While everyone dreads the pandemic, Rajasekhar(24), a State badminton player from Kuppam municipality, says the last two years and the struggles that people across the world had to face opened his eyes to the importance of a healthy environment for the health of humans.
A qualified engineer, Raju, as he is fondly called in Kuppam, was on a job search when the pandemic broke out. “Having lost the opportunities for two years, I directed my attention towards reading COVID-related news. The studies that focussed on the relation between degeneration of immunity levels among humans and felling of trees impressed me,” he said.
Having realised that the best way to lead a healthy life is to coexist with the flora and fauna, Raju wanted to raise awareness on the importance of increasing green cover among others. It was then that the idea of embarking on a bicycle expedition from Kuppam to Ladakh(3,200 km) hit him.
