With an aim to create awareness for a pollution-free nation, a youth from Manipur began a cycling tour on Monday from the national capital to his home state in the North-east.
Philem Rohan Singh, from Moirang in Manipur, will be cycling about 2,500 km that began at the iconic India Gate in the national capital to Imphal, the capital city of Manipur in what Singh himself dubbed as ‘a journey taken with extra mile’.
Talking to media ahead of his ambitious cycling tour, Singh said he had a dream to do something different since he ‘was a child’.
With Delhi’s air quality index vacillating between poor and very poor, he decided to embark upon his love for adventure sports mixed with a noble cause.
“I have been living in Delhi for the past six to seven months. I am pretty disturbed with the media reports of the pollution level in the environment and its adverse effects which I have been experiencing personally. I was already planning to take this journey. The day after Diwali, because of the extreme pollution, a friend of mine suggested I should club the two things,” Singh added.
Philem Rohan Singh, a post graduate aspirant of English literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), will be cycling 100 km a day.
“I have been into bike riding for the past two to three years. I have gone to a maximum of 500 to 600 km per journey. I have never done anything of this magnitude before. I hope I will be able to raise awareness for the cause,” he further said.
Pollution was a major concern for the residents of the national capital and its neighbouring cities during the latter part of last year with toxic smog disrupting normal life.
Delhiites wearing masks was a common sight during the last couple of months in New Delhi. The Sri Lankan cricket team also hogged headlines other than their sporting feats by wearing N95 pollution masks during a Test match against the home team in the national capital last year.