India is one of the leading shark fishing countries though fishing and trade in some of the endangered species of shark is banned. In order to protect threatened shark species, it is necessary to involve both fishing communities as well as people who consume shark products.
Dr Divya Karnad, a marine biologist working on shark conservation, has been chosen for a global award to work on such holistic conservation programme.
Dr Karnad, an assistant professor of environment studies at the Ashoka University, is among three young researchers selected for the Future for Nature Award for 2019, given by the Netherlands-based Future for Nature Foundation. The other two winners are Fernanda Abra (Brazil) and Olivier Nsengimana (Rwanda). Each of the three winners gets 50,000 Euros ( to work on projects in their countries.Capturing, killing and sale of four shark species — whale shark (Rhincodon typus), Pondicherry shark (Carcharhinus hemiodon), Ganges shark (Glyphis gangeticus) and speartooth shark (Glyphis glyphis) is banned in India under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. Shark finning and fin exports have also been banned separately.
But shark fishing and trade continues since sharks look similar with their sharp teeth and often get misidentified by fishermen. There is a huge demand for shark fins in Southeast Asian countries, while shark meat is used in domestic markets. Shark parts go into making of Sorrah Puttu and other dishes that figure on seafood restaurants.
Dr Karnad wants to approach the problem holistically. “Fishermen are typically blamed for overfishing, causing marine ecosystem degradation and decline in threatened species. It is fishermen who make everyday decisions about where to fish and what to catch. They see declines of sharks as part of a larger problem affecting fisheries and therefore shark conservation has to be linked to sustainability,” explained Dr Karnad while speaking to India Science Wire.
At the other end, Dr Karnad is working with consumers of seafood, educating them on how they opt for seafood produced sustainably through an online platform called InSeason Fish.
The team works with fishermen to identify sustainable fishing practices that reduce shark catch and with seafood consumers and chefs by educating them on buying sustainable seafood, and avoiding shark consumption by providing them evidence-based, responsible choices from Indian coastal waters.
“We educate chefs and consumers with guided tours of fish landing sites and fish markets, teaching them about the variety of edible species, how to choose seafood that is not breeding – thereby giving species a chance to regenerate, and what questions to ask the sellers and fishermen to ensure that the fish has been caught sustainably,” she added. With the prize money, she also plans to develop SharkWatch, a citizen-science programme, to record data on shark fishing and landings at major fishing harbours along the Coromandel coast.
From slimmer, sleeker and smarter mobile phones to appliances that make life easy, we lead a life perpetually plugged in one or the other electronic device. Perhaps, it is not a new piece of information. But we do not usually wonder about what happens to our old gadgets when the shiny new ones replace them. Most of the discarded e-waste either lands up at a second-hand store or a scrapyard. Eventually, it reaches the landfills.
50 per cent population of India is below 25 years of age. We are, indeed, a young nation. And it is the young that gets attracted to the electronic devices more and thinks of its correct disposal the least. According to an ASSOCHAM-NEC study, India is among the top five generators of e-waste in the world generating over two million tonnes per annum.
Yet, hope stays alive in artists like Mumbai-based Haribaabu Naatesan who breathe new life into e-waste by recycling it into eye-grabbing works of art.
From a life-size yellow Volkswagen beetle to larger than life flamingos and even a steampunk clock tower, Hari has been working his magic on hundreds of tonnes of e-waste and converting them into art installations since 1999.
Check out a few pictures below:
This luminous Volkswagen Beetle is made with over 2,805 pieces of scrap using 800 spark plugs, 200 bottle caps, 60 mother boards, audio cassettes, typewriters, pens, and barbecue sticks.Made for the Lodha Group, the gigantic sculptures represent flamingos that migrate to the river close to the project. This sculpture is made from automobile parts like petrol tanks of a bike, shock absorbers, head light, etc and becomes a street light in the night
Obsolete walkmans, out-of-date videotapes, blunt saw blades, dead cell phones, floppy discs, fused light bulbs—everything that you and I regard as scrap, Hari regards as an intricate piece of a puzzle from which can spring an artwork.
Big names like Volkswagen, the Hiranandani group, the Lodha Group, the Raheja group commission pieces of artwork from Hari who had started out by using discarded electronic scrap from dump yards, friends, family, and thrift shops.
One of his most iconic works that you must definitely have come across is the Make in India logo. Commissioned by BIMA- Bombay Iron Merchant Association, Mumbai, he recreated the lion sculpture of ‘MAKE IN INDIA’ logo by using 1500 kgs of automobile scrap mostly mechanical gear wheels. The sculpture, unveiled by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, is placed at P D’Mello Road at Carnac Bunder Circle, Mumbai.
You may marvel at the ingenuity of this artist but his journey to success was anything but easy.
The Beginning
Haribaabu hails from Kerala and was brought up in Chennai where he completed his education. He graduated from the Chennai Government College of Fine Arts with a BSc degree in visual communication in 1999. He pursued his Master’s in animation film design in 2000 from the prestigious National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad.
While it takes almost two and a half years to pass out of NID, it took Hari five. Family circumstances made him take a two-year sabbatical before submitting his final project.
He moved to Mumbai in 2006 where he worked with several production homes. While the work certainly brought in good earnings, Hari felt creatively stifled. He had to compromise a lot due to the industry’s inherent need to choose deadline over quality.
Thus, in 2009, he decided to quit his job and turn his hobby of creating sculptures from electronic waste into a full-fledged profession.
His tryst with building sculptures from everyday scrap began back in 1999 during the NID selection process.
To create an intricate design of a crab and a spider, he cut open table tennis balls and dismantled a defunct transistor sourced from a friend for its chip and bent aluminium hangers. Needless to say, his sense of design and creativity floored the jury and guaranteed his entry into the Institute.
The success sowed the seed of replicating the idea into a full-fledged profession.
Survival wasn’t easy
Haribaabu Naatesan
To put it simply, the first two years burnt through his savings. His idea of creating bigger sculptures and exhibiting them would earn him money crashed to the ground. Leading media houses covered his work, people appreciated it but no one wanted to shell out money to purchase his artwork.
“My bank balance was below average. My friends, as well as my wife, started questioning my decision. They would say, ‘Paagal hai tu! Kyun struggle kar raha hai?’ (You are mad. Why are you struggling?). But I did not give up.”
A major breakthrough came after he became the first recipient of the Bajaj Art Gallery fellowship award. Commission projects followed. Within a year, he had set up a state-of-the-art studio in Mumbai.
Till date, he has recycled several tonnes of e-waste to make over 100 sculptures.
Freedom WingsThis project was executed in collaboration with The Urban Vision supported by Hiranandani Group. The ‘Family’ sculpture is made from fiber pressure tanks, cylinders, fans, lamps, fire hose box etc.
His work has been exhibited at T3 terminal of the Delhi airport, art festivals like Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda and even the prestigious Jehangir Art Gallery.
He applied for a booking at Jehangir in 2006 and it took him 10 years to get a booking and be selected by the panel at the Jehangir Art Gallery. When he did, the exhibition had a footfall of more than 3,000 people.
“I took a risk several years ago. But now it has all paid off. Money to me is secondary. What gives me immense satisfaction is that I am giving back to mother-nature by recycling the waste that can be life-threatening to Her. The Swachh Bharat mission may have kicked off in recent years, but I have been running my initiative since 1999.”
He explains the philosophy of his art thus,
“My art is not restricted to the elite circle of art collectors, buyers, curators or critics. From a school kid to a carpenter or even a chaiwallah can understand it. I remember interacting with a four-year-old who was fascinated by one of my sculptures. When I asked the child, ‘What did you understand?’ The child quipped, ‘I see my water gun and toy cars in it.’ Similarly, a carpenter said, ‘I have seen contemporary, modern and abstract art and never understood it. But looking at your work gives me immense happiness because I see everyday objects in it. It is as if I finally understand art.’ These are small instances that give me happiness.”
His mission in life is to not only to exhibit art but raise awareness about reusing e-waste. He hosts regular workshops for young artists to help them emulate the techniques of creating eco-friendly art.
“Technology is growing at a fanatical speed in India. Even before our old phone runs out of use, we line up to buy the latest models. Perhaps, it is time for us to rethink the e-waste that we are generating. This is not to say, don’t buy newer gadgets, but to wait until your current ones run out of use. That’s the least we can do for Mother Earth,” he signs off.
Haribaabu runs a company called Fossilss that executes large scale projects. You can check out his work at http://fossilss.com/
Troubled by water pollution during Ganesh Chaturthi, in 2018, Hari also created a four-feet-tall Ganesha idol. Weighing over 800 kgs, Hari used alum, a natural purifying ingredient to make it. This idol did not contribute to pollution, in fact, it cleaned hundreds of gallons of water where it was immersed.
Mangroves, urban forest cover, pockets of green spaces and of course beaches. Mumbai is a city that can boast it all.
However, this green cover is under constant threat. Nowadays, the sight of people chopping down trees to construct a concrete monstrosity is quite common, the threat to our mangroves has stepped over the danger limit, and reckless human behaviour is an axe dangling over the acres of green canopy.
So, this should not come as a surprise that against the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change recommended 33 per cent, the green patch in the city is at an abysmal 13 per cent currently.
Despite the pall of such gloomy statistics, some green crusaders are always at work and coming up with innovative ways to protect what matters. Green Yatra, a city-based NGO is on a mission to plant 10 crore trees by 2025 across India, with their target for 2019 being 10 lakh trees.
For space-strapped Mumbai, the NGO is planning to use the Miyawaki technique to make it greener.
The Central Rail-side Warehouse Company (CRWC) premises at Jogeshwari East will soon see, as Green Yatra claims, Mumbai’s first Miyawaki urban dense forest.
Green Yatra at work
What is the Miyawaki method?
Two years of efforts led to his green cover by Say Trees using the Miyawaki Method
Japanese botanist and plant ecology expert, D. Akira Miyawaki invented this unique method of plantation.
In Miyawaki method multi-layered saplings are planted close to each other. This blocks sunlight from reaching the ground and prevents weeds from growing, thus keeping the soil moist. The close cropping further ensures that the plants receive sunlight only from the top thus enabling them only to grow upwards than sideways.
“This is one of the reasons why the saplings grow tall in a short span,” says Green Yatra founder, Pradeep Tripathi.
Pradeep Tripathi
Growing the saplings close also ensures space for more trees to be planted.
“CRWC has allocated us one-acre space at Ram Mandir. We could grow a maximum of 800 trees in this space if we follow the conventional methods. But the Miyawaki technique will enable us to plant 12,000 trees in the same space,” he adds.
Of this target of 12,000 trees, the organisation planted 3,000 trees of 30 different native species since January 26. The native species include kanchan, karanj, neem, jamun and palash among others.
Method they followed
The ongoing work at CRWC
They dug a three-feet-deep trench, then tested the soil after that and used mulching to improve its fertility. Finally, they added a mixture of rice straw, vermicompost, biomass compost, coco peat, husk, hay, and microorganisms to improve the soil quality included.
“We created a plantation bed from these materials and planted two to five saplings per square metre. These saplings can grow up to a 20-feet tree in just two years,” says Pradeep.
The Miyawaki method also follows plantation in layers.
