Community driven Turahalli Forest afforestation

    A call from one of the residents residing right next to the Forest area, was all that was needed to trigger off series of concerns, already felt but never addressed as an individual or as a community. Maybe it was the layman's fear of dealing with the unapproachable Foresters, the vested interests of the powers that be & the political interests revolving around such issues.

Valleys where simple check bunds can be built to hold water 

The pea fowls are a threatened lot & the deer population is fast diminishing, almost non-existant in this fragment. 

 The whole Forest area is an open-to-all ground for hunting, burning, burying, tree felling & GARBAGE/ DEBRIS DUMPS .

Our Little thinkers at work :)

Something had to be done & done fast!

Rain water draining out ....Lots of scope for Rain Water Harvesting within the forest !!

What better way than an awareness drive & an event to motivate the citizens around this??


As always .... A thought forms .... & nature conspires !!! 

In this case, it was a positive & proactive one... a planting awareness drive !

So, after a series of calls & transfers on the line, to the Forest offices...  off we went to meet the Divisional Chief Conservator of Forest (DCF), Urban.  We were in for a pleasant surprise ! Didn't expect him to be so co-operative. He in fact, asked us to help them bring in corporate funds to speeden up the process of fencing up the area, afforestation & for watch & Guard. They were quite open to the idea of citizen participation in afforestation & watching/guarding of the area.

Then started the hunt for funding, unfortunately corporates had their own protocols to follow & it may take more than a couple of months for it to realise. But that would rob us off of the rainy days. 

Thus started the scuttling around for individual funds. It did take quite a few.... "Not my concern", "Govt funds are aplenty", "why me? when the powers that be are swindling away on allocated funds". But we did find citizens,  concerned enough about the bio-diversity, the much needed lung space, the much more needed water retention area & ofcourse the lovely pea fowls, rarely spotted but making their presence felt through their cries all over. Rabbits scurrying about in search of food. 

We also found that the existing plantations were not catering to the flighty creatures. So, Fruiting & pollution countering plants like peepal, Banyan, Nerale, Goni, & other ficus species had to be brought into the planting scheme.

It seemed like an uphill task for the team members trying to bring in resources like volunteers, implements to scoop in earth & co-ordinating the event. Firstly, we had never worked with the Forest department and didn't know how welcome our drive to plant in one of the fragments would be. 

But co-operate, they definitely did, & went all the way to get the pitting done for us. Kapil. Sharma of saytrees.org helped us out by bringing in 200+ volunteers & make it a great success!

And after all the apprehensions & last minute running around to get the final arrangements done..... there lands ..... Mr. Annaiah, ( IFS, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Administrator Bhadra Command Area Development Authority, Shimoga ), who turned out to be the star attraction !!! He coloured the event RED, or rather GREEN :)  by his talks on Forest facts like area figures, encroachments, tree species, ownership of citizens, laws to be adhered to but loosely done so far!!! 

The crowd went wild on his guided trek around the Forest area. The energy was undoubtedly 

HIGH !!!!

The little ones tried to do their bit by trying to  reverse the after effects of whatever blunders we adults have committed &  left them HIGH & DRY!

They even carried water all over the place !

There ... finally the department supplied us with about 600+ saplings & the 300+ volunteers had a fun-filled, high energy activity after all. A day well-spent & worth all the efforts. But we also understand ... NOW starts the actual commitment !!! & the onus lies on the community built around the forest....

For those who missed out on the event can still make it in small batches to plant more tree saplings, & help us build check bunds along the small valleys created, so that the animals don't have to suffer during the hotter days. In the bargain, we could do our bit in increasing the water table in the area.





Signing off with a heart-felt thanks to all who participated & an appeal to concerned citizens to support in watch/guard the little left Forests we are lucky to have around us! :))

And not to forget, little 12 yr old Dhruva. Prasad in helping us capture these lovely moments on camera !

World Environment Day 2013

The United Nation Environment Program ( UNEP) celebrated 5th June of every yeat as the World Environment Day .... and this year's theme is "Think . Eat . Save "

This campaign is an anti-food waste  that encourages each of us to be aware of the foods we consume , the amount of food we waste and  it's impact on our
planet ... and gives us an opportunity to rethink our life style.... like selecting food that have less environmental impact , choosing foods that are grown  locally and organically using natural fertilisers ( compost ) and pesticides.    

