Media Release
Qatar, Feb 11: As part of continued Environment Awareness campaign to support ICC/embassy of India and Ministry of Environment, Ravi Shetty, president, Tulu Koota Qatar took the lead and organised several environment awareness programs in many parts of Qatar. To make it holistic, an attempt was made to reach out to all sections of society.
All the volunteers were enthusiastic and spirited as they could cover more than 5000 population. The positive response and the sense of satisfaction was the enabler for the volunteers to reach out in a large way. Nominated member engineer Navin Hegde ,campaign coordinator Chaitali Suhas Shetty, overall coordinator Kiran Anand and incharge of planting saplings Asmath Ali with the volunteer supports of Abdulla Monu, Dr Rajeeth Shetty, Shridhar Nayak, Mohan Jeppinamogaru, Santhosh Shetty, Iqbal Manna, Vikram, Prakash Devadiga, Dinesh Gowda, Navaneeth Shetty, Harpreeth , Roshan Shetty, Yashpal Putran, Uday Kumar Shetty, Dhananjay Rai, Sunil Bhandary, Della Rego, Vijay N Shetty, Vijaya Rai, Chandrashekar Shetty (ATS), Dinesh Gowda, Subba Rao, Sandeep Rai, Dinesh Shetty ATS the able advice and support of past presidents Ramachandra Shetty and Seetharam Shetty endeavored to make all the events successful.
Hotel Industry
As hotel industry in any metro city is one of the major industry who use lot of natural resources like water and electricity, so Tulukoota opted hotel industry for the next category of awareness programs. The following hotels were chosen for awareness session with the respective staff. The Grand Qatar Palace Hotel, Mazza Hotel on airport road, on Wednesday Jan 28, Grand Ocean Hotels, near Sana signal, on Sunday, February 1, Sterling Group of Hotels at Asiana, Airport Road ,on 5th February 8 at 11 am, Garden Village Hotel , near TV round about , on Sunday, February 8, at 5.00 pm.
All the hotels nominated members of their staff and Sterling group of hotels nominated their managers and supervisors from different chains and the onus was on them to train the rest of the staff in their line.
The first presenter Navin Hegde mentioned that wherever we go we need the support of the environment for our life. Whichever country we may belong to but good or bad that is done by someone somewhere in the world will effect the entire environment.
Then Chaitali Suhas Shetty placed the pledge among the participants that they will not waste water, they will not waste electricity and they will reduce using plastics.
Participants took the unequivocal pledge in a single loud voice. He also stressed that the small actions by individuals plays a significant contribution towards preserving natural resources and reduce pollution to the mother earth.
The campaign was little unique which involved multiple nationalities like Indians, Nepalies, Sri Lankans and Pilippinos.
Some of the members also came out with suggestions to reduce the usage of plastic bags and use jute bags.
Participants mentioned that keeping ac on continuously, using dish washers with partial load etc causes wastage of electricity and water.
They vouched to educate their staff so that water and electricity wastage can be reduced.
Tulukoota Qatar's environmental awareness program at schools
Taking further the initiative with widespread actions and enthusiasm, Tulukoota relentlessly conducted many awareness and tree planting sessions at schools namely Delhi Public School at Al Wakra, on Saturday January 17, Qatar Finland International School on Thursday January 29 and last but not the least with the young kids at Little flower kindergarten February 2.
Navin Hegde the nominated member engineer to the ICC in his presentation explained in detail about the connect between the life on earth and the environment. He defined the environment as simply a system that supports life. Navin would end by invoking everyone’s personal social responsibility to protect the earth and preserve the natural resources.
The chief campaigner of the 'environmental awareness program' Chaitali Suhas Shetty in her presentation interacted with the children through a puppet and showcased the significance of saving water and electricity. She also showed examples through audio and video of how plastic is dangerous for health and our environment. She also discussed with children how they can take simple steps and conserve water and eletricity at home and at school.
1. At Delhi Public School, to grace the occasion president Nainar, board member Rocky Fernandez, principal, vice principal and manager facilities were present along with president of Tulukoota and the team.