The first layer has shrubs which grow up to ten feet. The second layer includes trees that grow up to 25 feet. The third layer of trees grows up to 25-40 feet, and the final layer forms canopies that grow beyond 40 feet.
Benefits of the Miyawaki Method
Team Green Yatra
The effectiveness of the Miyawaki method reflects in how this ‘potential natural vegetation’ concept, regardless of soil and climatic conditions, has helped create more than 3,000 forests over the world.
The method allows you to create a forest space within a short period of 20 to 30 years. In comparison, a conventional forest can take anywhere up to 200 to 300 years to develop.
Also, the forests grown using Miyawaki technique grow 10 times faster and 30 times denser. They boast of having 30 times better carbon dioxide absorption capacity, 30 times better noise, and dust reduction ability, and 30 times greener surface area, as compared to a monoculture plantation.
“We do not use chemicals and chemical fertilisers. This ensures that we grow a cent per cent native, organic and 100-year-old forest in just 10 years,” Pradeep adds.
Another benefit of the method is that a Miyawaki forest, after two years of plantation, becomes self-sufficient and does not rely on any external maintenance. These dense forests not only help retain groundwater, recharge groundwater tables and support local biodiversity but also increase green cover and curb air pollution.
“We aim is to create more such urban dense forests across Mumbai and Maharashtra,” shares Pradeep.
He mentions that without the help of their project-partner, the Bangalore-based NGO “Say Trees”, the mission would not be possible.
“Say Trees” has perpetuated afforestation in cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Satara, and Meerut in the past by pairing up with partner organisations and created 15 urban forests by planting 43,000 saplings.
The CSR wing of Karix Mobile Private Limited funded the project, and CRWC has extended their land and support.
In places like Mumbai, where the ratio of trees to humans continues to decrease every year, Miyawaki forests could be the answer.
“In this method, we can grow ultra-fast growing dense forests in small patches in the different places of the city like residential housing societies, gardens, Industrial areas, corporate and IT parks, MIDC areas and such other places. It requires a minimum of 1000 square feet patch of land to grow a small Miyawaki forest. We will be happy to assist and support government bodies, MIDC, corporates, companies, industries, NGOs and individuals to create such kinds of Miyawaki forests for a green, healthy and pollution free Mumbai and Maharashtra,” signs off Pradeep.
If this story inspired you, get in touch with Green Yatra on Facebook here.
Glyd—a newly launched e-mobility service, is Mahindra & Mahindra’s new attempt at making commuting greener.
The auto giant is promising to deliver personalised transportation through electric vehicles that allow one to travel in style but in a sustainable way.
“As the pioneers of electric vehicles in the country, Mahindra has, from time to time, provided innovative and first of its kind e-mobility solutions. Glyd is one such flagship premium e-mobility solution to redefine the in-commute experience of daily commuters. This is our unique step to drive positive change towards a smart, sustainable and experiential daily commute. Going forward we plan to launch multiple e-mobility solutions, across cities,” Dr Pawan Goenka, managing director, M&M Ltd. said in a statement.
Wanting to carve a niche in the ride-hailing ecosystem, the company is offering a high-end commute facility to office-goers, with special features like video-conferencing, curated entertainment and music content
As per the plan, in the initial phase, 10 Mahindra eVeritos will soon ply on select routes of Mumbai, the press release stated.
The M&M project is in partnership with Cisco and Vodafone, where the former providing the web-conferencing facility, and the latter the curated digital content and connectivity.
In order to add to the travel experience, M&M will also offer industry-first features like air purifiers, privacy screens and strain-free lighting. These cabs would further include stress-relieving amenities like wrap-around head rests, custom designed armrests and bolstered seats.
But these special features will come at a special cost. Hailing a Glyd cab would cost 10 per cent more than the average amount incurred in an Uber ride.
The officials, however, are confident that their customer base is strong, and that the personalized solutions at the cost are justified. They are sure that commuters would welcome it, an official said.
The aim is to tap into people who are open to trying out new technology and improved services without worrying about the increased expense.
Not trying to compete with the existing cab aggregators, like Ola and Uber, the company officials added that Glyd will work toward creating a space among those users who want to ‘meaningfully and productively’ utilise their commute time.
Responding to the comparison, Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra tweeted, “Well it’s a different service from what the existing players provide. We think there’s room for many differentiated offerings in the ride-sharing space”.
After the February 25 launch, the company is planning to target corporate clients in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.
“We plan to launch multiple e-mobility solutions, across cities,” Goenka added.
Interestingly, the launch comes at a crucial time when the Indian government is straining to improve the traffic scenario with the introduction of electric vehicles to boost e-mobility in the country.
Recently, Mahindra and cab aggregator, Uber, through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) have decided to forge a partnership with municipal corporations across cities to provide zero emission connectivity in India.
Reportedly, both companies have been in talks with corporation authorities in Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad to provide electric taxis and three-wheelers.
Suffice it to say that Mahindra’s Glyd is a luxurious addition to the e-mobility revolution in India.
One of the major risks while using gas cylinders is that of an explosion. But Confidence Petroleum India Limited claims to have eliminated that risk altogether.
Their new breed of blast-proof composite Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders will soon be available in India.
These new-age cylinders have been created by Confidence Petroleum India Limited, in association with Time Technoplast Limited, a technology-based innovative polymer product company. On Tuesday, they announced its launch under the brand name, ‘GoGas Elite’, in Mumbai, as reported by The Hindu.
“The cylinders manufactured by us are made up of gas fibres and weigh almost half that of the steel ones,” Anil Jain, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Time Technoplast Limited, told the publication. He was comparing composite cylinders with the traditional steel ones.
In comparison with the conventional LPG cylinders, these lightweight and translucent cylinders have been manufactured using a composite material that makes it highly fire and heat resistant, is non-corrosive, UV-protected and 100 per cent recyclable.
“The lightweight, blast-proof, rust-proof cylinders, aimed at making Indian kitchens safer, cleaner and more consumer-friendly, will be filled in 58 bottling plants to cater to the demand in 22 States,” Nitin Khara said at the launch event. He is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Confidence Group.
Before any composite LPG cylinder is ‘certified ok’ for commercial use, it has to undergo a stringent 14-point quality check, as did this creation.
The company claims that as compared to other steel cylinders that last for only 16 years, these composite cylinders make up for being 20 to 25 per cent more expensive, with a shelf life of almost 20 years.
Further, to make GoGas Elite, easily available to its target base, the middle-class consumers, the company is launching an application, allowing consumers to place orders around the clock, all without any registration process.
“We have approval for these cylinders in 58 countries and are exporting it to over 28 worldwide. We are the first manufacturers of blast-proof composite cylinders in India, and there are only three other companies worldwide manufacturing the same,” Jain told The Hindu.
Such a product, when out in the market, can take the safety quotient a notch higher. And if it sustains all its claims, it can indeed be a product Indian households have been waiting for.
Twelve years ago, Chockalingam Muthiah, a Bengaluru-based businessman, and his family, decided to make a significant shift in their lifestyle.
They wanted to ensure that their carbon footprint and impact on ecology was as low as possible.
Before we tell you how, let us tell you a little about Mr Muthiah and his family.
Annam, his wife, is a special educator who has worked with kids with dyslexia and autism for more than 25 years. His older son is a product designer, and his younger son is pursuing an MBA in Sports Management from Madrid University.
With their labour of love and attention to detail and a year-long discussion on design with an architect, Sherin Balachandran, the family of four built a sustainable home using mud blocks.
The Muthiah home
The entire property spreads over 7,200 sq ft, of which the home occupies 3,500 sq ft including an open sky central courtyard, and the rest of the space is taken up by their kitchen garden and a farm.
It’s been more than a decade now, and yet their home stands tall and strong. It is powered by the sun and uses water from the rain for six months a year.
What is more, the family also grows their food, which is entirely organic.
The Better India got in touch with Mr Muthiah to know more about his eco-friendly home, and here are some of its amazing features:
1) Use of mud blocks
Sherin Balachandran, the architect, made an effort to visit old structures to understand the process of constructing how a sturdy home, without relying too much on power intensive or polluting industrial elements like cement and steel.
And so, the Muthiah home has a pitched tile roofline, vaults, and domes. Most structures are built using compressed earth blocks, or CEBs made on site without firing in the kilns.
CEB is a building material made primarily from damp soil compressed at high pressure to form blocks.
The mud plastered walls that remind of you old and intricately built homes in villages keep the house cool during the summer months.
It is adequately ventilated with large dorms and low windows. Apart from air flow, this ensures abundant natural light too. Their staircase also has a chimney which leads the hot air out.
2) Twelve years of being off the grid
Open courtyard
From the time the home was built, it has been off the grid. The family never took an electricity connection.
All of their electronic gadgets—from their television set to washing machines, fans, refrigerator, and water pump—run on solar power.
The panel which has a capacity of 2 kW, cost the family Rs 4 lakh when it was installed 12 years ago. While Mr Muthiah had a budget in place, installing the panel back in the day was cumbersome.
“More than expense, the issue that we faced was there was no expert to help us set up the system. The bigger players in the market were interested in catering to larger projects, not an individual home. So we ran around a lot to get work done. We had to source panels from someone, the batteries from someone else etc. Besides, I was not an engineer, but I had to learn everything from scratch about the set up to the daily run. It seemed difficult at the start, but today, we are thrilled with the results.”
3) Rainwater harvesting and reuse of grey water
A courtyard that collects rainwater and regulates the micro-climate,
The Muthiah family consumes approximately 20,000-25,000 litres of water per month and has made it a point to ensure no drop of water within the household goes waste.
Every drop of rainwater is harvested and stored in storage tanks that have a capacity of 20,000 litres. While 4,000 litres are collected at the first-floor roof and balcony, the remaining 16,000 litres are saved at an elevation on the ground floor roof.
All the excess water from the tanks is then diverted to an open well in the courtyard. The family uses water sparingly. While the water suffices for six months a year, they rely on the municipal connection for the rest of the year.
“Greywater is diverted into the garden through a flexible hose. We use homemade bio-enzyme and milder soaps and shampoos, so plants are not affected by the water. We also process 100 litres of black water in a biodigester, which is a technology from DRDO developed for army outposts. Installed with a license from them, it has been working well for the last three years. This ensures that not a single drop of water goes into the sewage.”
4) Kitchen Garden
TomatoesGreens & the flexible hose that reuses water from the kitchen sink to water the garden
Mr Muthiah mentions that Gandhi’s vision of becoming self-sufficient has been a major influence on his life.
And so most vegetables and greens are green organically in their garden all year round. Wet waste from the kitchen is used to make compost.
This garden also has a few fruit trees like chiku, guava, amla, avocado, mango, coconut, and bananas.
While 75 per cent of their veggies and greens come from the garden, they also have their millet farm that helps cover 25 per cent of the needs for grains.
The garden is watered with reused water coming out from the kitchen sink and washing machine after it passes through a sandbed filter.
It is not only the Muthiahs but also their community that is environmentally conscious. This reflects in a few measures that they have taken collectively.
The community owns a sewage treatment plant, which treats all the wastewater so that it can be reused for gardening and other secondary purposes.
The streets lights use LED street lamps and the area spread across 70 acres is lush with over 4,000 trees.
