Thiruvananthapuram: A group of do-gooders got together, cleaned up a dumpsite near Nisagandhi Auditorium and converted it into a place for rest for morning walkers. And then the place turned into a dumpsite again. Normally the story ends here. However Rays Foundation, the NGO which beautified the place last August, is once again getting ready to repeat the feat. Babitha P S, Project Head at Rays, says, “Now, we plan to turn it into a park.” They call the
project ‘cRAYons’.
They plan to repeat this in 12 other spots including the road next to St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School. “At the Tutors’ Lane, there will be musical evenings as a band has agreed to volunteer. Only when a place comes alive, people will stop dumping waste there,” says Babitha.
They had taken three days to clean up the place. Students at Kariavattom as well as architects at organisations like Ego and Kaavu had come forward to help them. “Then we thought that it should look natural. So we did not disturb the burrows of mongoose. The tree stumps seemed part of the place and we did not create a lawn,” she says.
The RAYS volunteers would go sit there, so that people did not throw waste there. “Before cleaning the place up, we conducted a study on who dumps the waste. A majority of the ones who dropped garbage were not from Kanaka Nagar, the residential colony nearby. There were also tourist vehicles adding their bins to the lot,” she says.
The place had remained clean until work on the road here started. “This time, we will be putting flower pots here, painting the walls nearby. But we won’t stop there. We will go to the residents here with awareness campaigns on source-level waste management. The neighbours will be made part of the project”. “Last time the Corporation had supported us immensely. This time, we are going to request them to put up lights here,” says Babitha.
