NDTV's Greenathon campaign raises Rs 2.4 crore

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Mumbai
NDTV and Toyota's Greenathon campaign saw many environmentally conscious people come forward to take the green pledge and adopt villages by donating for TERI's 'Lighting a Billion Lives' project that aims at solar powering villages across the country.

The effort for the environment received an overwhelming response by leading corporates, Bollywood stars, musicians, environmentalists, NGOs and educational institutions. It has generated over Rs 2.4 crore.

Some of the donors for the campaign were Nokia, Coca-Cola, Shilpa Shetty, Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar, Lalit Modi and Yuvraj Singh.

The highest corporate donors were Coca-Cola and Nokia, who sponsored 4 and 3 villages respectively. S Kumar's Nitin Kasliwal adopted two villages and Bombay Dyeing's Ness Wadia adopted one village.

Other corporate who donated to the cause were Toyota Kirloskar Motors, ARM Embedded Technologies, SRF, Rexfam Hindustan Tin Works, Ozone Group, Wizcraft, Qualcomm, Dentsu India, Luthra & Luthra, Sheela Group and Asian Roots Spa.

Shilpa Shetty adopted 4 villages and set the momentum to be the first highest donor soon followed by Shah Rukh Khan and Billu team, who adopted 5 villages. Akshay Kumar's son Aarav became the youngest donor of the campaign by adopting a village.

IPL's Lalit Modi adopted the largest village without lights, while actor Vivek Oberoi, who also sponsored one village, pledged to continue the good deed every year.

Also stepping forward were Sanjay Dutt and family who adopted 2 villages, cricketer Yuvraj Singh, campaign ambassador Preity Zinta, Preity's mother, actor Arjun Rampal and Nina Pillai, amongst others.

The Greenathon, a 24-hour programming initiative dedicated to create environmental awareness, which commenced on February 07, 2009 was inaugurated by Dr. Prannoy Roy and Dr. R K Pachauri.

The Greenathon was hosted by Vikram Chandra and Preity Zinta, while Cyrus Broacha kept the viewers entertained for 24 hours. Relay cleanup activities were conducted in Delhi and Mumbai as part of the campaign.