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By PTI
PRATAPGARH: As the fifth round of assembly polls was held in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, it was a day of double excitement for Gem Mishra and Prakriti Shrivastav, both 18 and living with their families in a quaint neighbourhood of Pratapgarh district.
As excited as they were for being a first-time voter, Gem and Prakriti were equally exhilarated about becoming part of ‘Green Voting’ — a plantation drive conducted on the polling day by a local environment protection group.
“Loktantra mazboot karna hai aur srishti bhi (We have to strengthen the democracy and the nature, too),” Mishra, a second-year B.Sc student at Babu Sant Baksh College in Lilapur here, told PTI.
After casting his vote in the morning in the Raniganj assembly constituency, the first-time voter said he was very excited as he rushed home to plant a guava sapling.
“A politician is one who leads the country. Their role is significant and we need to elect the right leader who could take us collectively forward, guide us,” Mishra said.
Shrivastav, who is preparing for engineering entrance exams after completing Class 12, said she felt proud after casting her vote for the first time ever and that she felt good being part of the initiative to protect the environment.
“It’s our responsibility to elect our representatives. I felt proud I did that today. Later, I planted a guava sapling too as part of the Green Voting campaign,” Shrivastav told PTI, adding that she has been associated with the cause for a year now and even campaigned to raise awareness about voting and plantation.
Like Mishra and Shrivastav, hundreds of voters, including first-timers, in Pratapgarh pledged to plant a tree after casting their vote through an initiative of ‘Paryavaran Sena’, aimed at raising awareness for voter turnout as well as climate change.
Ajay Kumar Tiwari, alias Ajay ‘Krantikaari’, the chief of Paryavaran Sena, said he had started working for environment two decades ago and has been campaigning to raise awareness towards protecting nature and climate change.
“The government does what it has to do but we know nature would be destroyed if people do not wake up to the situation,” the 45-year-old social worker and lawyer told PTI.
“There are several types of ‘sena’ in the country. The ‘sena’ for protecting the country is there of course but several had come up for political activities in recent years. It struck me then about forming a ‘sena’ that would protect nature,” he said.
The Paryavaran Sena was formed on August 9, 2002, he said, adding that since then, the outfit, which has thousands of volunteers, has been working for environment protection.
He recalled how a former Pratapgarh district magistrate who was impressed by his outfit’s work had called him Ajay ‘Krantikaari’ (revolutionary), a moniker which has now become part of his identity.
Over the years, Ajay and his outfit also joined forces with the district administration for various social campaigns including those on elections and voting.
The outfit is running the ‘Green Voting’ campaign, which aims at raising awareness for environment protection among people as well about the significance of voting in a democracy.
The Paryavaran ‘sainiks’ are going across the district, including villages, to raise awareness for voting, and telling them how to make the day memorable for themselves, he said.
The Paryavaran Sena had worked during the 2019 general elections and the 2017 state assembly elections also, with a mission to make people aware and encourage them for 100 per cent voting, he said.
“If more people vote, it will save the democracy. But a democracy, a nation and world would only survive if the nature survives,” Tiwari said.
“We conceptualised a method to link voting with plantation. We coined a slogan ‘Button Dabaao, Ped lagaao, Loktantra Va Srishti Bachao’,” he said.
The Paryavaran Sena chief said this time, the outfit got ‘Sankalp Patra’ (resolution paper) from around 20,000 voters, who pledged to plant a tree after casting their vote.
They also have to protect and take care of their ‘voting tree’, he said, adding that for people who cannot arrange plants by themselves, the outfit volunteers are providing them saplings of guava, mango, jamun, etc.
“These saplings could be planted in February. These plants will not only add to the beauty of their premises but also be a memory for this election and green voting. It will be a souvenir for people’s future generations,” Tiwari said.
“The response from the public has been very good and positive. February is not the best time for plantation drives though and arranging saplings is also a bit difficult because of the season. Had the election taken place after monsoon, around October, this drive could have been more successful,” he said.
Despite the challenges, he said the outfit has got support from its volunteers, the local forest department, and private nurseries — who have all chipped in the initiative by providing saplings.
Highlighting the problem of drinking water, Tiwari stressed the need for protecting the environment while protecting democracy.
The fifth round of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections was held on Sunday across a dozen districts, including Pratapgarh, which has seven assembly seats.
Two more phases of the state polls are scheduled on March 3 and 7, while the polls results of all seven rounds will be declared on March 10.
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