 According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted the world over .... and at the same time 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.
 Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and a contributor to negative environmental impacts....Any food that is wasted means that all the resources and inputs ( like fossil fuels / water )used in the production and transportation of  the food are also lost.
The global food production is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change.

In India 21 million tonnes of wheat ( wheat equivalent to the entire production of Australia ) a year are destroyed  / wasted due to  rotting/ pest infestation because of  inadequate storage and distribution

"The average urban household in India wastes 100 kg of food per person even as millions go to bed hungry. A big part of the wastage is to be blamed on modern lifestyles and the almost unnoticeable tendency to hoard." say the article Thoda Khao, Thoda Phenko   (in  Tehelka Magazine, Volume 10 Issue 23,by Avalok Langer. )  bba

So what can an individual or community do?

Do you "THINK" you are a conscious consumer? .... not just of food , but also other resources like water , electricity , fuel ?
Do you "EAT" mindfully ? Shop for food mindfully? ... and dispose the waste ( if any) mindfully
Do you "SAVE" water , electricity , fuel?

Here is a lovel video about how the "Dabbawalas of Mumbai" and their " Customers"  and "  Volunteers" join hands to feed the poor street children of Mumbai

I'm sure that there must be many such "angels" in many of our cities / towns  ....i.e  NGOs  who collect wasted (excess and thrown away) food from marriage halls, townships, apartment complexes, restauramts etc. and redistribute. Would be nice if some vistor to this blog throws more light on such organisations.
The "WED booklet" by UNEP can be downloaded freely at this site which give you many insights on how to reduce your "Food-Footprint" I have posted here a few pages from this booklet which gives you  "A to Z tips on what an individual can do " 

Note: Some of the  picture above are  taken from the internet and used  only for education and inspiration . If I have violated  any copyright issues , please send me comments and I will remove the associated picture.

World Environment Day Celebrations at RRNagar.

" Wake Up , Clean Up Bengaluru " or "   ಬನ್ನಿ ನೋಡಿ ಮಾಡಿ " was a clarion call given byKalpana Kar ,  Member, B.PAC  in Feb 2013 for bringing  the four  primary stake holders on to a common platform.

The 4 primary stakeholders are .....the Waste generators - individuals, organizations, communities ;.... .the Solution Providers who have technologies, services and solutions to manage a wide range of waste;... the  Government who is today playing the role of a service provider in this ecosystem but should ideally be an active regulator; & ... the Informal Sector - including the rag pickers and pourakarmikas -who are  responsible for collecting, sorting, selling and scavenging waste.
The Wake Up Clean Up (WUCU) is not just an eveny , she says , but a movement which needs to be taken to different zones in the city, to industry campuses, to schools to ensure that we cover the last mile and engage every citizen.

 "Wake Up Clean Up  RRnagar " was the second stop of this movement on 5th June , World Environment Day . BBMP invited  members from all stakeholders to brainstorm what needs to be done to clean up RRnagar as a team .

Mindtree , Global Village  hosted the event at their premises and there were a number of eminent speakers  from various organisations. The session opened with an inspiring video about a small country Estonia in eastern Europe which took an initiative at grassroot level and cleaned by their country in just one day. ( see link below)

 
Ms Veena Rajappa , GM , Mindtree informed how the residents of RRNagar joined hands with Mindtree Green community and decided to take action for waste segregation at source.  Mr. JogaRao , VP ITC who talked about ITC involvement and committed to help BBMP manage the dry waste.,  Dr. Manoj  of Pelican Eco stores talked about decentralized composting by bulk generator is a very viable and extremely cost effective / eco friendly solution,  Mr. Vijay Kumar from BBMP expressed the difficulties in their functioning due to   in-efficient contractor and Mr. Ramachandra , Corporator promised that the system would be streamed in the near future.  Mr. Ramesh of the NGO Concern  assured the citizens that shortly a centralized  Biogas composting unit would be installed in RRNagar which would ease the woes of the residents to some extent . Dilip Patel , a trustee member of NGO RRNagar-I Care was the Master of Ceremonies for the session

Mr Ramakanth , a very inspiring citizen is spearheading this movement to take it to various localities within  Bengaluru

The Project " Greening RRNagar" was inaugurated by planting five tree saplings in Mindtree campus by RRNagar's Corporator Mr. Ramachandra.

 

Pre monsoon rains..... & our lake !!

We couldn't have rejoiced more ... Halagevaderahalli lake showing signs of coming alive with the 36mm rains Bengaluru had yesterday night !!

