Life for Varanasi-based Mohammad Gulzar and Mahinder Sahni have changed for the better now. Where Gulzar is a weaver, masterfully crafting the famous Banarasi Sarees that bring foreigners to his doorstep in Mahmoodpur village, Varanasi, Mahinder ferry the same tourists around the Ganges on his boat.
What has changed for the duo is that they now work with solar-powered machines that have made their pockets happier, work easier, and the environment greener.
All thanks to the Delhi-based TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) and their solar-powered looms and boats.
For nearly three decades, Gulzar has been working with gold and silver zari (brocade). The weaver has an impressive list of local and international clientele. Till 2000, the 40-year-old handcrafted the sarees and later shifted to power looms. While the looms proved to be a boon that quickened the weaving process, erratic power supply often stalled his work.
Though a generator backup ensured uninterrupted work, it would take a minimum of 10 minutes for the loom to restart. In the meanwhile, the threads broke, got entangled, and chaos reigned every time the system shut down.
It was a time-consuming ordeal to fix the problem, and at times, Gulzar even had to discard the cloth altogether.
Mahinder — a boatman, sold his boat for a diesel-run one. However, due to the rising prices of diesel, he was struggling to meet ends until a year ago. To make matters worse, the sound and polluted air issuing from his boat resulted in a loss of customers.
Apart from being environmentally-unsound and polluting, diesel operated boats also severely impact the daily net income of boatmen. Hand-rowed boats are tiresome to operate, requiring four to five hours of rowing in a day, Jitendra Tiwari, one of the engineers who worked on the two inventions, tells The Better India (TBI).
Gulzar and Mahinder represent the two popular professions in Varanasi beset with many problems.
Until TERI addressed their issues and found solutions in the form of two solar-run interventions.
Solution for Gulzar’s Problem Of Power Cut:
Weaver working at Mohammad Gulzar’s loom
TERI engineers have developed a power back up, which takes a few microseconds to generate electricity. The hybrid solar charge controller transfers the power from solar panels to the inverter which the loom uses. The surplus power gets stored in lithium batteries for back-up in case of load shedding.
The hybrid charging units for power loom are financially supported by Indus Towers under their Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.
The smart hybrid charging (solar + grid) unit power back up requires less space for storage, has faster charging rate, better energy density and much longer battery cycle in comparison to traditional lead acid batteries. Each hybrid charging unit can support four power loom units, says Tiwari
Consequently, Gulzar’s production and profits have increased. His men no longer have to sit ideally during a power cut or work extra hours to meet the orders.
Solution for Mahindra’s Problems of Air Pollution
Mahinder Sahni with tourists
TERI has retrofitted the traditional boats of boatmen with trolling motor and replaced diesel engine with solar-powered lithium batteries for fuel. The hybrid solar-powered model has one lithium battery that runs the e-boat.
Four charging stations that run on solar energy and grid connected power have been established on the bank of the river Ganga in Varanasi to run 40 battery powered boats in the city.
“Clean energy solutions to power boats can solve the problems related to environmental damage, costs and drudgery related to both diesel-operated motorised boats and oared boats in Varanasi,” Tiwari adds.
On a two-hour charge, the boats run for 2.5 hours, which is enough to make a round of a 12 km stretch. The battery is attached to the trolling motor connected to a propeller that controls the movement of the boat.
All retrofitting work i.e. fixing of trolling motors, lithium battery and provision of centralised charging facility is done by a local energy entrepreneur selected by TERI. The charging stations run under ‘Fee for Service’ model and their regular operation and maintenance are taken care of by boatmen collectively.
Besides, Gulzar and Mahinder, around forty boatmen and four hundred weavers have benefitted from switching to clean energy-run technology made under TERI’s Energy Access for Livelihood Promotion Programme.
For residents of Bhoomi Arkade, a 19-storey-high rise in Kandivali East area of Mumbai, every season is an opportunity to accomplish their eco-friendly goals. Solar panels harness the sun’s energy during summers, spring is a time plant more and monsoons mean water conservation.