2. At Qatar Finland International School the principal Juha, staff and 100 children participated actively in the campaign.
3. At little flower kIndergarden also principal Harini Rai and administration head Sudha shetty along with 120 kids were present for the program.
Environment awareness sessions at labour accommodations:
A large section of population was reached out through labour accommodation. The awareness session were organised in the labour camp in such a way that maximum participation was possible. Thereby all the sessions were organised in the evenings. The volunteers would gather even faster from their day long work for the environment awareness session to the far off labour accommadations. All the companies approached responded with the same zeal and contributed to the success of the campaign through their participation. During the sessions senior members from the company were present to make sure the arrangements were in place for the sessions.
Ravi Shetty anchored the program and introduced the Tulukootas initiative toward protection of environment. He further introduced the speaker for the session and invited Navin Hegde for the presentation. He started with the significance of the elements of the environment and the current status of the same. He also brought out the point that today's world of consumerism has created a large defect to the environment.
Through a pictorial depiction he showcased how small and insignificant actions of ours contribute to the greater damage to the environment. Navin also mentioned that if we continue at this rate the global warming can drown many countries and civilizations will be lost. He insisted that even though there are laws towards environment protection it's peoples responsibility to take actions and take note of their own lifestyle. As only that can save the mother earth for getting damaged by our actions.
He called upon people that education and experience has nothing to do with consciousness its only our intent which will bring significant change in the environment.
Navin explained in detail the different types of impacts the environment is facing today and highlighted that it is our duty to wake up and be aware about environmental issues and be alert by contributing whatever possible by each individual. Navin ended his presentation with a word on 'social responsibility' which everyone should adapt and practice.
To take the presentation further he invited Chaitali Shetty to the dais. She started the presentation with a short film 'neer'- water. After the video she further moved on to ask the audience that whether the message in the movie that 'one day water will be finished for us to even drink', will come true in our life span? To which the audience agreed and further she dwelled on the ways that we waste water and called upon the audience to give examples. Few members came ahead and expressed that in the camp many people don't take care of the drinking water and leave the tap open and sometimes the taps remain unpaired.
Further the sessions concentrated on use of plastic in our daily life and how that affects the earth. Chaitali stressed on the fact that each ones use of plastic can collectively become a big heap of garbage and that garbage doesn't vanish, it goes in for landfill and that pollutes the land, air and water bodies.
Chaitali mentioned to the crowd that they can save money and reserve it but if they don't preserve the environment then the large amount of money that they have saved would only be spent on purchasing good and clean water by their children. One of the participant came ahead and mentioned that they are aware that they should save water and plant trees but it doesn't come in practice. Others came ahead and also pledged that they would save water electricity.
They also pledged that they will reduce the use of plastic in their daily life by carrying a cloth bag while going for shopping. Some of them came forward and mentioned that they will reflect on their captions and also caution others if they are doing a mistake. In the end everybody seemed beaming with energy, took the message ahead to their fellow mates and contributed to wards protection of environment.
Often the audience would come out with concerns that these days back in their home towns water scarcity has increased. To which presenters would present to them the information on water table depletion and concerns of the same for future generation.
Companies which participated in the awareness sessions were:
1. Cape East: Labour and staff camp at Al Khor, on Sunday, January 25.
2. HBK -Doha Land-Musherab Properties: On Monday, January 26, Niyaz Ahmed, general manager of HBK supported the session.
3. Awareness program at L&T site office, Street No. 52 , Industrial Area,on Saturday, January 31 at 3.30 pm. Once again forgoing their Friday Tulukoota volunteers came together for one more session at L&T site
4. Raise your voice and watch your actions, awareness session at Cape East camp, Dukan, on Tuesday, February 3.
5. 'A drop of water is worth more than a sack of gold to a thirsty man' the relentless Tulukoota conducted its next environmental awareness campaign at Dopet Camp, Street No.47, Industrial Area, on Friday, February 6 at 3.00 pm.
6. 'Hug the tree, they have less issues than people', next awareness campaign at Al Million Camp, Shahaniya on Saturday, February 7, at 6.30 pm.