We want to end with a message that Mr Muthiah has for everyone.
“Today, switching to a sustainable lifestyle has become a necessity. At a time where our forests are burning, lakes are frothing, and trees are cut down, we cannot sit back and watch. If building a green home is a distant dream, start small. Even smaller lifestyle changes can go a long way in contributing to mother earth,” he signs off.
When Bandra-based Anabelle Ferro and Clement DeSylva married in 1991, the couple nurtured a dream to build a home in Goa away from the chaos of city life and in tune with nature.
Unlike today, it was more cumbersome to hunt and buy real estate in the 90s. There were no websites or transactions online. Information was scarce, and one had to rely on supplements, newspapers, and bulletins for it.
And so, eight years passed and their dream was far from being a reality. Until Clement, an architect by profession received a commission to build a home in Pawna.
Annabelle and Clement
The serenity and beauty of the place enthralled him. A dip in the lake at the end of a work day would take all the exhaustion away. When he took Annabelle on a trip to Pawna, the couple realised they had finally found the perfect location for their dream home.
Located about 125 km from Mumbai, nestled in the lap of nature, with a spectacular view of the Pawna lake and Tungi hills, lies Deogadh, the Homestay.
Fondly known among the villagers as DeSylvancha Bangla (the bungalow of the DeSylva’s), the home, spread over a vast area of 3,500 sq ft, is built with natural, locally-sourced material.
Their “Homestay”
Clement’s inspiration to build the sustainable home came from what Mahatma Gandhi once told renowned architect Laurie Baker.
“When you build a home, construct it with material found within one km radius of your site.”
And so, skipping the use of reinforced cement concrete (RCC), Clement began building the home with stone. Perhaps it was a stroke of luck that quarrying for the construction of Mumbai-Pune expressway started around the same time. Thus, with the help of several villagers, Clement was able to source stone in large quantities.
The home is a blend of modern and traditional architecture. From a picturesque porch to rugged stone arches, walls covered with trellises, large wooden doors and windows reused from an old bungalow in Alibaug, the entire house seems to have sprung up from the earth!
For its water needs, the house depends on rooftop rainwater harvesting. Apart from an orchard with over 50 mango trees, it also boasts of an organic farm where most of the veggies, as well as grains, are grown.
When they first started living in the home, Anabelle and Clement managed without electricity. The insulated walls, the low windows, and the passive air cooling helped considerably.
Deogadh in the making, 12 years ago.
“The area suffered power cuts for long hauls. Sometimes there would be no electricity for two-three weeks. So, we decide to build the home in a way where it wouldn’t require lights or fans. But once our twin daughters were born, Annabelle would often joke about having to change diapers in the night in the candlelight saying, ‘I am afraid I’ll put the diapers on the babies’ head instead of their bottoms!’ And so, we had to take electricity connection,” recalls Clement.
Till date, they have not needed to install an air conditioner.
Deogadh continues to be a second home for the couple. It was only four years ago that they decided to convert it into a homestay.
“I design homes for a living. And I firmly believe that homes fall apart if they are not lived-in. So, when the girls went to college, we decided to run it as a homestay. A farmer from the village approached us who was being cheated by land sharks. He told us, he wanted only us to buy his land. And he came from a difficult background. Of course, we couldn’t build another home on the land since we already had one. But later we purchased that piece of land and set up a campsite which now runs under our venture Camp Deogadh.”
When the duo started building a home, they focused on creating a sensible house and not a green home per se.
During its construction, the couple laboured together with the villagers and often slept under the stars.
Deogadh, the homestay
What first began as a single room, now has a spacious living room, two bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, a storage room and most importantly, a front porch with a hammock with the Pawna Lake and Tungi hill in-view.
From birthday parties to weekend getaways and barbecues, the homestay is a place to create happy memories, says the feedback from the customers.
Orchard & Farm
Apart from mangoes that Annabelle loves to pluck for the guests, their orchard has a range of fruit trees like lychee, sapota, custard apple, cashew, lemon, papaya, and love apple among others. The grove is lush with Gulmohar trees, bamboo, various herbs, and an age-old banyan tree.
Much of the food cooked for the guests including rice and a few vegetables, come from their organic farm.
“Whenever we think we are running out of food, the organic farm comes in handy. You can step out, pluck a few veggies, wash them and whip up a dish,” says Clement.
The campsite is spread over 1.5 acres and has state-of-the-art Coleman tents.
While many campsites are infamous for their lack of sanitation, the DeSylva’s have gone the extra mile to ensure hygiene.
They have western toilets with bidet sprays. Besides, the tents also have plug points for campers.
At the Campsite
While trekkers climb the hills and take a dip at the nearest waterfall, birdwatchers can be found peering through their binoculars at egrets in flight. Forts like Tunghe, Vishapur, Lohegad, Tikona & Bedse caves are also close-by.
Campers go swimming, windsurfing or kayaking in the lake just down the road.
Like the porch is to the homestay, the Agni is to the campsite.
Agni
From photography, star gazing, discussions, sharing of anecdotes, and memories, the campfire is fondly named Agni. It has three rows of seating like a mini amphitheatre and is a space for many activities like theatre workshops, stand-up comedy acts, poetry slams, independent film screenings, reiki, yoga and farm-to-table cooking sessions in the space.
Whenever in Pawna, the couple stays in their private quarters on the first floor of the homestay giving their guests privacy. The warm and friendly couple love to make their guests at home and in their absence, the caretakers ensure that the guests have a comfortable and memorable stay. Annabelle and Clement continue to share a great rapport with the villagers as well, often being invited to share meals.
The next time you are in Pawna do not forget to check out this eco-friendly place.
A view
To know more about Deogadh the Homestay click here. To check out Camp Deogadh, visit their Facebook page here.
Here are some books by well-regarded Indian authors that, without being moralistic or dull, encourage young readers to reflect on environmental issues and the strands of kinship that bind us to the non-human world.
1. Water Stories from around the World, Various Authors
Children are taught in school to save water but when told through beautifully illustrated, imaginative tales, they understand much better that water belongs to everybody and that we share the responsibility to use it carefully.
‘Who owns water?’, ‘What causes droughts?’, ‘How can we share water?’ —These are just some of the fascinating and important questions this book urges children to think about.
A compilation of retold folktales and mythology from 11 countries, it is accompanied by vivid illustrations of water from these cultures. It also carries the message of understanding water, valuing and protecting it.
2. Ouch & Moo, Trupti Godbole, Govind Mukundan and Poonam Bir Kasturi
Published by Daily Dump, a Bengaluru-based waste solutions company, this set of two illustrated books draws children’s attention to the problem of plastic bags and the impact this everyday material has on the environment.
Packed with activities (‘plant a banana peel and a plastic bag and see which decomposes in the soil’) and real-world examples, it points readers to some important facts about plastic (‘how many times can plastic be recycled?’).
The Red and Yellow Ouch and Moo books help children differentiate between man-made and natural things and understand where they all go once we are done with them. It also includes some concrete steps that a child can take in her daily routine to build the habit of reducing, reusing and recycling.
3. So You Want to Know About the Environment, Bijal Vachharajani
Did you know that the water you’re drinking could be the very same water that dinosaurs drank billions of years ago? Or that climate change is putting the world’s chocolate supply in grave danger?
Peppered with activities, experiments, quizzes and crafts, this book allows readers to engage with the problem of climate change. Who wouldn’t love mapping their family’s mood swings as the weather changes or doing a smell test that allows you to eat a whole lot of yummy food?
The author’s laidback narrative and clever humour make complex topics like ocean pollution and food sustainability accessible to young readers. Children may be its stated target, but there’s a lot for adults to take away from this book, too.
4. Catch That Crocodile, Anushka Ravishankar
Another book from the stable of Anushka Ravishankar, who, with her nonsensical rhymes and communicative typography, delights readers of all ages.
When an escaped crocodile is suddenly found in a ditch one day, the whole town is sent into a tizzy. Between Policeman Probin and his stick, and Doctor Dutta armed with his potions, deciding the future of the croc brings some of the town’s strongest men to their knees.
As we weigh the reptile’s options, the author introduces a subtle message of conservation and coexistence (‘Who says a crocodile should be caught?’). Do more peaceful methods to guide the reptile home triumph over the portly wrestler Bhayanak Singh’s tactics to terrify the hapless beast back to whence he came?
Read and find out!
5. Trash! On Ragpicker Children and Recycling, Gita Wolf and Anushka Ravishankar
Fact and fiction blur in this poignant book that the authors say was the result of workshops done with rag-picking children. It introduces readers to the world of waste and helps them empathise with the people behind the waste industry.
The protagonists—street children, Velu and Jaya—are ragpickers who give us an inside look into what happens to our waste once it leaves our homes. It introduces readers to reusing and recycling.
The book addresses some important issues—social discrimination against waste pickers, child rights, and waste reduction. It also urges readers to observe the world around them more closely and see how they change their behaviour.
For instance, in Houses From Trash, it asks children to observe a slum dwelling and notice how ‘what some people throw away as waste is valuable to others’. The book makes readers sit up and take notice of the often invisible people who keep the wheels of the waste industry turning.
6. The Water Catchers, Bhairavi Parekh
This book takes readers along on a wild ride from flood-prone Mumbai to drought-hit Gujarat as Chintu sets off to solve an ancient mystery and rescue his ancestral village from running dry.
Every drop of water in his grandfather’s beloved Tintodan is precious and must be saved, but does Chintu have what it takes to win the race against time and save the people?
Reality-bending adventures, ancient prophecies and magical characters come together to bridge the gap between reality and fantasy and leave readers with a new respect for this life-giving resource.
7. The Honey Hunter, Karthika Nair
An evocatively illustrated book that tells the story of Shonu, his parents who are honey-gatherers, and Bonbibi, the presiding demon-tiger deity of the Sunderbans—a delicate and fascinating place in flux.
One day, struck by hunger, Shonu defies the cardinal rule of the honey-hunters and sets off into the heart of the mangrove forest to find some honey.
Will he feast on his favourite food? Does he encounter the mighty Bonbibi? The lush visuals bring to life one of India’s most ecologically sensitive regions while the poetry paints a picture of an ecosystem not many of us know about.
38-year-old Maheshwari is a former daily wage labourer in the tea estates of Kottagiri, in the Nilgiri District. While tea plantations look inviting during a holiday, there is no vacation for labourers like her. They toil on the deceptively beautiful but treacherous terrain of the estates.
While the opportunities for labour are many, their wages are uncertain. For all the hard work she put in, Maheshwari earned just Rs 60 per day.
So after many years of this instability, when the opportunity for a steady income came her way, she was excited and weary. Maheshwari joined Last Forest Enterprise, a company that believes in shifting power to the producers. Since then, things have changed dramatically for her.
Today, she is on a regular payroll, earns a steady income between Rs 200-400 per day, and is able to support her son’s education
The collection of non-timber forest produce (NTFP), mainly silk cotton in a sustainable manner, is the credo of Last Forest.
The brainchild of Mathew John, Pratim Roy, and Snehlata Nath, Last Forest was incubated by the NGO, Keystone Foundation. It was primarily created as a marketing platform for the indigenous communities, and self-help groups.
