Unsung Heroes: Meet the Plog Man of Bengaluru who wants to ‘fail’ in his mission as a plogger

Although he was part of other citizen groups engaged in cleaning up the environment, around December 2012, he branched out to do something on his own. Hailing from Guntakal in Andhra Pradesh, Nagaraj began plogging along with his daughter Avni and set off on a journey in which he eventually wants to “fail”.

“During my runs at public parks I used to see a lot of litter and most of it was done carelessly by the educated lot. This bothered me. Fortunately, I got to know about the concept of plogging through social media and wanted to start it in India. Initially, it was only me and my daughter who started plogging. In fact, I named my daughter Avni which means mother earth so that whenever I see her, I would want to connect myself with mother earth,” said Nagaraj who is also called Plog Raj — The Indian Plog Man.

His first extempore plog was in 2016 at Cubbon Park where he participated in a running event. Although he did not win the race, he definitely caught attention when he started picking up trash littered around the park using a trash bag and a pair of gloves.

In order to create awareness on plogging, Nagaraj set off to participate in multiple running events in the city and drew attention through his action of picking up litter while jogging. He also posted pictures of the same on social media to drive a bigger change in plogging. Besides public parks, Nagaraj also prefers to plog along different lakes in Bengaluru every weekend.

“When I used to participate in major running events, some ploggers and I used to engage in plogging. We also used to take our own cutlery to eat and drink during the refreshment breaks. This act attracted a lot of attention and then we spread the word to anyone who was interested to know what we were up to. I was also a part of the Runners 360 group which used to host running events and I used to participate in the events as a plogger,” said Nagaraj.

In order to dispose of the waste collected through plogging, Nagaraj ropes in BBMP pourakarmikas to handover the collection to them. In 2018, Nagaraj plogged barefoot for 21 km in the forest trails of Kodagu and then took on a 23-km stretch on the NICE Road. “I have plogged in about 35 cities in India. I choose the places or roads which have more footfall and are popular. For example, I chose Necklace Road in Hyderabad and the Marina Beach in Chennai,” said Nagaraj, founder of the Indian Plog Army consisting of 285 ‘ploggers’.

In 2019, Nagaraj also started corporate plogging which aimed at joining hands with different companies to engage the employees in plogging activities in their office campuses. “We have collected tonnes of waste weighing over 1,000 kg from office spaces,” Nagaraj said.

He also informed that he collects around 20 kg of dry waste during an average plog. During bigger plogs, he collects nearly 800-1,000 kg of waste. Most of the waste includes tobacco packets, plastic, paper plates and water bottles. Nagaraj observed that the maximum amount of accumulated waste can be found on the Outer Ring Road because of lack of pourakarmikas and the high rate of littering during the evening hours.

Nagaraj has also collaborated with Hasiru Dala, a social impact organisation that works with waste pickers and other waste workers to ensure a life of dignity. As a subtext to the overall plogging initiative, he has collected reusable waste like toys, books, clothes, shoes and has distributed them to the less fortunate. During an old shoe collection drive, Nagaraj and his team collected over 4,000 shoes from people and gave them away to kids and adults in Bengaluru.

In 2020, during the pandemic, he had launched the ‘Cupman’ campaign in order to raise awareness on menstrual hygiene. In partnership with Stonesoup which manufactures menstrual cups and Mitu Foundation which supports the marginalised community, he distributed menstrual cups at various slums in Bengaluru. He distributed over 500 cups to women and raised awareness against the use of sanitary napkins. Interestingly, the name Cupman was awarded to men who encouraged women to switch to menstrual cups.

In Bengaluru, besides participating in running events, Nagaraj is also actively spreading the concept of plogging during citizens or social movements and other social events. Be it the recent ‘Save Sankey’, a walkathon by residents of Malleswaram to save Sankey Tank from a road widening project, or the ISL Football match at Kanteerva Stadium, Nagaraj and his team is out there plogging.

He jokingly said, “With the amount of trash we collect while jogging, we are hardly able to jog and instead, we walk, hence I call it ‘plolk’. Which is why, even during running events, I choose between 2 km and 5 km runs, where participants usually walk.” In 2021, Nagaraj did around 150 plogs, 86 plogs in 2022, eight so far in 2023 and he aims to complete 100 plogs this year.

“My objective is to fail as a plogger. This is because, if I am still plogging, it means people are still ignorantly littering. In the next 10-20 years, I hope there is a day where the need for plogging does not arise and that is the day I will fail as a plogger. This is my objective as a plogger,” says Nagaraj.