A community gathering at Yelahanka New Town on November 21 to discuss waste disposal and composting solutions.
Waking up to this morning’s newspapers was a pleasant experience. Mandur has shut down 10 days before the deadline. Any person who has visited a landfill and can empathise with the people’s woes will receive this news with immense relief laced with happiness. Continue reading
Children’s Day at Sobha Ruby Platinum located on Tumkur Road.
Little children questioning the human rights violations being heaped on Mandur by the people of Bengaluru, expressing solidarity towards the aggrieved lot and taking a pledge to lead a life free from landfills isn’t something we get to see during a children’s day event. But this is exactly what happened today at Sobha Ruby Platinum, a cluster of high-rises located on Tumkur Road. Continue reading
Here’s a solution that suits both small apartments and bulk generators like large-sized apartments, restaurants, schools, institutes, hospitals, school and corporate canteens. If you want a combined package of ease of use, aesthetics, zero operational costs and capital payback in a few years, go for EcoDigester. Continue reading
In today’s newspapers, representatives from several apartments in Bangalore, which have been classified as ‘bulk generators’ (BGs), have severely criticised the BBMP’s latest move to slap them with a fine of Rs 25,000-Rs 50,000 if they fail to manage their own waste and compost wet waste. Continue reading
Quite a few community composting methods have evolved over the last few years, but I thought of kicking off this series with my personal favourite: Platform composting. That’s because it’s the easiest, the simplest, the most cost-effective and a hassle-free aerobic solution to compost both your kitchen and garden waste. Continue reading
DSS activists M Ramesh of Ramagondanahalli (in grey T-shirt) and Srinivas of Mavallipura (first from right) tell they will not let a single garbage-laden truck enter the landfill.
Hope floats in Mandur
“Yes, we are hopeful that the Chief Minister will stick to his word and we will see the end of it on November 30.”
If “Hope is a waking dream”, we saw it come alive in all its vibrant hues when V Srinivas and Mukund Rao of Mandur spoke at length on how earnestly they are hoping for an end to the agony that’s simply beyond human endurance. Continue reading
If Deepavali is all about dispelling the darkness, it must first arrive in the corridors of power, enter the corrupt vaults of bureaucracy and annihilate the callousness towards those living on the fringes in Mandur and Mavallipura. Let this light filter out into the streets, roll between the huts and the high-rises, and settle over the sidewalks. Continue reading
Picture source: 1group903.blogspot.com
“Today, we were driving past this scene in a busy traffic junction near an underpass. Around five-six men were burning garbage and they had around six-eight big black bags and it looked like they came from an early morning Swachh clean-up job. Cleaning up, but creating environmental damage by burning or dumping of garbage is something that is bothering us…” Continue reading
“I am scared of these ‘porake’s.” They are not going to solve the problem. Instead, this opportunity should have been used to create awareness on segregation because all this mixed waste is going to end up in Mandur.”
This is what senior activist N S Ramakanth of Solid Waste Management Round Table said in a panel discussion aired by a Kannada TV channel this evening as a prelude to the Swachh Bharath campaign to be kicked off on Gandhi Jayanthi tomorrow. Continue reading
Yelahanka waited for five years for its dry waste processing centre to resurrect itself from bureaucratic apathy. Looks like it’s been well worth the wait. Continue reading
Sometime ago, our waste management and composting methods attracted attention from none other than Infosys. In all, a team each from Bangalore and Cochin and two teams from two Chennai campuses visited our complex this March. A researcher from the New York University also accompanied the teams. Continue reading
I was at an institute located in Rajajinagar yesterday to exchange my views on a free-from-landfill future. A brief interaction with 25-30 undergraduate girls and boys revealed that they had heard of only Maddur, not Mandur. They had no clue about segregation at source. Nor had they heard their parents or relatives talk about segregation at source. Continue reading
Our 100% organic garden pooh-poohs the superstition that it is impossible to live without pesticides and synthetic fertilisers on this earth. It’s high time naysayers and those who champion pesticides stopped rationalising the use of deadly cocktails on the soil.
The residents of Sobha Althea-Azalea, Yelahanka, Bangalore, will not forget this Independence Day for two important reasons:
(Clockwise) 1. The grama sabha ‘katte’. 2. The change-makers led by GP president Mahadevi Vali. 3. The GP office in Gummagol.
Waste-wise, water-wise, solar-powered roads, a composting yard, a nearly foolproof sanitation scheme and willingness to achieve a lot more by involving everyone in the village, especially children. To top it all, its Gram Panchayath (GP) is headed by a woman.
If I ever want to live in a village, this would be it. Period. Continue reading
Food overloaded with fat can be a put-off especially when all you want is a bowl of salad and a bigger bowl of soup on a rainy afternoon. With those very few relatively healthier eating options shutting shops one after another in Mantri Mall, I had no other go but to drag my friend to Taco Bell for a fill yesterday. Continue reading
The buzz started at around 2 pm yesterday with a just few bees. In the next couple of minutes, the swarm grew bigger and bigger and the bees started piling up on each other. Eight minutes of manic activity, this massive beehive took the shape of black icicles and then, everything went silent. Continue reading
Giving back to where it belongs: All the kitchen waste and garden waste is turned into rich organic manure and given back to where it belongs.