Managing Director Mathew John says, “Last Forest started to support local and marginalised communities in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. We pioneered the concept of recognising different kinds of honey based on taste and bee species. We are working to empower and enrich communities and facilitate the connect with the market through sustainable practices.”
Kotagiri, which falls under the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna as well as different tribal groups like the Todas, Kotas, Irullas, Kurumbas.
Over the years, Last Forest has been providing training in sustainable harvesting and organic agriculture to the residents. Their mission is to preserve, conserve and nurture the environment.
The changes they bring to the ground are not revolutionary, but with the right touch and methods, they bring about a significant positive change. For example, after the honey was collected, the beeswax would be discarded as waste. With the help of the organisation, the wax is also utilised in an efficient manner, thereby increasing the earning potential of the communities.
Early years
Speaking to The Better India of the initial days Communication manager Madhu, says, “The immediate challenge when we started was to get access to these communities. Most of them lived in very remote areas and our goal was to provide them with medical support and basic amenities like water. These were lacking severely.”
The process required them to make efforts to build local trust. Madhu recounts that once they were able to do this, the communities were far more receptive to them and their ideas.
“Even now, the power of running the producer company is completely vested with the communities. We have to acknowledge the fact that we are in their space and must respect that,” he says.
Madhu explains, “Initially, just to give the products a boost, Keystone Foundation was buying the products. Then, in 2010, when we found that there was a market for it all, Last Forest came into the picture.”
Honey was one of the first products that helped them create a large-scale impact. It had a ready market in the urban areas and was also the source of livelihood for a number of tribal honey collectors. Their experience set the snowball rolling for Last Forest.
How is the honey collected?
Madhu answers, “The tribal communities we work with have their own traditional methods of collecting honey. One way is by using smoke. The bee collectors basically hang from rocks. (Many beehives are made under cliff hangs in the wild. The collectors are lowered over the edge to collect the honey). While this method shocks the bees for a while, the hive remains intact, and no damage is done to it while the honey is collected.”
This method allows the bees to return to the hive almost immediately after the honey is collected.
“The other way is by carefully removing the middle portion of the hive. In this method too, no harm is caused to the colonies inside the hive. It also similarly allows for the bees to go back to the hive,” says Madhu.
The emphasis in procuring honey is to ensure that no harm is caused to the hive or the bees. These processes require precision and tact.
Products
From selling the honey, Last Forest has now developed a range of products like balms, lip balms, and soaps. These products use beeswax which was previously discarded.
They have also started manufacturing beeswax wraps as a natural alternative to plastic wrap for storing food.
Slowly diversifying from honey, the tribal community also sources and plucks local spices and coffee. “The Toda community also makes some pretty handiwork (embroidery) on shawls and stoles. Some of them even make kurtas and shirts that we retail,” says Madhu.
The Impact
It is interesting how Last Forest has impacted the lives of the local community members. Kamala, who has been one of the longest-serving women at the producer company, joined the centre as an NTFP collector. While she is 68 today, and not actively involved in the day-to-day workings, her expertise is much sought after.
She has developed skills and also brought others like her to work with the producer group. She has also got her husband involved in the procurement of honey and beeswax!
How does this work?
A producer company called Adhimalai is part of the NGO. Its 1,600 shareholders are from the tribal communities, as are the Directors. They set the cost of the products and control how they are sold.
Madhu shares, “This process ensures that the producer company and its members, the tribal communities, have complete control on the products.”
The biggest takeaway from working with the organisation has been the assurance of a steady source of income for the community members. “From having to toil as daily wage labourers with no steady income, to being able to support their families; the growth curve for the community has been great,” says Madhu.
With rising pollution levels and indiscriminate mining of natural resources affecting the environment on a global scale, countries across the world have been pushing for sustainable solutions for both public and private commute systems.
Electric vehicles or simply EVs are undoubtedly one of the best solutions we have. In last few years, more and more EV manufacturers from across the globe have entered the Indian markets.
But despite widespread awareness about their advantages to the environment, why hasn’t the sale of e-bikes or e-cars gotten any better? The reason is that EV’s are expensive.
However, that is all set to change starting April 1, with prices of EVs slashing down by Rs 20,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh! Thanks to Niti Aayog, whose recent proposal of giving purchase rebate as incentive to buyers got the Centre’s approval.
The goal behind such a move is to break free from India’s dependency on imported fuel as well as curb down our collective carbon footprint of fuel-driven vehicles.
“The incentivisation mechanism under FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicle) would bring upfront price parity between internal combustion engine and electric vehicles and since the operating cost of EV is considerably lower than ICE, the ecosystem is bound to flourish at an unprecedented rate,” NITI Aayog said in a statement.
The Heavy Industries Ministry put together the FAME scheme originally launched in 2016 to promote eco-friendly vehicles in the country. The current proposal by NITI Aayog includes the phase II of the scheme.
As prospective customers, here’s what is in store for all of us:
1. The Union cabinet has approved an incentive of Rs 10,000 per kWh (Kilowatt hour) to purchase e-vehicles (EV) directly linked to battery size under the FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicle) scheme.
2. This will mean savings of Rs 20,000-40,000 for two-wheelers that are fitted with 2-4 kWh battery, Rs 50,000-100,000 for three-wheelers with 5-10 kWh battery and lastly, Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh for four-wheelers with 15-25 kWh battery.
3. By subsidising EV sales, the government intends to help the nascent EV industry in India grow and become self-sustainable with increased sales. In the hindsight, the scheme would also help the Centre contain the fuel import bill and with that, India’s heavy dependency on imported fuel.
4. The Centre has already sanctioned a budget of Rs 10,000 crores for the next three years starting April this year. Their estimated target is to incentivise buyers of more than 1.5 million vehicles and they plan on making EVs account for 15 per cent of total vehicle sales by the end of the stipulated period.
5. What is more, about 2,700 public charging stations of 3kmx3km dimensions per grid are in the immediate pipeline across metros and large cities. Also, all major highways are set to have charging stations set across every 25 km.
Approximately 650 years ago, when the inquisition of Goa by the Portuguese led to mass conversions, a huge group of people fled the state in rickety boats, hiding in gigantic cooking vessels. They settled in the coastal areas of Kerala.
AV Purushothama Kamath’s ancestors were among this group, and when he was a child, his mother would narrate stories about how the former Maharaja of Kochi welcomed their community.
In the late 19th century, his father purchased a resthouse from the king in Ernakulam and converted it into a family home—the same one that Kamath currently resides in.
Evidently, the 130-year-old home has a rich history attached to it. However, its ancient windows and intricate tiles are not what we wish to focus on.
The subject of this story is the two-acre man-made forest, which lies at the heart of this home.
AV Purushothama Kamath with a rare variety of Jackfruit (Valliplavu) in his forest.
Located in the bustling metro city of Kochi, Alungal Farms is Kamath’s labour of love and sweat. It boasts over 2000 varieties of rare medicinal plants, 400 varieties of fruits, different flowers, vegetables, herbs, and even spices—all of which thrive in wild harmony!
Despite being a stone’s throw away from a metro station and the Vyttila Mobility Hub, its canopy of lush greens is home to several migratory birds and butterflies.
And although the land sharks continue to throw bundles of money in the name of development for cents of his land, Kamath is unwilling to let commercialisation ruin the sanctity of this forest.
The Better India got in touch with him and his son Anand to know more about how this journey began.
The Kamath home
Building his own forest
Kamath began his stint as a banker in the late 70s. His job involved frequent travel, and somewhere along the way, he started to collect rare medicinal plants during his trips.
In 1984, he quit his job due to his mother’s failing health and returned to his ancestral profession—farming.
He began with cultivating paddy and coconut in 20 cents (8,712 sq ft) of land. It was also around the same time that he actively started collecting endangered species of plants, mostly medicinal, and growing them.
The lush green Alungal farm
In 1996, he gave up the use of chemicals and began the extensive forestation project.
The method was simple. The bigger plants that could create a canopy were planted close to the boundary walls, and when you moved inside towards the home, the smaller plants, vegetables, fruiting trees, shrubs, and medicinal plants were grown.
Today, the two-acre plot which is almost the size of football fields houses a wide range of medicinal and fruit plants, some of which are highly endangered.
Apart from 42 varieties of mangoes alone, the forest has rare varieties of jackfruit, strawberry, sapota, bananas, apples, blackberries, avocado, lime, starfruit, litchi, mulberry, orange, peach etc. It also has a temporary rain shelter where the family cultivates a range of vegetables and spices for daily consumption like cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, lemon, ginger, turmeric, chillies, coriander, mint, curry leaves etc.
The highlight of the farm though is the range of medicinal plants like aloe vera, ashvattha, ashoka, rudraksham, brahmi, devadaru, eucalyptus, and jatropha to name a few. There is also a nursery with 700 varieties of plants on sale!
Every tree on the farm has a board next to it, where its scientific and Malayalam name is clearly mentioned. This is immensely helpful for students of botany and Ayurveda who come for field visits.
The methods they follow
The farm is water-efficient as it uses drip irrigation. The water for the farm is sourced from a pond spread across six cents of land. The pond which doesn’t dry up even in summers also acts as a reservoir for other homes in the area.
The farm has two desi Kasargod dwarf cows and poultry like hens, cockerels, quails etc. While the eggs from hens and quails are sold, the dung from the cows is used as manure.
The poultry
Dry leaves, kitchen waste, cow dung, cow urine, curd, jaggery and National Centre of Organic Farming’s waste decomposer are used to make manure. The farm also has its own vermicompost unit.
Anand, Kamath’s youngest son, speaks highly of the waste decomposer. The solution sold in a bottle, which is a consortium of microorganisms, can decompose organic or bio-waste within 30-50 days.
The solution can be multiplied by adding the bottle which costs Rs 20 to a drum containing 200 litres of water and 2 kg of jaggery. All the farmer has to do is, turn the mixture after seven days, until the mixture becomes creamy.
This can be administered to the plants using drip irrigation.
Apart from selling their organic produce from 84 coconut trees, the banana plantation, and assorted plants, they also gain some income from a property they have rented.
Anand, who also worked as a banker for close to 16 years, adds that he decided to quit his job three years ago to carry forward his father’s work. His wife, Shyama, a dentist, and two children continue to extend their full support.
The activities on the farm have strengthened the familial bonds even more over the years, says Anand to The Better India.
Anand’s older son Shantanu and younger son Saatvik planting.
“My biggest inspiration to join my father was my nine-year-old son. He is my father’s first shishya. He is an absolute natural at farming. I would often look on in awe every time my father planted a new plant—he would ensure that if there were two seeds, he would plant one and my son would plant the other. From preparing manure mixing cow dung to naming the rare medicinal plants, his passion inspired me to carry my father’s legacy forward,” says Anand.
Awards and Recognition
Being felicitated for his work
Kamath’s 35 years of effort have reaped rich dividends, and he has won numerous including the Kerala Biodiversity Award 2013 and the Vanamitra Award by Kerala Forest Department.
The farm has also been chosen under the Central Government’s ATMA initiative, which makes it a model farm school for smaller farmers to get tips on the best techniques on cultivation and improving soil health.
