About Tarumitra Ashram

Tarumitra received Special Consultative Status (ECOSOC) from the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

Tarumitra, meaning “Friends of Trees” in Hindi and Sanskrit, is a student movement to protect and promote a healthy environment on Earth. Started by school students with support from Jesuits in Patna, India in 1988, the the movement has spread into hundreds of high schools and colleges all over India. It has over 300,000 members in over 2000 high schools and colleges. Tarumitra has also had several full-time volunteers from India and abroad.

Footprint

FOOTPRINTS

Footprint is brainchild of inter-school debate held at Tarumitra Bio-reserve. It focuses on common habit change for climate change of citizen in urban population. Research reason behind failure of three major pillars of sustainable cities – Waste Management, Traffic Awareness, Social Responsibility. Develop viable solutions to curb our carbon footprint

History

Tarumitra, meaning "Friends of Trees" in Hindi and Sanskrit, is a student movement to protect and promote a healthy environment on Earth.[5] It was the effort of Jesuit Fr. Robert Athickal from St. Xavier's School, Patna and students from few schools under the leadership of Anindo Banerjee, a class IX student from Loyola High School, Patna, that the movement came into existence in 1988. In April 1989, four high school students from Loyla High School, Anindo Banerjee, Vijay Mathur, Sanjay Pandey and Jayant Chatterjee, set out on a cycle rally in North India from Patna to New Delhi to promote awareness about the environment and the movement. They met with the then vice president of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, to present their findings. While returning, at Agra, Jayant fell seriously ill and despite attempt, could not be saved. His demise shocked the movement; however, his sacrifice for the environment made his companions to work and promote the movement with great zeal. Today, Jayant's sacrifice is one of the cornerstone of Tarumitra's foundation history, which is still remembered the same way as 30 years ago

Habit Change for Climate Change

A campaign to engage youth to make informed choice of habit & behavioural change to unleash a new movement of action that will seek to reduce plastic waste where it matters most : Drains, Rivers and Oceans. Segregate plastic waste at source to enable its way for Circular Economy in coordination with Extended Producers Responsibility policy approach. Plastic being a major catalyser in enabling our modern life, impacts of plastic mismanagement paints an unequivocally toxic picture. One of the major threats to biodiversity is mismanagement of single use plastic(SUP). Our production and consumption of single-use plastics and our inability to manage plastic waste sustainably have led to a massive pollution problem. Marine litter and microplastics are flooding our oceans and are hurting marine ecosystems and human health on an unprecedented scale.

Plastic is widely used in all the sectors of the world due to its numerous practical characteristics like light weight, reaction resistance and flexibility. From food packaging to electronic and machinery components, plastic is part of every thing we use in our daily life. Plastic in the current COVID situation has shielded humanity to curb pandemic when we had nothing else to look for. It acted as a shield for millions of health workers and others engaged in their professional life in the form of PPE or masks.

A campaign to engage youth to make informed choice of habit & behavioural change to unleash a new movement of action that will seek to reduce plastic waste where it matters most : Drains, Rivers and Oceans. Segregate plastic waste at source to enable its way for Circular Economy in coordination with Extended Producers Responsibility policy approach. Plastic being a major catalyser in enabling our modern life, impacts of plastic mismanagement paints an unequivocally toxic picture. One of the major threats to biodiversity is mismanagement of single use plastic(SUP). Our production and consumption of single-use plastics and our inability to manage plastic waste sustainably have led to a massive pollution problem. Marine litter and microplastics are flooding our oceans and are hurting marine ecosystems and human health on an unprecedented scale.

Plastic being a major catalyser in enabling our modern life, impacts of plastic mismanagement paints an unequivocally toxic picture. One of the major threat to biodiversity is mismanagement of single use plastic(SUP).

Our taken for granted attitude is questioning survival of various species inhabiting on earth along with humans. The problem gets predominantly worsened with the rampant use of Single Use Plastic and throwing them without a concern which block the waterways, endangers marine ecosystem, exacerbate natural disasters and when burnt emit toxic emissions.

Plastic packaging accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste in India, much of which is thrown away just a few minutes of acquiring. Some discarded in landfills other thrown in open environment.

India generated 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually or about 946,000 truckloads at 10 tonnes a truck. Nearly 40% of this waste remains uncollected, as per the environment ministry.

While glass and metal and particular types of plastic such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are being recycled with some efficiency in India. However other plastic waste such as polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) poses a significant challenge in recycling because of its low density less economic value at the same time collection of scattered and soiled plastics is a labour-intensive exercise, and needs to be washed. Due to scum reasons, these plastics are left unattended at dump sites and various brilliant ideas of recycling and utilising SUP is suppressed causing long term negative impact on the environment.

Some are burnt, some are eaten by stray animals with eatable thrown at waste dumpsites, some makes their way to rivers via drain and rest is collected by Muncipal corporation to be leaked again in environment from unscientific landfills. Inefficient public waste management services throughout India often present a source of employment and livelihoods for informal waste pickers,