Going by the media reports, the Karnataka government certainly doesn’t have a solution in sight for the Mandur landfill crisis. No government wants to drag a reluctant multitude towards a safe future by roiling up the system and suffer the drubbing during elections. Better safe than sorry, right?
Amidst such a sordid state of affairs, I feel immensely proud to congratulate the residents of Sobha Althea-Azalea, Yelahanka, for achieving multiple milestones in just two years. Continue reading
The reality in Mandur. (Pic: The Hindu)
Recently, I made an early-morning trip to some nurseries around Lalbagh with a friend to buy plants for our apartment garden. By forenoon, we had done most of our work but couldn’t resist the desire to step into yet another large nursery studded with beautiful succulents. As we went around enjoying the fragrance of those green little beauties, especially gardenias, the nursery staff got busy loading the green ‘waste’ into a BBMP vehicle. Some 4-5 workers went on feeding the truck for at least an hour.
When we asked, they said it was headed to Mandur landfill. Continue reading
When I wrote about Sparrow Man Mohammed Dilawar in August 2010 for India Together, I did not know I would take his message out of my balcony with ample support and enthusiasm from fellow-residents at my apartment complex. Thanks to these bunch of bird-lovers, our small-scale initiative has been kicked off. We are excited and are about to install the nest boxes bought from Dilawar on our premises. Hope our dreams come true!
Here goes the story on Dilawar, his commitment and perseverence… Continue reading
How would you feel if a housekeeper trained by you gives back lessons on how to differentiate between many types of plastic waste?
This is what happened a week ago when I went down to the basement to check if things were in order. This is where secondary segregation of our dry waste collected from each household happens every day.
When I asked Lakshmi, our housekeeper, why plastic waste was lying in 3-4 separate bins, she said type A fetches more money than type B… She and the remaining 11 housekeepers know it better than perhaps I will ever know.
The result? We are segregating TWENTYONE types of waste every day at Sobha Althea-Azalea! Continue reading
South Parade, Bangalore.
First came the plague, then pride and then ‘progress’. That quaint, obscure village where rural air refused to settle now wears a façade of inexorable modernity. Long back, behind this façade stood a different kind of past. Ducking under the mystic clouds of nostalgia is perhaps the only way to enjoy it. Continue reading
Everything is garbage until it is segregated. However, despite a never-before crisis staring it in its face, the government doesn’t seem to have realised that there can be answers to what seem to be gigantic problems. As for the one that has pushed Bangalore and of course, surrounding villages like Mandur and Mavallipura over the edge, the answer is simple: The problem has to end where it begins. Continue reading
A recent visit to mother’s home (how nice it sounds!) unravelled another of her genius conservation methods: a measuring bowl that is at least 20 years old. Continue reading
There is no dearth of human brilliance. But looks like it takes something more to invent something as amazing as this one.
While we were busy losing our sense of judgment over many brands of smart phones, someone somewhere was racking his brain over how to dispel darkness that invaded shacks in Manila slums not only at nights, but during daytime too.
Illac Diaz (meaning, God of Light!), a social entrepreneur, came up with this ingenious, highly sustainable idea that works like a 60-Watt bulb.
If compassion leads to inventions, this is it. Continue reading
Fukushima I nuclear power plant before the 2011 explosion. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dark days are ahead. A bright nuke future envisaged by the learned and the powerful, notwithstanding.
Looks like our policy-makers think those living in places like Koondankulam in Tamil Nadu, Jaitapur in Maharashtra do not know or, much less, understand what’s happening around the world. Continue reading
If festivals are all about finding a means to get closer to divinity, then why is it that they are often associated with our irresponsible attitude towards Nature?
Last week I read about the unimaginable trail of pollution Christmas celebrations leave behind in the UK. Some estimates say that nearly three million tonnes of waste hits landfills by the time the festivities wind up. Continue reading
This beautiful canopy leading to Hulikal, Saalumarada Thimmakka's village in Magadi taluk, runs at least 4 kms. These massive banyan trees were nurtured by her many decades ago. (Pic: SH)
The road that leads to Saalumarada Thimmakka’s home in Hulikal of Magadi taluk is as much a source of wonder as the destination itself. I wonder if the incredible beauty of life and its full meaning need such an encounter to shine through!
There was a specific intent behind meeting Thimmakka. We had to officially hand over the “IGBC Green Champion” award plaque which she failed to collect at the event for personal reasons. Continue reading
Solar settlement Frieburg, Germany. This town enjoys complete freedom from man-made energy. Individual homes, offices, and industrial units generate solar power on their own.
Looks like, at last, the West is waking up to impending nuclear disasters. Once reactors exploded one after another in the post-tsunami Japan, huge crowds came out with placards in Germany and told the government to “shut down” all the nuclear facilities at once.
Perhaps, it takes a tsunami to realise that nature can spike human efficiency at its absolute best with just a whim.
A life without nuclear energy may sound near-impossible right now. Yet, Germans can take heart, or indeed, be proud of the shining example they have set in their own backyard: Freiburg. Continue reading
How easy it is to replicate iPhones, high-definition LED TVs, or indestructible mobile phones! And how silly of us to think that we can first bring down rainforests and then replace them with new ones by planting only a few species of trees with axes and shovels! Continue reading
ENDLESSLY GREEN 