RRNagar planning…. Some thoughts :)

Who is responsible for the developmental planning  of the locality so as to cater to sustainable living ?? The balance seems to have gone askew in a very short period of  our so called developing layout.

The overall development of  the locality can be attributed to the  equal balance maintained by natural  resource development Vs human-need-based  development.

With the number of  Apartment /commercial complexes,  schools, temples , individual residences  springing up uncontrolled, where do we stand in balancing them with  natural resources like Trees, Water bodies & the much needed lung spaces?  If the balance is not  being maintained on the structural development side … how are we coping in keeping up with sanitation, water supply, waste management, public amenities ???? They are eventually bound to go haywire. And we have been quite successful in creating that chaos already.

We are visualizing RRNagar as a prospective model locality but we are also busy coming up with BDA/private apartments in huge numbers, huge hospitals with hundreds of  bed-holding capacity.  Do we have the infrastructure to take these into our fold?

We have ample water/money guzzling, manicured parks for a nice morning/evening walk but are we blind to the fact that our children  don’t have access to open areas to play freely??

Not everybody can keep shelling out huge amounts for a sport  conducted by the private space holders. 

Can the town planning, BBMP, local leaders  take the local residents & experts into confidence and come up with a restrictive but healthy, environmentally  sustainable locality??

The plans are big & huge in numbers but they need to be implemented effectively to bear fruits. Some simple change in thought & ways of doing them helps…..

Rain Water Harvesting in the parks was a great initiative. We can go a step further to build underground tanks, say 1 lakh litre holding capacity (as suggested by Mr. ShivaKumar, IISc),  to store the harvested rain water & can be used in the gardens in turn or maybe a fire truck in case of emergency. Like he says, “the 75% of water on earth cannot change but we can change our ways of handling it !! “

RWH has to be made compulsory in all homes irrespective of the size.

Waste segregation at source  to be taken up on war footing. We seem to be a frustrated lot just because some of the residents don’t comply & it ends up as stray garbage all over the place. Lets plan for propagating rain lilies in empty spaces instead of paper/plastic !!!

Tree saplings to be planted in front of every house..atleast one.

Commercial complexes seem to be taking everybody for a ride but cutting off well-grown trees little by little & finally raze them to the ground. Who is penalizing them? Can the KFD permit tree-cutting for such a trivial reason as “ Elevation” & looks.

Obesity  in Kids is obvious… all they need is a playground nearby !!! Fees shelled out on sports complexes can become a burden on the parents sometimes.

Concrete Walkpaths in the parks…. They seem to be doing more harm than good for the health conscious/needy. A soft mud /gravel path doesn’t impact the joints so much. So, how are we taking care of the elders’ concerns here??

Signing of with hope for some positive thought/attitude changes !!!

World water day celebrations at RRNagar , Bengaluru

 Some twenty years back, a lush green and tranquil paradise....  RRNagar currently has turned into a environmental disaster area  with garbage strewn all over the place , it's beautiful lakes turned into a stinking cesspool , and hundreds of tree being felled in the name of progress. Groundwater tables are disappearing and water crisis is looming large on the horizon. 

We the residents realized that complaints to the governing body brought forth no solution to the impending disaster.

So a group called "RRNagar - I care" was born........ a group formed by the concerned residents of our locality. Its main objective is to awaken the residents of RRNagar to the collective problems we are all facing and to initiate all resisdents to work together for a “Clean and Green RR Nagar”. 

The first of its initiative was the celebration of the International World Water Day , with a theme that " Every drop counts" . Though the World Water day officially  falls on 22nd March , we decided to hold our celebrations on Sunday the  24th of March 2013 ... so that we could rope in the children of RRNagar . 

The group came together to spread awareness  on the importance of water & depletion in the water table in our once abundant region. And who are more suitable to drive the message  other than our little budding artists? A painting competition was held for the children with a theme “Every drop counts” in one of the parks in our area. The ideas that the little one depicted the theme were truely amazing. 

Here are a couple of pictures of  the painting competition in progress.

After the painting event , the children participated in a " Walk for Water" event . The children accompanied with adults  took to the street of RRNagar , with placards and pots on their head and  marched  to the drum beats and shouts of " Save Water, Save Life" towards theHalagevaderahalli lake in our locality  , which is presently under restoration. 

