‘Snake’ out of 20,000 plastic bottles earns attention at Onam Week festivities
Trivandrum / August 28, 2023
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug. 28: A team of imaginative young minds has shaped 20,000 plastic bottles into a snake-like installation on behalf of the Suchitwa Mission, earning public attention at the main venue of the Onam Week celebrations by Kerala Tourism in the city.
Eleven students of the College of Fine Arts Kerala took four days to come up with the predominantly white-and-green work alongside the tree-lined pathway on the sprawling grounds of the majestic Kanakakunnu Palace. The 90-foot-long figure, with its slithering looks eventually leading upward to a flared ‘hood’ menacingly eager to swallow at a sphere that represents the globe, has been completed by a collective named Trivandrum Young Artist Group.
Erected with the intention of creating awareness among the public towards threats the earth and humanity face from uncontrolled use of plastics, the installation got its inputs from plastic-bottles passengers used and left at Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station during the past few days.
Tourism Minister Shri P.A. Mohamed Riyas appreciated the artists and the Suchitwa Mission team, praising the “fantastic” installation. “This carries a very beautiful message, too,” said the Minister, who was the venue to address the inaugural ceremony of the August 27-September 2 celebrations on Sunday evening.
The idea behind the installation was conceived by Suchitwa Mission Campaign Co-Ordinator Ravikrishnan P.K. and Executive Director Balabhaskaran K.T. While Anil Kumar N.V. of Suchitwa Mission managed the procurement of plastic bottles, another colleague Ranjith Thomas managed the file-work. A ground-level team, headed by Ravi Krishnan and Jinu Sebastian, ensured support to the artists: Mithun J., Sumesh B.S., Balasundaram P., Hashir C.P., Arun P.V., Aswathy S., Arya M.R., Eswar D., Mahesh B. Nair, Athul K.P. and Kruthika N.
The Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, in a bid to enforce green protocol guidelines at various venues of the celebrations, has posted a 200-member battalion of green army at Kanakakkunnu. Smt Gayathri Babu, Chairperson of the Health Standing Committee of the Corporation, flagged off the passing-out of the green army at the Palace.
The Suchitwa Mission’s Ravikrishnan handed over the uniforms, sponsored by the Mission for the green army members, to Smt Babu. On the first day of the celebrations, they visited the traders and vendors at the venue and advised them against single-use plastics. Those defying the green protocol implementation team will prompt the enforcement teams of the corporation to take “severe action”, including hefty fines, they added.
The Suchitwa Mission, which is the technical support group in the waste-management sector under the state’s Local Self Government Department, made an appeal to the public at Kanakakkunnu and other venues to cooperate with the Green Army and avoid single-use plastics at the site besides desist from littering the venue. The Mission is responsible for conceptualizing and action-planning besides conducting workshops and training programmes in the waste-management sector of Kerala.
