Siliguri & the Darjeeling hills · since June 2026
Plogging is jogging plus picking up litter. We run streets, forest trails, rail tracks and riverbanks with a glove and a bag, and we leave every route a little cleaner than we found it. Anyone can come along.
125+ participations across 5 towns since our first run on World Environment Day.
The problem
Walk any street in India and you'll find it. Go up a forest trail, a mountain path or into a protected sanctuary, and you'll still find it. Most of us have learned to stop seeing it. That's the real problem, and a fine or a dustbin can't fix it on its own.
Plastic has reached places where even electricity has yet to.From a Plogwarts run in the Fapri forest, Siliguri
We plogged from Darjeeling station to Batasia Loop along the tracks of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are anti-littering fines, and the tracks were still full of plastic: 8.9 kg in one run.
Majidhura is a sanctuary for the rare Himalayan salamander, and it's also a busy tourist spot. Then came Dowhill's pine forest in Kurseong, famous for its ghost stories. The only thing haunting it was litter.
In the hills, litter doesn't stay where it's dropped. Our first river plog went upstream in the Fapri forest, fishing out trapped plastic, then on to the Rangeet riverbank at Jorethang before the Chirbirey River Fest.
Why plogging
A cleanup changes one spot. A group of ploggers moving through a town changes how the whole route thinks about litter, because everyone along the way sees it happen.
| Aspect | Cleanup drive | Plogging |
|---|---|---|
| Where | One spot, standing still | Kilometres of streets and trails |
| Who sees it | Mostly the volunteers | Residents, shopkeepers, tourists |
| Fitness | Light | A full-body workout |
| Kit & cost | Venue, tools, logistics | A glove and a bag |
| Waste per person | Higher | Lower, but far more ground and people reached |
Plogging trades a little volume for a lot of visibility.
No venue, no equipment, almost no cost. It works in a city lane or on a mountain trail.
A moving group is seen by every commuter and tourist on the route. Watching someone pick up litter makes people think about their own habits.
Once you've picked up somebody else's trash, it's hard to go back to dropping your own. "Now I don't think I can litter ever in public again," said one runner from Delhi after a plog with us.
Every piece of litter is a squat, a lunge or a bend, and the bag gets heavier every kilometre. We log our runs on Strava like any other run.
Four months in
It started with one event in Siliguri on World Environment Day 2026, with Erik Ahlström, the Swede who started plogging, as chief guest. Sixty people came. Here's where it's got to since.
Every plog is logged like any other run: distance, pace, time.
Figures for 5 June to 12 October 2026, from the Plogwarts Impact Report 2026. Weights are approximate.
Plogtober 2026
In October we set ourselves a challenge: plog every day of the month, collect 100 kg of litter and get 100 people involved. Here's where it stood on Day 12:
We plogged 5 km to a school for underprivileged children, helped restore its front yard, and came back the next day to teach the kids plogging as a game.
We pledged a tree for every kilogram collected. 6.4 kg that day, so 6 trees pledged, with Siliguri Canopy Mission and Petunia.
Upstream through the Fapri forest, then the Rangeet riverbank at Jorethang. Festival-goers at Chirbirey River Fest joined a Trash Standoff with us.
A talk at GD Goenka Public School, Siliguri, on the journey of our garbage and on civic responsibility, with plogging shown live on stage.
Join a plog
Run it, jog it or walk it. Register once and we'll tell you when and where the next plog is.
Donate
Your gift pays for what it takes to put a plog on, and to take one somewhere it hasn't been yet.
Partner with us
Students plog with us, then we talk about where their garbage goes. We've done it with Campion School and GD Goenka Public School.
A morning out for your staff that leaves something behind. The Tori Bari team plog brought in about 17 kg with 11 people.
We plogged the full 10 km of the "Run for a Green Siliguri" marathon and ran a Trash Standoff at Chirbirey River Fest. Brands can back drives with hydration, kits or prizes.
We've worked with Humrahi, Support Wings, Siliguri Unique Social Welfare Society, Siliguri Canopy Mission, Petunia, Clearth, Chirbirey River Fest, Ojas Naturals, Campion School, GD Goenka Public School and Climate Week India ’26.
Bring a plog to your students, staff or event. One email is enough to get started.
Tell us your name, your school, team or event, and what you have in mind. We reply from a@myhumrahi.org.
From our founder
Plogwarts was born here in the Himalayan region, and this is where we're growing it: one street, one trail, one river at a time.Saurav PradhanRunner, social activist and founder of Plogwarts