Kamath vs land sharks
Real estate lobbyists and even telecom operators often line up to buy land from Kamath, but he refuses to give in.
“They begin with the pretence of wanting to know more about the plants and at the end of the tour, ask if we want to sell the land. A certain telecom operator sent one of its employees with the same technique and wanted three cents of our land. They made it sound like we were winning a lottery if we allowed them to set up a tower. I politely asked them to leave and never return. There is nothing that will make me give up my farm,” he says.
Training students and farmers
Does Kamath have a message for the youngsters?
“We are at an age where everything has become a monetary calculation. So I have a message to give using this math itself. Assume a human being needs three oxygen cylinders to live each day, and each cylinder costs Rs 800. You spend Rs 2400 a day, and almost 8,64,000 a year! However, trees give you oxygen for free. Yet, we do not think twice before we chop them to the ground. My only message for people is to grow trees and protect them. I am proud to have so many trees and rare species of plants. I think it is my way of being able to create nature for nature. It’s the least we can do.”
Kamath is a Vanamitra (friend of the forest) just like his award says, in the truest sense of the word. We cannot thank him enough for building a green lung for Kochi and hope his story continues to inspire more people to take a step towards a greener and sustainable life.
Want to know more about Alungal Farms? Contact AV Purushothamma at 0484-2346199, or +91 97450 07941 or visit their Facebook page here.
Hitting two birds with one stone, a group of Indian scientists have come up with a new process which promises to help utilize black carbon soot, which is a major air pollutant, for treating industrial waste containing highly poisonous organic dyes.
The scientists have developed two techniques: one to convert black soot into graphene nanosheets, and the second to utilise the nanosheets to remove organic dyes such as crystal violet, rhodamine B, and methylene blue from industrial waste.
Black carbon soot is emitted from gas and diesel engines, coal-fired power plants and other processes that involve burning of fossil fuel.
It is known to be highly carcinogenic. Organic dyes, in turn, are an important component of industrial waste and are generally non-biodegradable and deadly. They enter water bodies and make them not only unfit for human consumption but also highly poisonous.
Treatment of waste water with organic dyes has remained a major challenge. The currently available methods are generally costly and cumbersome. According to the scientists involved in the development of the new process, it would offer a cost-effective and sustainable solution.
Speaking to India Science Wire, Kumud Malika Tripathi, one of the co-authors of the study, said “the technique we have developed for synthesizing Graphene nanosheets from black-soot is very easy, quick and economical.
Black soot is available everywhere and even a layperson can convert it into Graphene nanosheets at home.
Kumud Malika Tripathy
The second process of utilizing the nanosheets for treating the waste water is also not very complicated. One just had to put the nanosheets into industrial waste water, in the presence of sunlight. The dyes in the water are broken down into simpler and harmless elements and are subsequently isolated.”
The scientists tested the sustainability and the suitability of the overall process by using the treated water for growing wheat. “Seeds which had been germinated for 24 hours were used. Their growth was normal and healthy as compared to those grown with untreated water.”
The research team comprised of Gunture, Anupriya Singh, Anshu Bhati, Prateek Khare and Sumit Kumar Sonkar, from Department of Chemistry at Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, besides Kumud Malika Tripathy, who is from Department of Bio-nanotechnology at Gachen University, South Korea. They have published a report on their work has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The year was 2013. Abhishek Verma, who hailed from Kanpur, was pursuing his first-year mechanical engineering at Ghaziabad’s Inderprastha Engineering College.
For the longest time, a big open sewer known as Surya Nagar Nala, flowed beside the student hostel, inconveniencing the students.
While others around him complained about the foul stench from the sewer, scrunching their noses up in disgust when passing by, Abhishek thought of it as an opportunity for innovation.
(L) The six unit system used to extract gas from the sewer. (R) Abhishek Verma
From a young age, Abhishek was inclined towards science. He would often open up electronic gadgets to decode their working or find innovative solutions to tackle any problem at hand.
So when the dirty water from the Surya Nagar Nala foamed and let out gas bubbles, Abhishek remembered learning about the decomposition process of organic waste within the sewer.
He got another classmate, Abhinendra Patel, on board, collected a sample of this gas, and sent it for testing to IIT-Delhi.
When the lab conducted a Gas Chromatography test, the duo found that the gas being released from the drain had the same composition as gobar gas or biogas, where the percentage of methane was 65 per cent. This made it inflammable.
Speaking to The Better India, Abhishek says, “My immediate thought was–how can we develop a system which can effectively trap and extract this gas and use it for daily purposes?”
The two then worked on a prototype. The gas extracted would help Shiv Prasad, the proprietor of the nearby Ramu tea-stall.
In June 2014, they demonstrated the concept at Shiv Prasad’s stall.
The owner of Ramu Tea-stall
How did it work?
When they found that the drain released 60-70 per cent methane gas, they took a set of six drums, put them in a secondary case, connected them with iron barricades and submerged them into the open drain.
The drums trapped the gas and began to rise, as the pressure inside them increased. This gas was then extracted from the drums with the help of pipes which were connected to the stove, and a valve could tap it as per the requirement.
The system was praised by local media that termed it ‘gutter gas’. It helped Ramu Tea-stall earn four times its previous income without a dependence on LPG.
The six-unit system was set up at the cost of Rs 5,000 and extracted 200 litres of gas.
While some customers were sceptic about the use of gutter gas, the business only grew when the taste or quality of the tea wasn’t compromised. Moreover, it was a sustainable way of turning waste into wealth.
The stall owner, who once made Rs 5,000 a month, made the same amount within a week once his LPG expenses went down to zero.
The students exhibited the project to the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) who rejected the proposal, suspecting the method to be unsafe and possibly leading to a mishap.
After that, graduation led the duo to go their own paths. Abhishek, however, took the project forward and founded PAV Engineers, an LLP firm to commercialise the system.
His work found a special mention in PM Narendra Modi’s speech on world biofuel day, August 10, 2018, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Utilising the gas for cooking purposes.
“After the Prime Minister mentioned this technology, people across the country came forward to adopt it. It created an awareness about renewable energy sources among common people,” says Abhishek.
After 2013, he started focusing on the parameters that would make it appealing and consumer-friendly to its target audience.
“My focus was to make it low-maintenance, easy-to-install and create a system where the investment could be recovered within a short period. It’s been six years since we built our first prototype and it continues to function well till date. The newer model with some modifications has a durability of 7-10 years.”
When asked about the advantages of the system, he quips,
“It replaces the use of LPG. The setup uses no electricity and it converts methane into a green fuel that can be used for secondary purposes like cooking or even extracting fuel for vehicles, rather than letting it escape into the atmosphere and cause air pollution.”
He further explains, “Methane has 70 per cent more impact on global warming when compared to carbon dioxide. What better way to channelise and recycle it? And since our fossil fuels are burning at a rapid speed, this method could spell hope. The gas generated from the sewer can be used as a substitute for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking and even Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to fuel vehicles or automobiles.”
When the demand for the gas generated by the method increased, he decided to make it more portable. “Not everyone can set up a stall near a drain to utilise the gas. So we decide to extract and store it in 5-kg cylinders that can be transported.”
It is also important to note that this gas is first purified before usage. Although the market currently has methane gas purifiers which can be used for the purpose, Abhishek’s team is also working on alternatives of their own.
Despite their initial hesitation in 2014, the Ghaziabad Development Authority is now working with Abhishek to upscale the project.
“We have built a few small-scale projects for people, but I think large-scale implementation can go a long way because it will allow us to extract nearly 70 per cent more gas,” he says.
As we reach the end of our conversation, I ask Abhishek about his next goal.
“There are several innovators in India who are working hard on making sustainable technologies. Not many of them have a platform that allows them to showcase that talent. So I want to create a platform for small innovators to take their technology to people in India who need it the most,” he signs off.
Here’s wishing him the very best!
If this story inspired you, get in touch with Abhishek on +91-8588004943 or write to him on abhishek.verma2156@gmail.com.
“Water is the most violated natural resource. If things continue to go the way they are, it won’t be long before taps in India run completely dry, and our cities turn worse than Cape town,” remarks Pune’s noted water conservationist and a retired army person, Col Shashikant Dalvi who has spent 16 years of his life educating about and initiating Rain Water Harvesting [RWH] systems across his city, Pune.
His fear is not unfounded.
Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), under the Ministry of Water Resources, published a report in 2018 which found that the groundwater level in India has depleted by 61 per cent from 2007 to 2017.
And, according to the 72-year-old, one of the primary reasons behind the water crisis is the decrease in percolation rate owing to rising urbanisation. Speaking to The Better India (TBI) Col. Dalvi says, “The rising population in most metro cities has pushed concretisation several notches higher than usual. As we are cutting more and more trees and building more concrete roads, the surface of the ground is becoming less absorbent, causing the percolation rate of rainwater to go down. This, in turn, is drying up the bore-wells and thus creating the water crisis,” says Col. Dalvi.
This realisation dawned when he moved to Pune after retirement.
Viman Nagar area was a fairly new locality when Col Dalvi bought a flat in a housing complex there in 2002. It did not take long for him to realise that beneath all the modern amenities persisted severe water problems. To satisfy the needs of 57 flats in the complex, they had to get three big water tankers despite utilising the corporation supply every day which cost them an extra amount of Rs 25,000 per month.
“The high expenditure soon became a concern, and I began to find ways to combat. That was when I remembered from experience of the army days, how rural families in Rajasthan, sustainably conserved water through a simpler form of RWH. Thus I decided to implement it here on a large scale,” shared the expert.
This prompted him to start a rain-water harvesting consultancy, Parjanya, in March 2002, thus ushering a tide of change against the water shortage in the city.
“Water has been exploited for decades and is left in a pitiful condition. But rainwater harvesting (RWH) could be one of the few ways of restoration, and when I realised it, I began researching and working towards it. RWH is a silver lining, and we must do our best to use it to its best potential.”
With his relentless efforts, the housing society—the Lunkad Greenland 2 CHS—soon emerged as an example for the rest of the city and the state. The residents of the society installed a rooftop RWH system in a 12,000 sq feet area which began to yield 9 lac litres of water a year.
“In a year we became completely tanker free, as well as the first multi-storey housing society in the state to have such a system. Owing to this the water yield from our borewell increased from half an hour to almost 9 hours a day. And, what makes RWH even better is its cost-effectiveness,” said Col Dalvi.
The rooftop installment cost the society Rs 52,000.
As per Col Dalvi, RWH is a one-time investment, and we can reap its benefits for decades with minimal maintenance. And in return, it can save from 30 to 50 per cent treated drinking water in a household, and 80 per cent in a large commercial building.
Another resident of the society, 46-year-old Rajeev Singh, added, “It’s fortunate to be living in a society which is completely tankerless, especially in Viman Nagar, which is known for water shortage. While other societies here spent lakhs on tankers, we reap the benefits of RWH while positively contributing to the environment. I have another flat in Wagholi area and the regular water woes there make me realise how relieved I am to be staying here.”
The success of Parjanya’s RWH idea with the residential society garnered widespread interest and praise. In addition to many engineers, even National Water Academy, Pune included a visit to the society as part of their course syllabus to study the functioning of this project.
