Narang is a small community with area of 49.91sqkm and household of 227 out of which 15 households are Gungtongs and a census population of 2274. More than half of the population are out of Narang few settled in urban areas and others either studying or working in other places. I live in this small community!
Bhutan is known all over the world for its pristine nature and carbon negative principles. But the question now is, how long can we hold this image upright? To whom does the responsibility fall on to? Do our parents living in a small community like the community I live in even have a slightest idea of what it means to conserve and protect our environment?
Once I asked a crowd of this community a question “Where do you get chips covers, plastics and pet bottles from?” The answer came in union “From the shop” to their answer I replied “In this community, you get the above mentioned from the footpath we walk, on the ground we play, near the tree we rest, near the water source we drink and finally in the shops.” There are just three shops here.
The sight of red, blue, white, orange and grey on the lush green ground does not bother our crowd yet. At least not in this small community. They see it as colors and do not know that it will take thousands of years for these plastics to degrade. These sights have been disturbing my sight for quite some time. Then I started this individual project of picking up plastics on the footpath I walk – home to office.
This individual project seemed to work somehow. At the very least the road that I walked got cleaned up every day. On the way to and fro to my office and my home. I could literally feel the joy of my individual project. A month later I have another few friends who pick up the garbage and place in the dust bins. My friends picking up garbage may not have been the ripple effect of my individual project, but I am glad that we are doing this in group now. At least we pick up little garbage to wherever we visit.
With this small initiative of picking up plastics from our environment to the right place, we want to educate our small community through examples than orders. May be if we continue with our small initiative one day may be the people of this small community will be bothered by the different colors on the lush green environment.
The responsibility finally falls upon us those who are bothered by these unhealthy sights!
P.S. With the help of local government, the health sector of Narang gewog has now taken initiative to construct dust bins to all the households of Narang.
Wandering Thoughts 