The concept of plogging was born when a working professional from Sweden decided to clean up the littered waste on the roads as he travelled for work. In the year 2016, Erik Ahlström started to collect waste on the road and disposed it off appropriately as he went to work. Soon, he started to practice the same during his morning jog.
Motivated byAhlström many followed his footsteps and the word plogging simultaneously gained momentum worldwide. When searching ‘#plogging’ on instagram, one comes across several pictures from various countries where people practice picking up waste from roads and disposing it off during morning walks or jogging.
In October 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a video of him plogging at the beach of Mamallapuram during his morning walk. The tweet said “Plogging at a beach in Mamallapuram this morning. It lasted for over 30 minutes. Also handed over my ‘collection’ to Jeyaraj, who is a part of the hotel staff. Let us ensure our public places are clean and tidy! Let us also ensure we remain fit and healthy.”
At another instance, in September 2019 Modi urged people to practice plogging during his Mann Ki Baat Address. Plogging has since gained propulsion in India too.
Plogging has been trending for both environment and personal health benefits which the practise bestows. As per Ahlström, plogging for half an hour will burn at least 288 calories on an average as compared to just 235 calories from regular jogging, reported The Indian Express.
India too has several campaigners for plogging, most prominent of them being Ripu Daman Bevli, who is often referred to as ‘Plogman of India’. Bevli is known for his initiative called ‘Ploggers of India’ which promotes the process of plogging across various platforms for creating awareness. In his own words “Littering is the main problem. If 130 crore Indians take pledge that they will not litter from today itself. I think that will be the start to solving this problem of littering.”
“People follow your actions and not your words. So always try to do that and that is how we will be able to change the mindset and behaviour of an entire nation,” said Belvi.