The organisation, with the help of several governmental and private agencies, has been reaching out to several institutes to spread awareness. According to Col Dalvi, one of the major challenges was changing public perception regarding water conservation.
“It is comparatively easy to educate the youth as they are not conditioned as the adults. The dependency on water tankers is so ingrained in most of us that thinking of sustainable alternatives is still farfetched,” added Col Dalvi.
Since 2003, he has initiated almost 650 projects across the country, including hospitals, colleges, schools, multi-stories complexes, industries, and government buildings among others.
Recently, he completed RWH campaigns and implementation in 100 villages of Madhya Pradesh and has begun work in Maharashtra’s Beed district.
What started as an initiative of an informed and socially responsible senior citizen has now become a state-wide movement offering a drying state a better tomorrow.
“I don’t want RWH to be a novel initiative by a few but a regular and common practice that touches each corner of the country. Only then can we bring back our natural resource to its original self and secure the precious future for our children!” he concludes.
At a glance, Venugopal Kumpalli, 39, is a hard-working IT professional in Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India.
Like many others, he wakes up every morning and battles with the treacherous traffic of the city, to reach his office in time, with aspirations to make his mark in the corporate world.
Yet, amidst the crowd, something sets him apart from the rest.
He belongs to the rare breed of people, who, when faced with social problems, don’t complain or wait for someone else to come with solutions. They step forward to volunteer and bring about a change.
One such problem that irked Venugopal was the degradation of the city’s once beautiful lakes, to stinking cesspools.
This is the story of how that annoyance, drove him to lead a dual life—an IT professional on weekdays, and a lake warden on weekends, much like the superheroes of pop culture!
Becoming a community hero
A resident of Electronic City, Venugopal would pass the Bellandur lake everyday en-route to his workplace.
Unlike scores of people who took the same route, the sight of the frothing, decaying lake bothered him deeply and made him wonder if the Maragondanahalli lake in his neighbourhood would suffer the same fate.
“I like to run and cycle, and every morning when I would go out, I would encounter the sorry state of the lake. What could have been a natural treasure and a common hang-out spot for people, would lie hidden under the garbage and wild overgrowth, inhabited by drunkards who would treat it as their open-air bar. Encountering a drunken brawl, there was common. It had become a perilous spot, and many had advised me to change my route. But, I didn’t want to do it, so instead of changing my route, I decided to change the state of the lake altogether!” said Venugopal, while speaking to The Better India. Hence, in July 2017, he began his journey of reviving life into the lake.
Once his mind was made up, the first step was to seek proper permissions from the Hulimangala Panchayat.
“The usual attitude is such that when people litter or cause harm to a public place like a lake, no one turns to look, but the moment someone steps up to change the scenario for good and clean the space, heaps of questions are asked. So to answer them, I researched a little and got to know that a citizen can apply for the position of a lake warden, who can serve as its watchdog. All you needed was passion and Indian citizenship. So with my documents, I approached the panchayat, who before then were not even aware of such a position,” he added.
Once the permissions were sorted, he began to survey the area and found out that the lake was in a far worse condition he had originally anticipated.
Covered under the bed of dense foliage and garbage, the lake wasn’t even visible from the road and so cleaning the space was a big challenge for which Venugopal needed the right equipment.
“I didn’t have any experience or knowledge about what to do, so I started researching and stumbled upon a Facebook group of lake enthusiasts where the members guided me virtually.”
With their guidance, he hit the Chickpet market and spent approximately Rs 14,000 purchasing equipment like a bush cutting machine, log cutter, hedge trimmer, bush cutting triangular blade and a grass cutter string, among other items.
He states that till this point, he was essentially a mind buried in technological systems, and his next challenge was to physically use the machines.
“Understanding the nitty-gritty of the mechanism of the equipment, like setting the gear ratio or even repairing it, in case of break down, was all new to me, but I was ready to learn,” he said.
Once the mechanism was understood, this lake warden then spent three months single-handedly cutting down the dense foliage and cleaning a stretch of 400 to 500 meters.
In order to clean the water, he even built a boat out of PVC pipes and went into the lake wearing life jackets, as he was a non-swimmer.
But this wasn’t the only challenge, as he had to encounter the drunkards who frequented the spot are weren’t happy with the new developments.
“One evening, I was busy cutting the bushes when a drunk man attacked me. He wanted me to stop. The situation was such that I had to stop the work on that day. Next day, I visited the police station, filed a complaint and continued my work. Hurdles like this did not bring my spirit down,” he says.
His persistence and hard work soon began to be noticed, as neighborhood children began to join his struggle.
“Once the cleaning was done, people began to notice that under the dump, there existed a beautiful lake waiting to be revived.
But, before the adults, it’s the children who lend their hand to help. So, to get them more interested, I gave them colour sprinklers and brushes to paint the tree trunks.
Once they began to have fun, their parents joined in, and with the consolidated effort, we successfully rejuvenated one stretch of the lake!” he remarked happily.
Out of the 17-acre area of the lake, 14-acres have been rejuvenated with more than 200 trees and almost 500 shrubs planted across the space.
Adorned with flora and natural gift of fauna that often arrives at its shores, the lake is now a sight to behold. Venugopal hopes that with time and proper funding, the rest of it will also find its way back to life.
“There was a time when the Maragondanahalli lake was an invisible dump frequented by drunkards. Today it is idyllic space where families come every morning and evening to enjoy the fresh breath of air. This is my true victory,” concludes the unsung hero.
Towering trees with dense canopies, all of whom are the legacy of Seturam Gopalrao Neginhal, still stand tall along the busy roads and streets of Bengaluru.
For those of us who do not know, it was the painstaking effort and visionary planning of this retired IFS officer that gave the city roughly over a million trees.
Speaking to The Better India, the 88-year-old remembers how in the early 80s, Bengaluru was losing a lot of its green cover to accommodate its growing population.
“The rapid urbanisation was a cause of great worry, especially for Gundu Rao, the former CM. He pulled up the BBMP and BDA and asked them to come up with a plan that could undo the damage to the environment. His idea was to plant about a million trees in a year, but the concerned officials produced quite unsatisfactory figures from their end—merely a few thousand,” Neginhal remembers.
Utterly disillusioned, the CM spoke to Shyam Sundar, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests at the time, who told him that this would happen if they got a separate division for the purpose. The government approved this proposal, and Neginhal was brought in to implement it.
The year was 1982, but he didn’t proceed with the plan immediately.
“I went around the city to understand why the City Corporation and BDA authorities had failed. I found several reasons—the tree guards put up by the BDA were of a small height, because of which they were easy targets for the roaming cattle. Also, concrete drum-like structures priced at Rs 650 per unit, contained the saplings. I wanted to find a cheap yet effective alternative and came up with the idea of a wooden tree guard—comprising bamboo poles that were covered with chicken mesh—costing up to Rs 23 in total,” he explains.
Neginhal also mentions that the major reason why the plantation drive failed, was something else.
“The saplings were barely one foot tall at the time of planting, and couldn’t survive for long, either way. To counter this shortcoming, I let all the saplings that we had hoarded in the nurseries to grow to a minimum of six feet in height, before planting them across the city in the wooden tree guard,” he adds.
For the next five years, Neginhal left no stone unturned in his mission of greening the city.
He even went to the extent of creating 8-10 nurseries across the city from where people could purchase saplings at nominal prices.
“Unlike the regular nurseries that had a maximum capacity of 5,000 plants, I made sure that each one of these could easily house about one-crore saplings,” he adds.
There was another issue observed by Neginhal, which he felt was hindering the plantation process.
“The departments were conducting the plantation drivers themselves, and the red-tapism in the system was an inherent roadblock. I felt that public involvement could resolve the situation, so I visited almost every locality and tried to build a sense of community ownership amidst the people. We gave away saplings to them, who took it upon themselves as a challenge to take care of them. More than a challenge, I feel it was like a race!” Neginhal exclaims.
He also added that they would send saplings in lorries across every locality for their easy access, in addition to opening tree banks in areas like Koramangala, Nandini layout and Indiranagar, so that people could come to pick up the plants.
“We would give away saplings for free, and also involve the CM, MLAs, teachers and school students in the plantation process. I also brought in the concept of tree wardens to popularise tree planting and appointed close to 350 volunteers who would keep a tab on the trees in their areas,” he says.
When asked about the species used during the plantation, Neginhal mentions that he wanted the people to make the selection as it would elicit more interest.
Neginhal’s lasting legacy of Gulmohars. Credits: Maya Kilpadi.
“I also used a mixed approach for the species selection, where I combined the native rain trees with exotic species like the Gulmohar for a more diverse ecosystem,” he adds.
Reminiscing the olden days, Neginhal recalls a plantation drive that happened during midnight along the Anand Rao Circle and the Majestic area.
“It was particularly a difficult exercise as there is always heavy traffic in that area, even at 12 in the night! I told my team to get saplings that had already grown up to 15 feet and above in lorries and plant these in hours where there was no traffic, around 2 am. With the help of labourers, we planted all these trees in the area in two hours. Next day, when the pedestrians hit the road, they were astounded to see the tree-filled area, which was barren the night before!” Neginhal laughs.
Shedding light over the reach and impact of his efforts, Neginhal mentions that at that time, CMs of states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and even central ministers would come to Bengaluru and become inspired.
“They would go back and tell their officials—‘if they can do it so successfully, why not us? ’” he remembers.
Neginhal also shares an interesting anecdote about the time when the former PM, Rajiv Gandhi, wanted saplings to beautify Shakti Sthal, the samadhi of Indira Gandhi in New Delhi.
The Nanda Talkies road in Jayanagar before the Metro project carved through it. Credits: Rohan Kini/ Facebook.
“He wanted the saplings immediately and reached out to different cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. But no one had any plants until someone told them to reach out to Bengaluru. The Director of Horticulture was deployed for this purpose, and when he met me, he was so relieved to see the wagon-loads of tall saplings! Now if you go to the Shakti Sthal, all the greenery you see there are from the trees that I provided,” he adds.
Until Neginhal launched his ambitious plan of greening the city, a concept such as urban forestry was unheard of.
In fact, one can rightfully call Neginhal the pioneer of urban forestry.
“Extensive plantation drives were conducted only across village precincts and not in the cities. After observing the success in our efforts of greening a metropolitan city, the planning commission added urban planting in the next five-year plan,” he proudly mentions.
Neginhal is also a prolific author. Aside from having authored books on urban and city planting, he has also written field books on forest trees of the Western Ghats as well as those in South India and a book on the wildlife sanctuaries in Karnataka that is based on his experiences as a forest officer.
Today, with hundreds of trees in Bengaluru facing the axe to make space for housing and development projects, it would be safe to say that the city’s greenery is at stake.
We ask Neginhal about what we, as citizens, can do to protect our trees.
“Ideally, a single person needs a minimum of two trees for a balanced exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Today, almost 80 per cent of the city is covered in concrete and cement. When there are trees, not only do we get shade but also the dust issues that we have these days, are under check. If we look into the state of China with its high rate of development, people are dying of cancer owing to dust, and it could happen to us as well,” he states.
Neginhal says that unlike the older and current generations who have developed hardened beliefs and habits, the younger generation is the best shot we have towards environment conservation.
