Pune: A short film on Ramdas Kokare, named ‘One Zero Zero’ was released by Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Wednesday as a success story of ’Vengurla Model’. Kokare is currently the Chief Officer of Karjat Municipal Council (KMC) and has additional charge of Matheran. Sakal Times reported about his work on June 21.
KVIFF is the only environmental festival in India, which combines exclusive national-international film screenings and a number of allied activities. KVIFF is producing short films since last year on the success stories of people who are working for environment protection. The purpose of producing the short film is to reach out to a large number of people.
Kokare made Dapoli completely plastic-free in the year 2010. He later got inspired by KVIFF and implemented the ‘Shunya Kachra Abhiyan’ (zero garbage campaign) in Vengurla, Aurangabad, Matheran and Karjat successfully. He has received many national and international level awards for the same. Kokare’s model will be replicated by local self-government bodies across the state.
At the release of the film, Kokare said, “It is we who mix up the garbage when the garbage itself comes in separate form. India imports 4,800 tonnes of paper but if we recycle the paper which we already have then there will be no need to import such huge amount of paper. We import 2,500 metric tonnes of compost, but if we make compost from kitchen waste then there is no need to import it.”
He said that 4 per cent of solid waste of the city is responsible for global warming. “If we reduce, reuse, recycle and segregate at source then most of the problems of solid waste management will be solved. Because only municipal corporations or councils cannot solve the problem alone, it is our responsibility to segregate at source, because secondary segregation is not quite possible,” he added.
