Volunteer experience on our recent CCC 5

YFS Environment Team

Our environment: so far non-living sand under our foot, motionless trees side by, litres of water

around, blue tinted sky above, doesn't seem to be a big essential deal for our life. This may be the 

blind thought of a person who doesn't care about the nature. But that is not the case... Our life 

totally tangles with these things around. Polluting this environment is like cutting the branch of a 

tree by sitting at its edge. To save us from falling off, we should start protecting it right now. As one 

of the necessary steps, we went for the coastal clean-up in different beaches of Chennai on a 

Sunday 08.06.2014 – I was asked to join Thiruvanmiyur group as it’s my nearby place. In the early 

morning of Sunday, I didn't imagine such a huge number of people involved in the clean-up. The 

whole mass comprises youngsters, old retired gentlemen, children from various places of Chennai. 

They all collected the plastics, glass bottles, thermacols in separate bags sincerely. Earlier I thought 

only a small number of youngsters are interested in saving the environment. But all my belief went 

wrong on seeing couples who participated in the clean-up and three to four old nice gentlemen (my 

eyes caught these three but may be more number of persons) collected the plastics and dumped in 

bags with their shivering walks. In our group, myself, Pavani, Shankar sir (This is the first time I met 

him) and his children joined together to clean up. His children are really amazing having such 

responsibility at this small age. They never asked their dad to permit them to play in the beach, to 

buy anything to eat. Unlike normal kids, they are so matured and they cared much not leaving any 

titbits of plastics. If this wave of saving the environment extends like a chain, I am damn sure we will 

get back our green planet soon. No one out of nearly 200 people get tired in the cleaning process. 

The success of this clean-up is the beach now looks awesome and many of the public people look at 

us and it may be an eye opener for them to keep the beach clean. Though cleaning our own 

environment gives us much pleasure, it is not really a permanent solution to create a Green Planet. 

Each and every individual of this society should involve themselves in this cause. It’s our duty to 

create awareness among the people who really unaware of the consequences of dumping waste just 

like that in beaches. Swami Vivekananda asked for hundred youths to change the country. But now I 

think we can change the whole world if we target children who are like wet clay that we can mould 

in a proper way. The sea is a magnified unimaginable beauty. I always amaze on seeing the Sea 

which has thousands and thousands of organisms inside her but remains flat as if like she holds only 

salt water. The sea is a separate world, a very large hole of wonders, a caring mother to both aquatic 

and terrestrial organisms. She shows her beauty through the beach, her adorability through the tidal 

sounds, her care through giving her own livings to the human race. Dumping waste in the beaches is 

not the good way of reciprocating her care towards us. Let’s hold our hands together to keep the 

environment clean, to make others aware of environmental care, to make society realize the 

importance of avoiding dumping wastes. These measures are not for saving the world but for saving 

our own life. Dreaming a world without plastics!!!!

S.Revathi Devi (YFS Volunteer - Environment)

Happy to serve