Led by the society’s secretary Harish Shakar Kate, 76 families had pledged their allegiance to green practices in 2010. It started with Rain Water Harvesting (RWH), which was followed by waste management and then using clean energy a few years later.
I have always been inclined towards greener choices. When the government introduced the policies on rainwater harvesting and waste management, I was charged up to implement them in my building. All I had to do was open people’s eyes to the benefits and they were on board, Kate tells The Better India (TBI).
The Sustainable Practices of the Society:
Rainwater Harvesting
The society began with RWH back in 2010. Rainwater collected on the terrace is sent to a tank on the roof through a pipe. The tank supplies water to the toilets of each flat.
Throughout the monsoon season, even if there is an average rainfall of 10 mm, the overhead tank collects 13,000 litres of water. Besides, fulfilling the annual water needs of flush tanks, the collected water is enough to suffice other non-potable needs of the residents for approximately 68 days, says Kate.
Kate also informs that flats have installed water aerators on taps that control the water flow thereby reducing water wastage up to 60 per cent. As part of their future plans, the society will soon explore greywater recycling techniques.
Waste Management
Composting units at Bhoomi Arkade
Before implementing waste segregation, Kate had organised a couple of awareness seminars inviting garbage management experts.
Only when people are fully aware about why segregating is needed and how it will help the environment will they take the effort to discard dry and wet waste separately, says Kate.
Each flat has been given two stainless steel bins with their flat numbers carved on them for dry and wet waste. The recyclable waste further gets segregated into plastic, glass, electronic waste, paper and so on. The society sells the dry waste to the local scrap dealers once every two weeks.
Meanwhile, the society’s decentralised composting system converts 900 kilos of wet waste into 150 kilos of compost every month which is added to the gardens.
Solar Panels
40 solar panels, each with 12 kilowatt capacity, produces 55-60 units of electricity daily that power common lights, fans, lift, and water pumping station.
During summers, the units generated go up to 500 while the building’s requirement is around 120.
The surplus is exported to power distributing company and this gets credited in the building’s electricity bill every month. We have installed a net meter to check how much electricity units get credited in the monthly bill, explains Kate.
A year after the solar panels were installed, the society managed to save a whopping Rs 2.6 lakh. Furthermore, another way the society saves power is by using sensor lightning in the corridors and lifts.
The project was funded from the monthly maintenance money and the residents did not have to shell out extra to pay for the projects. The maintenance and operation of the composting unit, overhead tanks and solar panels is done by the housekeeping staff of the society.
Society members at an awareness session on waste management
Among other eco-friendly initiatives, the society is aggressively promoting the use of reusable bags to replace plastic ones, “We had distributed around 1,000 cloth bags right after Maharashtra imposed a plastic ban in 2018. The society has also prohibited bursting crackers and burning of garbage.”
The commitment shown by each resident of the society in practicing water conservation, waste management and other eco-friendly activities despite space and financial restraints is a lesson many can learn from.
When Asim Bhalerao visited his parents in Mumbai in 2014, he saw a notice stuck on the notice board of the building which he had rarely seen before. The notice read, ‘No Water from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm”. Though the inconvenience seemed minor at the time, when he visited his parents six months later, he found that the problem had not been fixed.
Once he talked to the Chief Engineer with the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC), he found out that BMC and the maintenance team of the society had been trying to find a leak in a 2 km long pipeline. But, to no avail.
Asim was curious and asked the Chief Engineer about the method of detecting the leak. He came to know that they were using an outdated technology to detect the leak.
“Due to unreliable or sometimes non-existent maps from the municipal corporation, they had to rely on local knowledge to identify the location of the pipe, sometimes digging around for weeks. Once they’d reach the pipe surface, they used an age-old technique with sounding rods that helped them understand if the pipe was ‘good’ or ‘bad’,” informs Asim.
