Run well and take your litter along

BUKIT Kiara with its interesting trails and strategic location is a favourite outdoor venue for hikers and hashers. In fact, it is so popular with Hash chapters that hashers converge here almost every day of the week to set runs.

The downside of this is Bukit Kiara is littered with a lot of hash paper (pic). For the uninitiated, hashers run on paper which serves as trail markers or “scent’ laid earlier by the person setting the run.

Seldom do members of the Hash chapters who set the run go back to the trail to pick up the paper they had laid earlier.

Yes, paper is biodegradable and will disintegrate over time but if there’s too much, it becomes an eyesore and does not blend well with the green environment. It will also take a bit of time before nature takes care of the paper.

So let’s all be friendly to nature and not add litter to our environment more than necessary.

The problem can be resolved if each Hash chapter makes it mandatory for those who set the trail run (called the hare and co-hares) to make another trip the next day to pick up the paper they laid earlier. A fine or punishment could be imposed on the recalcitrant hare.

This is not a problem in Bukit Kiara alone but is happening in all hashing sites throughout the country. Hashing has grown from its humble beginnings in 1938 into thousands of chapters nationwide, hence the problem will only worsen if no concrete step is taken to address the “littering” problem at run sites.

On concrete roads, either chalk or flour should be used. In some countries such as Singapore, the use of paper is banned (as it amounts to deliberate littering) and only flour and chalk are permitted.

If the hares and co-hares can set the run, they should also be able to go back to pick up the same paper they had thrown on the ground.

In this way, the Hash chapters will not leave their footprint on their trail (the hash papers are printed with the name of the Hash chapter or their logo) until nature takes its course.

As an active hasher in my younger days, my plea to hashers is to protect and preserve nature by running responsibly. If you want to have a good run, go ahead but please give due respect to the environment by leaving nothing behind after your workout.

On On!