Extentia promotes environmental awareness by cleaning up viewpoint

Extentia, a global software development company based in Pune, manages its corporate social activities through an in-house team called Sakaar, which means “to fulfil�. The group works towards addressing social issues in the city, and over the years has carried out many activities such as garnering resources for the Wagholi Ashram which houses and educates over 350 abandoned and orphaned children, celebrating Christmas with the Sandhya Old Age Home, and assisting the National Association for the Blind.

Addressing the Sakaar group, Extentia director Marc Cremer said, “We were appalled to see the pollution on the hill at Bapdev Ghat when we were driving past to get away from the regular noise that we all face in the city. A truck had dumped its whole load of garbage on this beautiful hillside and made it look really miserable. Such a wonderful place with scenic beauty had lost its charm.� That’s when Sakaar decided to take on the responsibility of cleaning up the area and restoring the picturesque view.

A team of Extentians, led by Marc Cremer, rolled up their sleeves and reached the site at 9.30am on Sunday 6 May, to begin work on their task. The area had been littered with plastic bags, glass bottles, shoes and domestic waste. Despite the hot summer temperatures, the team worked relentlessly for several hours to restore the beauty of the place.

The work, however, turned out to be more difficult than expected.

One team member commented, “The garbage was falling apart when being touched, much of it was entangled in thorny bushes and more of it was already buried under earth. The hill was steep and sagged under our feet. For a couple of hours we stuffed bag by bag until the morning sun became unbearable and the garbage bags were running out. The bags were filling up the hanger so high that they had to be strapped to prevent them from falling down. But overall it was extremely satisfying to know that we did our bit to make the place cleaner.�

Through this and similar corporate social activities, Extentia hopes to make people aware that throwing away garbage on the roads and hillsides not only ruins the sight of the city but also causes environmental stress and disease, both for wildlife and human beings. Undoubtedly, whilst the city needs to provide more facilities to dispose of litter, every individual also needs to develop better environmental consciousness on a personal level.

To ensure that this kind of senseless pollution would not recur, the Extentians placed a sign captioned “Pune View Point – Please Keep Clean� - a message that Extentia hopes will echo not only at this nice viewing spot in Bapdev Ghat but also throughout Pune and India as a whole.