Hyderabad has three ‘Earth Hours’ everyday!

Hyderabad: The concept of observing Earth Hour has been growing throughout the world. Every year on March 29, people worldwide take a pledge to save electricity and turn off their lights for an hour. But in Hyderabad, that turning off of lights is well, automated. Because guess what, the city is being plagued by three hours of power cuts every single day (excluding the unscheduled ones). And that should make Hyderabad a very green city indeed.

“We are already contributing so much for the planet by observing Earth Hour for three hours every day,” feels Aditi Namburi, who just returned from Sydney in Australia (the first country to actually turn off lights for Earth Hour) after completing higher education.

“There is no reason to observe the event here as there is already an Earth Hour going on every day in the city because of the power cuts. So three hours of Earth Hour in Hyderabad must be really good for the planet.”

The power cuts are also taking a toll on students. Rabiya Khanam, who has exams coming up, is rather upset as the power cuts are disrupting preparations. “They just add to the stress and irritation levels during exams and does not let us study. I now have my exams coming up and with maximum notes being online, the power cuts ruin the plan of completing a particular syllabus within a targeted time,” says Rabiya, who is pursuing BA from St. Francis College for Women.

But there are still many from the city who have taken the pledge to support Earth Hour and turn off their lights from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm as they believe that an extra hour would do no harm to the planet. “I feel Earth Hour will serve its purpose in Hyderabad even if there is a daily outage of three hours, as this will help the citizens understand the value of electricity. That extra one hour will be of more impact than the usual three hours that people are used to,” says software professional Arijit Dey.