Do you give back to the earth what you take from it? Surely you’ve been asked that question at least once. If you live in Bangalore, you’ve probably been asked that more than once. On the verge of losing its identity as the Garden City, with interminable traffic jams and a construction boom, Bangalore is also seeing a movement of sorts to redeem itself.
Seema Purushottam, a researcher with Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (Atree), says: “Bangalore has reached a point where its residents are beginning to have serious worries about its future. There’s a gradual rise in efforts to restore its environment. It will take much more effort and a long time to see the effects, but a beginning has certainly been made.”
We met some individuals and communities who are showing the whole country how to think and live green.
A family affair
The Vishwanath family recycles water used in the bathroom and in washing machines for horticulture (Photo by: Hemant Mishra / Mint)
When I first met Vishwanath S., who runs Rainwater Club in Bangalore, he held out a bamboo rainmaker and shook it. The sound it made was similar to that of falling rain. “If only people knew how to utilize the resources they have and not waste it,” he says. He should know, because his wife Chitra and he used every possible natural resource when they built their house in Vidyaranyapura in Bangalore. The home, designed and conceptualized by Chitra, an architect, was a nature-friendly endeavour right from the drawing-board stage.
“For making bricks, we used soil excavated from the plot on which the house was built,” Vishwanath says, as he leads me to the terrace to see the rainwater harvesting system. The terrace also houses the grey water treatment system. “Grey water,” he explains “is the water that comes out (of) your washing machine, bathroom or your kitchen sinks.” To make it reusable for horticulture is a fairly simple process: Pump the grey water out of the machines and pass it through a sand bed which contains plants such as bamboo and reeds. The roots of these plants utilize the nutrients present in the waste water and the sand bed purifies it, making it safe to be used for watering other plants. “The investment for a grey water treatment system can cost as little as Rs1,000,” he says. Even though this is a great way to lower water consumption, not many people think about going that extra mile. Chitra feels that the real challenge lies in convincing people to change lifestyles.
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