore. We did the work for 10 hours non-stop and I have used a narration from my point of view. I have split each hour as a separate topic for greater impact and coverage.

OSAI - NGO & Volunteering

I had just confirmed with the head of OSAI, an NGO, for volunteering work on 7th of March. Mr. Kalidasan conveyed to us that the work would concern the inspection of plastics carried by the travelers to Velliangiri. The full details were not clear to us. Daniel, the foreign exchange student, offered to come and he along with few others took the bus to Esha Centre near Velliangiri. Shivarathiri in Coimbatore is usually associated with a multitude of people traveling the mountain stretch in Velliangiri. People come from afar to climb the mountain on the auspicious day. People congregating in such large numbers mean that a lot of waste is generated; most of them being plastic. It is the part where we stepped in. We were tasked with the work of removing plastics. On 9th of March, I took a bike ride with Ram to the place. Two other bikes with four students rode along with us. I made the mistake of not informing Mr. Kalidasan before setting off for Velliangiri. It ensured that we had to wait for more than 3 hours to start our volunteering work! We had our dinner at the temple - 'Annadhaanam'. ID cards were handed over to us accompanied by flashy guard jackets.

The 'Job'

Organizers from OSAI gave us instructions on the kind of items we were supposed to remove from the bags and bodies of the travelers before they started up the mountain. The list included cigarettes, beedis, matchsticks, candy wrappers, plastic covers, paan, cigarette lighters, etc. Water bottles were allowed, but we were to ask the travelers to bring them back on their way down. The police were also there mainly to provide us with moral support and safeguard us from pranks, if any from the travelers. The ladies don't hike the mountains and our job offered us 'gender comfort'!

The First Hour

The first hour of work involved in getting us settled in our task. There was no crowd and we felt at ease. Everyone in our group were hesitant to search the first batch of travelers. Gradually, we grew into the role and gained a sense of comfort. Seven of us manned the bag search counters while four others dutifully frisked the travelers. We bought in old newspapers to enable the travelers to unpack the contents in plastic bags, wrappers and covers and to repack them in newspapers. We also had cloth bags, each costing around Rs. 10 each for the travelers.

The Second Hour

Rush. Mad rush. That was what I could utter to myself aloud on seeing the people scurry past us. The students manning the 'frisk' sector blockaded the rush bravely. We shouted at the top of our voices to the travelers and urged them to give us their bags to check for plastics and other banned items. Many obliged, but there were few who ran past without even a sideways glance. The police who were previously satisfied with just watching us stepped in and restored order and sanity. I managed to confiscate cigarettes sandwiched between the folds of the dress kept in the backpack of a traveler. The guy smiled sheepishly and requested in a unconvincing manner to give them back. I resented cigarettes and moreover the item was in the list of banned items. I happily threw them aside in the bin without a second of thought. One of my friends found a guy who had packed beedis in camphor packets. We were beginning to see the stale and dark side of people.

The Third Hour

All of us in the group had had a very good dinner and that was the main reason we were still up on our feet. Daniel was a revelation. The guy was polite but firm and showed no signs of weariness. We Indians generally think of foreigners as being impatient and hence are uncomfortable with large crowds. Well, Daniel was defying those stereotypes and in a surefooted manner! He was organized and did what he was told. When I found my concentration lapsing every time, I would look at Daniel and I would be back in the thick of action. A man stuffed some cigarettes into the pockets of his child hoping to smuggle it over the mountain but we were wise to his actions and immediately seized them.

The Fourth Hour

The crowd were soon beginning to mill around. The people were initially bewildered when we told them to remove wrappers from biscuits and started remonstrating. We made sure that our advice was stern and it worked. The flashy guard jackets gave us that 'extra' conviction! People sat down on the steps near the inspection area and tore apart biscuit wrappers and wrapped them in paper. We were faced with a dilemma when people walked with food packets. The packets were all plastic and they had to 'go'. People reasoned with us to let us allow them with the packets as wrapping food in newspapers will lead to soaking and unpleasant taste of food. To our credit, we did not flinch and the people had to make the necessary changes.

The Fifth Hour

Ram's birthday was observed with silent gestures and three quarters of an hour were allocated to him for taking phone calls. He was then back to inspecting the bags of travelers. It was one of the awkward and rude birthdays for him! It is said that there will always be disorder in the world despite man trying to make it organized. We found out a converse theory that however unorganized we maybe, there will always be a sense of order. After checking out each bag successfully, we would point the owner of the bag to be frisked. If that system failed  in the midst of chaos, we reverted back to unorthodox methods of identification such as 'that guy in the red t-shirt', 'guy with a sleeved vest', 'guy with a black cap', etc. The method worked like a charm until one of the smarter travelers worked it out and used it to get past the security without being checked. The power cuts were frequent and the people used it to sneak past us.