“Schools and colleges must inculcate environmental awareness and the curriculum should include the importance of preserving wildlife. There are so many things that young minds can imbibe, and thanks to it, they will grow up being more aware and conscious towards the environment,” he concludes.
You can write to SG Neginhal at sgneginhal@gmail.com.
“A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous statement goes beyond the waves of time to find relevance in the remotest parts of rural India. It accurately depicts the struggle and strength of women who did it all. From standing up against exploiting landowners to starting a revolution with all-women vigilantes to protect forests, rural women are transforming into influential leaders of change.
And, in recognition of their contributions to the society, the government of India bestowed one of the highest civilian awards of the country, Padma Shri, to such exemplary women. Every year, the President of India presents the Padma Shri to people who have shown excellence in various fields of work like public affairs, science and engineering, social work, education, and civil service among others. This year on March 16, a total of 94 individuals were presented with the prestigious award of which 19 were women.
Here’s a list of 6 such TBI superwomen who have been singlehandedly driving mass change within and beyond their communities:
1. Kamala Pujhari
Originally from Odisha’s Koraput district, this 69-year-old has been preserving more than a hundred traditional paddy varieties, in addition to several endangered breeds of black cumin, turmeric, sesame, maha Kanta, phula and Ghantia.
Now a prominent agricultural activist, Kamala was recently offered a position on the Odisha Planning Board in 2018 by the State’s CM, Naveen Patnaik.
“I had never dreamt of getting such a prestigious Government post. I came to know about the announcement from the media. I would give priority to provide drinking water supply in the villages,” she said. In 2004, the government of Odisha awarded her with the Best Farmer Award too.
From mobilising her community, better farming techniques, to waging war against chemical farming, her incessant efforts to initiate sustainable and organic methods of producing food have not only won her several awards, but also inspired hundreds.
2. Chinna Pillai
Married off at the age of 12, Chinna Pillai’s life was like that of many others in the villages of India who toil on borrowed fields for meagre wages alongside their husbands and children.
Unlike most, she wasn’t the timid kind to quietly accept whatever the landowners or the moneylenders would give or ask from her. She became the first voice of dissent in a rural settlement of Pullucheri in the Madurai district.
With her constant questions and demands for fair wages, Chinna Pillai soon rose to become a labour contract leader (kothu leader) of a group of female farmers.
As a leader, she initiated Kalanjiam (self-help groups) with their own banking system to push the community toward a self-sufficient future. The SHG soon changed into Kalanjiam Mutual Movement—a microcredit undertaking that has empowered hundreds of women and their families in the last three decades now.
Her courage and grit not only helped her but the entire village to rise above their problems, and eventually break the oppression being perpetrated for decades by the tyrannical triad of landlords, money-lenders and the monsoon.
Rajkumari Devi, a farmer, popularly known as Kisan Chachi (Farmer Aunty), cycles across many villages to share her expert tips on kitchen farming and instills the spirit of entrepreneurship in rural women.
Her objective is to show how these women can become financially independent through farming and small-scale businesses. But, her journey was not so easy.
A resident of Anandpur in Saraiya block of Muzaffarpur, Bihar, Rajkumari was initially pushed into cultivating tobacco leaves. But, with time and patience, she learnt how to grow local and organic vegetables and fruits, on the same arid lands, something that other farmers had deemed impossible.
By dividing her 1-acre land into two parts—the low-lying part for paddy and wheat, while the rest for fruits like papayas, mangoes and bananas—she had created a small paradise.
As her efforts paid off, other farmers began to seek her expertise.
In a matter of years, Rajkumari had opened a non-profit organisation, Anandpur Jyoti Center which picks up fresh produce from various SHG-run farms and takes it to a group of women employed to make processed products like jellies, jams and pickles.
In a small village of Jharkhand, Purbi Singhbhum, a group of women assemble around the trees for a holy ritual every year.
While this image might seem familiar, the intent is rather novel. A trend started by Jamuna Tudu, these women tie colourful rakhis (threads of protection) around trees, vowing to protect them forever.
The ritual is both a spiritual and a social statement of non-violent war against the forest mafia and poachers, who for years have been plundering the natural resources while the villagers stayed mum in fear.
With her group of vigilantes who patrol the forests during the course of the day and even at night, she has started a revolution.
Much like the others, her journey also began after she was married almost 20 years ago. She was shocked at the massacre of natural resources around her. Abreast with the knowledge of how deforestation can impact the environment, she began to spread the much-needed awareness among other women and created her team to protect and ensure the survival of nature.
Today, she is known as the Lady Tarzan of Muturkham, who with the support of over 6,000 members, has managed to save 50 hectares of forests in the last 20 years.
Contrary to her expectation, she found the meaning of her life after she bought a cow on a neighbour’s suggestion. The usual practice of abandoning the bovines once they grow old or stop milking deeply bothered Friederike, and she ended up starting a cowshed called Surabhi Gauseva Niketan in Mathura that earned her a title of adoration, Sudevi Mataji.
With the help of 60 workers at the cowshed and steadfast love and passion, she has saved as many as 1,200 cows, most of which were abandoned, injured and sick.
In her 40s, Saalumarada Thimmakka had hit a dark phase when she wanted to end her life for not being able to conceive. But, with the support of her husband, she found solace in planting trees.
The couple loved and cared for the trees like their own children, and their family increased from 10 to almost 8,000 trees.
Now popularly known as the Mother of Trees, 65-year-old Thimmakka has emerged to become one of the most prominent environmentalists from Karnataka, and shot to fame for planting and nurturing 365 banyan trees along a four-kilometre highway stretch, between Hulikal and Kudoor village, near her husband’s native place in Tumakuru.
For her work, she has won the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, Hampi University’s Nadoja Award and National Citizen Award by Government of India, among many other national and international awards.
Each changemaker’s story reflects the power of passion and love that stirred a positive change in thousands of people. Hopefully, the thousands will go on to inspire lakhs and the lakhs, crores to herald the winds of change in the country and by extension, the world.
A careful look around any house and you will detect several pieces of plastic whether single use or reusable. Our food comes in plastic bags, drinks in plastic bottles, toothbrushes to combs and shelves are mostly made of plastic—a non-sustainable and relentless enemy to the environment but definitely cheap.
In this bid to buy inexpensive, colourful products, one must stop and ask the question, “Once I have used and discarded a product, where does it go? What does it harm?” Such questions are our first steps toward a more responsible lifestyle where we are conscious of how our way of life can affect the environment and the people who are its intrinsic cogs.
And as we grow more and more eco-conscious, it can finally result in actions conducive to healing the environment.
Easier said than done? Not quite.
If you are looking for inspiration to live a minimalistic lifestyle, why not take the example of this Chennai family that has replaced all their wasteful habits with those that are wholesome, eco-conscious and nearly zero waste.
The Better India (TBI) spoke to Kalpana Manivannan, who says that their lifestyle did not come from one particular incident, but from habits and awareness about ecological issues.
“I was working as a high school biology teacher and thus, was always conscious about both, what chemicals we ingest through products and what we let out in the environment. Honestly, going zero waste was never an impulsive decision that came from a single incident of inspiration. Rather, it was a consistent, step by step effort that we are still pursuing,” Kalpana tells TBI.
She adds that even now, the family is not entirely zero waste because in this day and age it is difficult to isolate our homes from the influences and products in the market. However, with each passing day, the Chennai family is getting a step closer to their goal.
The goal is not to go from 100 to zero per cent in just a day. Going cold turkey rarely works for anyone; it is about setting the pace and getting oriented. It requires patience, hard work and dedication to get there.
For Kalpana’s family too, it started with the basics. For instance, their outings to a restaurant were never without stainless steel tiffins, in case they had to bring back leftovers. Not only did it stop the wastage of food that they couldn’t finish, but they also did not have to ask for disposable plastic boxes from the restaurant.
Kalpana and her husband Manivannan started the tradition by taking steel tiffins to their offices, and when their kids, Meghana (17) and Pranav (14) started school, the ritual continued.
Courtesy: Kalpana Manivannan.
Fruits, vegetables, and nuts replaced snacks like biscuits, chocolates, and chips that are heavy on sugar and preservatives and low on nutrients thus ensuring healthier eating habits among the children who are teenagers today. “See, I am not saying that these snacks are completely forbidden. That’s impossible and wrong to do. My children go to school like other kids, attend birthday parties and hang out with their friends. So obviously, they have packaged snacks once in a while. And that’s fine. We have just not made those snacks a habit on our home. Once in three months or so they crave for chips or biscuits and then we buy them. But we make sure that we dispose of the plastic a recycling bin,” the 43-year-old says.
Reducing plastic usage led the family to cut down their shopping from supermarkets and encouraged them to buy local produce. And soon enough, Kalpana shifted to homegrown fruits and vegetables in her organic farm, Kalpavriksha Farms where she grows more than 50 varieties of fruits and vegetables.
“We are constantly reading about the plastic menace and the hazardous ways in which we are polluting our surroundings.
Courtesy: Kalpana Manivannan.
I like knowing that our small efforts are in some way contributing to the well-being of our environment. By making small changes, we are helping our environment, and that makes me feel happy and proud,” 14-year-old Pranav tells The New Indian Express.
While the farm took care of most of their food needs, spices and grains started coming home either from farmer markets or in bulk from supermarkets. “I don’t buy the masala /ready mix packets from outside which reduces the amount of single-use plastic in our trash. We buy our food in bulk, and often, rice and pulses come from my in-laws’ agricultural field. My mother buys wheat, grinds and gives it to me. So, we don’t buy the one-kilo rice and maida packets regularly. It makes a huge difference,” Kalpana said.
When I asked her about what can people like me who live in the heart of a city and don’t have the luxury of owning land do, she said that she has many friends in Chennai who have similar issues but have found a way around it. For instance, some take to collective terrace farming—utilising the balconies of each flat to grow certain plants which the entire building uses. In addition to that, vertical gardens have also been a great boon to urban farmers.
Food taken care of, Kalpana shifted to making cosmetics such as soap, body butter, shampoos and tooth powder at home.
“This is where I face a lot of challenges with my kids,” she says jovially, adding, “They are so used to the lather in toothpaste and shampoos that my alternatives fall inadequate for them. ‘We cannot give this up,’ they tell me, and I am okay with it. They are kids, after all, and perhaps in due time, I will be able to pull them toward my side. The soap and the body butter were an instant hit with my family and friends who now purchase from me quite often. I see the products going commercial too, but in due time.”
Whether toys, food or cosmetics, the Chennai family is consciously replacing most of the daily-use commodities with environmentally friendly alternatives. Through years of dedicated efforts, they have successfully built a zero-waste lifestyle. Perhaps we too can use their ideas to lead us to come closer to nature!
(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)
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Hailed as the ‘Garden’ city, Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru has drawn many international companies and people from across the country in the last few decades. This has resulted in unchecked waste generation.
As per a Central Pollution Control Board report, garbage in the city has increased by 17 times since 2000. By 2031, the generation is likely to be more than 13,000 metric tonnes from the present 4,000 metric tonnes.
Envisaging the burden on landfills way before the authorities started raising concerns on the garbage crisis, the then technician from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Purushothaman came with up a simple solution – to segregate waste – in 1996.