The founders Asim and Nidhi
When Asim went back to the US, he discussed the problem with his wife, Nidhi Jain. During the discussion, bigger issues pertaining to water management and drainage systems also came up. This became a bigger motivation to found, Fluid Robotics, and move to India in early 2016.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in February this year estimated that almost 60 percent of sewage generated by urban India remains untreated. In addition, this untreated sewage enters water bodies like lakes and rivers which not only has a negative environmental impact but also makes the water unfit for use.
One of the companies mitigating this problem is Fluid Robotics, a start-up which provides products and services to enable better management of water and wastewater infrastructure. The company is achieving its goal with the help of robotics and information, helping cities minimise pollution caused by untreated wastewater entering rivers, lakes and groundwater.
“When we learnt the extent of the problem in India, we also found that there was no company developing technologies to solve these problems. We initially conducted pilot projects in India while still living in the US. We quickly learnt that we needed to be in India to truly understand the problems and challenges with working in the government sector,” says Asim.
How do they provide solutions?
The robot developed by Fluid Robotics
The company’s robotic system is one of the prime products that helps in mapping and inspecting underground pipelines. The system digitises the data collected on pipelines which helps in identifying structural defects, operations and maintenance failure modes among others.
“We believe minimising water loss and maximising water reuse can be achieved first and foremost by effectively managing the infrastructure of the pipelines. This requires mapping a majority of the underground pipeline infrastructure and identifying their health based on faults present in them. The rate at which this needs to happen in India is unlike anywhere else in the world,” says Asim.
For the purpose of mapping buildings, slums, pipelines, roads, villages and others, the company uses drones. These maps help in understanding the topography and hydraulics of the region. These are also helpful in locating stormwater outfalls which carry untreated wastewater into lakes and rivers. They also have sensors that accurately measure the flow of wastewater in the storm water drains.
“We use AI and robotics to automate pipeline mapping and health assessment. We also use drones and AI for crop pattern analysis, identifying different crops and water sources for effective farm management,” shares Nidhi.
Trained professionals and qualified survey staff inspect pipelines and prepare detailed reports.
Fluid Robotics has worked on several projects. One of the many infrastructural projects they worked on is Powai and Mithi river Rejuvenation. Here, they worked with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and found solutions through Robotics and Data analytics.
Rupesh Gundewar, 42, Principal Consultant at Frischmann Prabhu India, said that working with Fluid Robotics helped them in the Powai and Mithi River Rejuvenation projects. As an engineering consultant firm, they had to come up with solutions and for that they needed drone surveys of the topography of the area.
“The plans that the MCGM had were old. We needed drone surveys because we wanted to map the storm water drains in the area and identify where the leakages are,” he says. They built their engineering solutions based on the data collected from these surveys.
“We identified the source of polluting outfalls to be residential and commercial areas near these lakes. We also used their robots which ventured into the drains to look for blockages,” he informs.
The rejuvenation project took more than one and a half year to two years to finish and the six months that they worked with Fluid Robotics helped the whole process, he asserted.
“For the Powai and Mithi projects we were able to develop AI models for health assessment of the pipeline infrastructure that was required to carry the diverted wastewater from nallas to treatment plants. AI allowed us to process hundreds of hours of pipeline videos in a fraction of time as compared to manual methods currently employed in India and the US,” says Nidhi.
The Fluid Robotics pipeline solution.
Another notable project was completed in the agricultural sector where they conducted a Crop Pattern & Water Requirements Analysis for Maharashtra State Irrigation Department in Satara district.
“In the Satara project, we developed AI models for crop identification and water source identification. This allowed us to process around 1,00,000 acres of farm data in a short amount of time to calculate Unaccounted For Water (water loss calculated as the difference between water fed into the distribution system and the water actually used) in the region,” says Asim.