 

See our little " Green  Warriors " walking towards the Lake, creating awareness about the importance of water conservation. Truly this event shows that " We have not inherited this planet from our ancestors , but have actually borrowed it from our children"

 

 

 The finale to the event was the display of all the painting strung on a rope between tree. They reminded me of the Tibetan tradition of stringing  "Prayer flag " at places of worship , which flutters with the winds and  scatters  far and wide , the goodwill , blessing and prayers for protection and prosperity for all living and non-living beings of the earth . Hopefully ,these painting fluttering in the winds over the lake will similarly carry the message of the "call for action for a sustainable  and water abundant future for all " .  

 We had a small skit by children highlighting how water is being wasted in our household as part of our daily activity followed by the prize distribution.

 Two prize winning painting are shown below. 

Thank you  Rahul, Shalini , Dilip and Dhruv( our 12 year old budding photographer :-) ) for taking pictures of the event .

World Water Day 22nd March 2013

Friday, March 22, 2013

World Water Day 22nd March 2013

For many of us , today is like any other day. We get up in the morning , flush the toilet ,brush our teeth ,have a bath , drink coffee , and go to work using our car , turn on the air-conditioner at work as we curse the the increasing summer heat.For many of us life without water is unthinkable. We forget that we are fortunate enough to have access to clean water which allows us to lead a comfortable life .

Today is the 20th anniversary of World Water Day , and all of us need to pause and consider that

•  783 millions the world over do not have safe water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. 

•  6 to 8 million people die annually from the consequences of disasters and water-related diseases.

This year's theme is " International year of Water Cooperation which was launched at UNESCO Headquarters in Feb 2013. Here Ms Megha Kumar from India, announced her winning slogan , 'Water, water everywhere, only if we share'. How true ... In India , when ever a person comes to your house , the first thing that is served is water ( even without the person asking for it ! ) and the person drinks it even if he /she is not thirsty. Water is even shared with the birds, squirrels and other creature by keeping small bowls of water in the garden. Many houses would keep an earthen pot outside so that even strangers or street vendors can help themselves to the cool water to quench their thrist . In India water was freely shared in the past with anyone who need it .However ,  today water has become a profitable business with the sales of  bottled water soaring along with the summer heat!
Conflicts over water sharing between states , between communities has become the norm all over the world.... and the rich and the powerful are winning this war. 

What can each of us do ? What can we as a family do in our house? 

Some of the most simple ( but profound)  things we can do are

• Stop buying bottled water..... carry your own filtered water ( in stainless steel bottles).  
• Reduce meat consumption .  
  Economic growth and individual wealth are shifting diets from predominantly starch-based to meat and dairy, which require more water. Producing 1 kg of rice, for example, requires ~3,500 L of water where as producing 1 kg of beef  requires early 5 times more water i.e15,000 L ! It is estimated that that this dietary shift is the greatest to impact on water consumption over the last few decades, and is likely to continue well into future.  FAO (Food & Agricultural Organisation)  of UN have stated that........"Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.". Giving up meat is one of the greenest lifestyle changes one can make . Read more about this at http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/environment.html
• Install Water harvesting system / ground water recharging  system in your house and fix any leaks in your houses .  
• Reuse filtered greywater ( used for washing clothes and utensils)  in areas like gardens ,  walkways and  toilets where absolute clean water is not necessary . 

Here are some very inspiring stories about "People who are making a difference" .....common  people like you and me... who are quietly going about doing what they believe is important for conserving water or our planet 


Reap Benefit  is a social enterprise  run by four youngsters –  Kuldeep Dantewadia ,Kamal Raj and Gautam Prakash and Subha Niranjan, who  provide low cost environmental solutions. When a school in Bangalore , faced acute water crisis because of insufficient water supply and leaking old pipelines ,Reap Benefit stepped in and helped solve the crisis by greywater harvesting i.e  Water used for washing utensils was filtered and reused in toilets . In the process children learn't the importance of conserving water . Read more about this in the article "Making Green a habit Reaps Benefits"

Here is a 77 years old gentleman Aabid Surti , a National Award winning author, artist, cartoonist and playwright who for the  past seven years, fixes leaking taps in the houses of Mumbai every Sunday ! He says: “Anyone can launch a water conservation project in his or her area." that doesn’t require much funding or even an office. And most importantly, it puts the power back in our own hands.” Read more about this " modern day angel " at "Saving The Planet, One Drop At A Time"




 For more information 
http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/home/en/
http://www.walkingforwater.eu/
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/catcheverydrop