The Sixth Hour

It was 10 minutes past 1 am and few of us were beginning to feel tired. Daniel kept at his task in a workman like manner. We switched positions and let the change in tasks add variety to our dreariness. The crowd started to thin out and we sat down for a few precious minutes of rest. Daniel shot photos of our work. Most of us were barking out instructions to travelers in a practised way. Santhosh, in his inimitable way, was striking his points home by using humor as his tool. Ajmee was restrained during periods of inspection and jovial during periods of rest. Pravin did his work in a calm and collected manner. Kishore's appearance worked wonders in the 'frisking' sector. Sahayam was polite with the travelers. Jayaprakash handled the frisking activity with skill while Vijesh did the job with aplomb. The team complemented each other well and we upped the tempo. Plastic waste started to pile up beside us. I took one moment of deep thought and imagined all those garbage on the mountains. Poor Mother Earth!

The Seventh Hour

The next big crowd surged past us. We were much more prepared this time and posted two students at the steps to instruct the travelers what to do before their bags were inspected. The travelers complied. A few were ignorant and instead of removing the wrappers, packed them as it is in paper. Some time later, we ran out of newspapers and the local boys went off to bring us more. During that intermediate period, we had to use ad slips as packing material. A few travelers tried the 'gone-now-forget-for-sometime-then-return' technique. They would head back to the parking place with the pretext of returning items as soon as we found out objectionable contents in their baggage. After half an hour, they would return hoping that we would not check their bags again. It was because of those deceptive jackals, we had to double check to make sure that the changes suggested were really implemented. The local boys returned with a bundle of newspapers and we were back to normal routine.

The Eighth Hour

Pre-historic humans were nocturnal in a sense of way. The nocturnal orientation went out of fashion in the modern era as the needs underwent a paradigm shift. However, a few humans can still be nocturnal in the current era. Some of them were in our group. Five of the students went to sleep and six of us kept up vigil. We were fortunate as the crowds which arrived next lacked in numbers than before. We were able to maintain a consistent flow of travelers to the mountain. Daniel was still up and running. The protests were lesser than before as people began to sense that taking the advice would aid in a faster entry to the mountain. The policemen even bought tea to freshen us up. We took it gleefully and gulped down. The next shift was supposed to start at 6 am. Students from other colleges had volunteered for the job as well. The plastic garbage from the travelers was collected in huge gunny bags and put aside for proper disposal.

The Ninth Hour

The nocturnal vigil continued. The number of people increased slightly. A few of the travelers were very appreciative of our effort and co-operated well. Some travelers were angered by our procedure. One such traveler swore that if he found out that even one traveler on his way using a plastic bag, he would come back to harass us. I knew it by the looks in his eyes that he would not hesitate to do such a thing and the man meant everything he said. Another traveler was impudent enough to mention that he was an advocate and barged past our check. Kishore did not like it and made his intentions clear. I seized 'Hans' tobacco from few travelers. Most of the guys I caught were desperate to chew them during the travel. One of the policemen caught a traveler with opium packets! The travelers were supposed to consider the journey as a pilgrimage. Instead, they were denigrating the sole purpose of the journey.

The Tenth Hour

Our non-stop work was nearing its end. The travelers had increased to sizable numbers. The guys who were in the 'frisking' sector also doubled up to check the bags to speed up the process. Some travelers still tried to  pass the security without being checked. We had a conflict of interest with the policemen. For instance, they would allow travelers with food packets to the mountains with unwritten agreements to bring back the plastic waste. We students knew that it was akin to asking the fire to not burn up the cotton. People from OSAI went one step ahead and blocked drunken men from traveling to the mountain. However, this happened when they were out of earshot of the policemen. At the end of the shift, we asked the local boys to take over the inspection till the students for the next shift arrived. Everyone in the group knew that more than a handful of travelers had carried plastics over the mountains, but we had put in our best efforts to keep the number to a minimum. As I pillion rode back to hostel, I felt sleep settle over me along with a calm sense of satisfaction that I had done something really useful.

The NGO volunteering work was primarily undertaken as an internal component of Environmental Management. Although it started out with academic interest, it ended as something which was mentally fulfilling.