While he was cutting down waste he generated, it dawned upon him that with the right knowledge he could minimise his overall consumption and reduce carbon footprints. So, he ventured into other projects like tree plantation and Rain Water Harvesting (RWH).
Today, from the water he saves through RWH and the manure he generates from composting, Purushothaman plants trees not only in his house but in the entire colony. Thus, inspiring fellow residents to adopt a greener lifestyle.
Like every other journey, Purushothaman’s journey was also filled with ups and downs. The only difference was that he didn’t give up.
How it all started
In 1996, when Purushothaman moved to Bengaluru’s Ramamurthy Nagar, he saw how families recklessly dumped their garbage on the roads, attracting insects and rodents.
Purushothaman from Bengaluru is inspiring people to follow a sustainable lifestyle
Recalling the plight of the city’s streets in the 90s, Purushothaman tells The Better India, “Lack of managing waste has always been a serious problem, but with the rise in consumerism, the issue has magnified. Concerned by that and the garbage overflowing on roads, I first decided to prevent my garbage from entering the trenching ground.”
Since the use of the internet was not yet widely prevalent at the time, he resorted to experimenting with composting. Within a few days of research and trials, he started managing the wet waste generated in his own house.
The word quickly got around. Neighbours visited him during the weekend to learn a thing or two about waste management. Some even started handing their waste to the ex-DRDO serviceman.
Before he knew it, he was handling waste from nearly 4,000 households in his area.
He hired slum dwellers to collect the garbage from these households. The collected waste would be given to farmers for developing manure or be composted. To sustain his collection model, he charged a user-fee from every household and paid the slum dwellers up to Rs 1,000 every month.
But the model had to be discontinued after the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike was replaced by Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike in 2007.
“The collection process became more formalised after several areas in the city were added under the Municipal Corporation’s jurisdiction. So, we were not allowed to collect the garbage,” he says.
However, that didn’t discourage Purushothaman from continuing his crusade for a safe environment. In fact, it encouraged him to take multiple steps for a cleaner and greener future.
5 Steps Purushothaman takes for a sustainable lifestyle
He prevents approximately 30 kilos of wet garbage per month from going to the landfill by converting it into manure every 45 days. He deposits the wet waste into the composting drums in his house.
The generated manure comes handy as a natural and rich fertiliser for plants.
2) Rain Water Harvesting
When Purushothaman moved to his new house in 2011 in the same colony, he installed two RWH systems to save and reuse water.
Water crisis is something that everyone is aware of but no one doing much to avert it. RWH is the simplest means to store water and reuse it, says the 69-year-old.
So far, he has saved 60,000 litres of water through RWH!
This has not only helped him conserve water but also reduce his water bills significantly. Every month, he pays only Rs 100 for his consumption.
The conserved water is used to clean utensils, mop, and water the plants inside and outside his house.
3) Trees
Besides developing a garden at his home, Purushothaman is also instrumental in planting trees in his locality. With help from homemade manure and stored water, he has planted more than 6,000 trees so far.
Explaining the reason behind watering trees outside his house, he says, “From my experience, I have noticed that people are excited about planting trees, but when it comes to its maintenance, they often back out. So, I assure them that I will water their trees regularly.”
4) Fighting Disposable Plastic Cutlery:
With help from his team members from K R Puram Rising, an organisation dedicated to social activities, Purushothaman lends steel cutlery to citizens of Bengaluru. The aim behind this initiative is to discourage single-use plastic cutlery which takes hundreds of years to decompose.
Started in 2017, the cutlery project has prevented the use of approximately 25,000 one-time plastic items.
“We have 300 steel glasses, 100 snack plates and 60 large plates that we give to the residents for free in good faith. There has not been a single incident where the residents have not returned the cutlery,” Padma Naveen, an IT professional and member of K R Puram Rising, tells The Better India.
Sharing how Purushothaman inspired her to be more conscious about her lifestyle, she says,
Everyone talks about how they want to save the environment, but only a few can turn it into reality. Mr Purushothaman is one of them. He has inspired me to take small steps in my life towards the betterment of our future.
5) Awareness Workshops
From his experience in the field of waste management, Purushothaman undertakes awareness workshops and classes, where he teaches people from all age groups to manage their waste. In addition, he also encourages them to plant trees and save water through RWH.
However, he thinks that merely imparting knowledge is not enough. “People might forget what they learned within the few days if they do not practice it. The entire purpose of the workshop is thus defeated,” he says.
As a solution, he keeps several resources like manure, saplings, bio-enzymes at home so that people can easily find the means to practice a sustainable lifestyle.
It was during one of these awareness workshops when he came in contact with Praveen, a city-based IT professional. Having a similar interest for the cause, the two got along immediately.
“I have always been passionate about planting more trees in the city. However, convincing others to do the same is always challenging. With help from Purushothaman, we are now encouraging people. I am highly impressed by his work and hope to continue working with him for as long as I can,” says Praveen.
Segregate waste. This will solve 50 per cent of your garbage problems, and even help you generate revenue.
Treat your wet waste. Purchase a low-cost composting unit and process your kitchen waste at home. Use the manure for your plants.
Give up single-use plastic items. Look for alternatives to plastic cutlery. Hint: Take notes from the older generation.
Plant saplings in your house or your locality. In most cases, you do not require any permission to plant trees on the roads.
Install a Rain Water Harvesting Unit and cut down your water bills. If you do not have space, focus on reducing water wastage.
Conclusion
Say ‘yes’ to steel and reusable cutlery. Source: Pixabay
When asked what inspired him to continue his journey for so long, Purushothaman says,
It is all in the mind. In the beginning, there might be hurdles, but once you make it a habit, the process becomes easier. I have not taken any extraordinary measures or spent a lot to adopt a green lifestyle.
Albert Einstein had once said, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.”
We have much to thank the unassuming bees, for it is through these winged creatures that pollination of almost all fruiting and flowering plants ensue aiding the production of about a third of the food that we consume every single day.
But we don’t need to tell you that—these facts are something that all of us have been taught, right from kindergarten.
What we really need to be conscious of, and more importantly, be rather worried about is the drastically falling number of the bee population across the world.
With the rise in construction and infrastructural developments, there is little space for the bees to pollinate, especially in the urban cityscapes.
Even parks—once a safe haven for the bees to collect nectar and make their hives, are slowly diminishing from our midst. Thus, most of us must have noticed the increasing presence of humongous beehives hanging from the walls of high-rise apartments and residential areas that have gardens around them.
Posing as a nuisance for the residents, these hives often meet a cruel end at the hands of pest control authorities. But there have also been instances where these folks have safely handled and transported the hives to secure locations.
You can read one such remarkable rescue mission covered by us here.
Coming back to the precarious situation of the bees, we tried to understand how we could, as environmentally conscious citizens, make a difference on an individual level.
Beekeeping, as most of us know, is nothing new to humans. In fact, ancient rock depictions suggest that we have been collecting honey from wild bees almost as early as 10,000 years ago. Alongside, there have also been records of domestication of bees for honey and other purposes in North Africa and Egypt thousands of years ago.
The typical definition of beekeeping is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made hives, by humans.
While scores of farmers and honey suppliers across the world have been engaged in this field for quite some time now, rising concerns over the dwindling number of bees has propelled many individuals to partake in beekeeping as a measure to save these winged beings.
And the best part is that, even you can take up beekeeping and that too, right in your backyard! Even better if you’re into gardening, as it relatively takes about the same amount of time and effort to grow your veggies as it does to keep bees.
The one big perk of beekeeping in your garden—in addition to producing your own honey and perhaps even selling the surplus—is that it helps your vegetables, flowers and other garden plants thrive.
There are numerous factors one needs to consider before heading out to become a beekeeper.
Gaining adequate knowledge and training, right from the beekeeping process to areas such as zoology of the bees, bee-human relation and sting management among others, is mandatory.
While you might know many practicing beekeepers in your circles, it is better to receive training from the local beekeeping authority.
Government organisations like National Bee Board under the Agriculture Department and Central Bee Research and Training Institute (CBRTI) of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) provide training to not just farmers or those who wish to commercially supply honey, but also to anyone who is interested in beekeeping.
“For those who wish to pursue beekeeping as a hobby, we have a tailor-made five-day training sessions every month. Accepting only 25 candidates in every batch, we have trained hundreds of individuals including farmers, housewives, students and even retired folks. We teach everything that is required for one to become backyard beekeepers. We only charge an amount of Rs 500 for registration,” says Pokhrey, a beekeeping training expert at the Pune-based CBRTI.
In addition to that, the KVIC also has beekeeping extension centres across different locations in the country offering community training sessions as well.
Primarily started to help rural and tribal communities become economically sustainable in the comfort of their forest or village homes, the government organisation now assists anyone and everyone who wishes to pursue beekeeping seriously and sustainably.
Another important factor one must keep in mind is whether your surroundings are habitable for bees. Like we mentioned before, houses in cities that have gardens are perfect contenders for beekeeping, but even those who have kitchen or terrace gardens can give it a try.
In case you live in a gated community, it is imperative that not just your family members are onboard with your hobby but also your immediate neighbours. It is possible that they could be allergic to bees, so it’s better to keep them in the loop just to be surel. Who knows, they might also join you in the pursuit.
Next comes the crucial selection of site for setting up hive stands or beekeeping boxes.
Following are a few points to note as detailed in the National Bee Board advisory on good beekeeping practices:
1. The ground should be clean and free from dry leaves to avoid fire during summers. One should also pay attention that the hives are set up in areas away from power stations, brick kilns, highways and train tracks. However, these must be easily accessible by road.
2. The site should be open and at dry places that have enough shade. While direct exposure to sunlight must be avoided, the hives should receive early morning and afternoon sunshine.
3. The hives must have natural or artificial windbreaks. (A windbreak is usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in a manner to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion.)
4. Make sure that there is fresh, easily available running water near the hives, while ensuring there are no sources of stagnant water as well as commercial apiaries, chemical industries or sugar mills nearby.
6. Lastly, the area should be rich in bee flora. While trees like gulmohar (Royal Poinciana), champa (Magnolia champaca) and amaltas (laburnum), and flowering plants like marigold, sunflower, rose, pentas and hibiscus are ideal for attracting bees, even vegetable and fruit plants like ladies finger, onion, mustard, coriander, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, brinjal, tomato, chilli, papaya, lemon, mango, guava and pomegranate, are good at attracting bees.
As for the beekeeping boxes, you can either make these yourself through DIY videos or purchase them online.
Fortunately, a lot of e-commerce sites these days are selling readymade bee boxes, but make sure you have received ample training and guidance to select the box that meets the needs of your bees.
Moreover, beekeeping is no child’s play, so it is important that you are equipped with protective gear and tools. Full bee suit is ideal for heavy-duty work; while on light days, you can make do with simple hats that come with retractable veils to keep errant bees from getting entangled in your hair.
While we have provided some relevant information on pursuing beekeeping as a hobby, we highly advise you to proceed only with proper training from beekeeping or apiary experts.
If you are interested to sign up for CBRTI’s 5-day beekeeping course, the upcoming session is between 8 and 12 April.
To register, you can mail them at cbrti.pune@kvic.gov.in or cbrtipune@gmail.com.
