By Pooja Bhula
People came, people ran, people cycled, people walked and as always people littered. Littered, and how? Participants of Saturday’s event thought if we can’t leave our footprints on the concrete path we can at least make our mark by leaving behind a trail of plastic bottles.
So starting from the first hydrating point organized by Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF) at Dhanketi, to the last one before Polo parking lot, one could see bottles after bottles covering every street that participants passed.
And obviously, anything free is always up for waste.
Looking at bottles that were not even half empty, it seemed like everyone was curious about tasting the free water but disappointed after a sip or two that it tasted just like water they pay for participants decided to throw them away.
The wastage also makes one wonder, have students today forgotten the concept of sharing?
And surprisingly no one stopped the wastage or littering.
Not the school or college teachers accompanying the kids, not the volunteers distributing water and ribbons and not even the traffic cops.
To maintain the spirit of the purpose of event the MTDF could have decided to disqualify or not give certificates to any participants who littered during the events, but that didn’t happen either.
The scenario after reaching the polo parking lot was the same.
First everyone lined up for breakfast and very soon the ground was full of plates, spoons, cups and tissues.
The organisers on two occasions encouraged participants to pick things up and throw them in the bins, and it worked, but there was so much of it, that it would have taken a while for the entire mess to be cleared up after everyone left.
So who really is bothered about the green and how can anyone call it a green run?