What have they achieved so far
Since they began in 2016, the start-up has been able to solve water issues on a large scale through their different projects. They have created plans for interception and diversion of over 600 MLD (Million Liters a Day) of raw sewage entering lakes and rivers, using existing treatment capacity. This wastewater generated from almost six million residents.
The couple also wanted to find a solution for blocked drains that were difficult to navigate. In India, this is mainly done by manual scavengers despite being officially prohibited by law in 1993 on the grounds that it is a caste based, dehumanising practice.
An Indian Express report published last year based on the numbers collated by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), said that since 1 January 2017, at least one person has died every five days on an average while cleaning septic tanks and sewers across the country. NCSK is the statutory body that was set up by an Act of Parliament for the welfare of sanitation workers
Fluid Robotics has prevented over 5600+ hours of manual scavenging. “This is the time spent by our robots identifying blockages and measuring flows inside nallahs where manual scavengers are traditionally used and who come in contact with raw sewage and toxic gases,” says Asim.
Fluid Robotics awarded the ‘Best Water Instrumentation and Automation’ company as part of the Water Awards supported by Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, UNESCO and others.
They’ve resolved over 50 MLD of Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) and have identified over 20 MLD of water leaks. Fluid Robotics has also generated crop-pattern and water requirements data for over 100 villages in Maharashtra to gauge water loss.
Both Nidhi and Asim are using their experience and knowledge to develop these services and solutions.
“We do both hardware and software development at Fluid Robotics, with a team focussed on building machine learning models for scalability. Our advisors in the US guide us on our machine learning approach ensuring we use the latest architecture and methodologies to build relevant and accurate models.”
Nidhi has over 15 years of experience working in software design, development and product management for companies and start-ups in the Silicon Valley. Asim too has over 15 years of experience in developing robotic systems (hardware) including farm automation systems, autonomous underwater submarines, drones, and spent the last 8 years developing advanced mechanisms for surgical robots.
While Nidhi has a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, Asim has a Master’s in Computer Science, Robotics from the University of Southern California. In addition to that, Asim also has a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering Design from Santa Clara University.
Nidhi says that as they continue to solve water issues in India, they also want to take the technology they developed here to the West as well. “Our goal is to continue developing automation and data analytics solutions for the water sector and take them global,” she says.
“Even though I spent a good amount of time studying and living in the US, India is home to me. The work and education culture we experienced in the US allowed us to take this step. We truly believe the solutions we plan to continue building will require teams coming together from across the globe,” says Asim.
Siddharth Rao’s life has always been an antithesis to what is conventional.
He grew up on the outskirts of Bengaluru in the ’80s, and his parents, Arun and Sita decided to choose alternative education over mainstream pedagogy for him.
And so they sent him to schools such as The Valley School and Centre for Learning, both part of the Krishnamurti Foundation.
He lived and thrived in the lap of nature. There were lush trees as far as you could see, snakes and cobras hanging off branches, sometimes entering his home, and majestic mammals such as elephants and leopards walking past the school’s football field.
Siddharth with an Indian Grey Wolf
Speaking to The Better India (TBI), he recalls, “There was a focus on nature and peaceful coexistence with wildlife not only from my parents but also my siblings, friends, and teachers at school. Back in The Valley School, I remember throwing away all my textbooks to come home with a bag full of tamarinds, and another time with a tender coconut shell filled with fish.”
“Were your parents angry?” is my immediate question.
“Funnily enough, they weren’t. They were thrilled!”
And so he swam in streams, caught fish, chased butterflies, cycled to the Western Ghats and even watched leatherback sea turtles in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
In 1990, the two career choices that he had were to either continue playing professional football for clubs in Bengaluru or enter wildlife conservation. He chose the latter.
Only 17, Siddharth started working as an apprentice with different wildlife researchers, rescuers, conservationists and individuals running resorts in the woods.
He completed his Bachelors from Open University, juggling between self-preparing for exams and spending most of his time in the forests. On the other hand, he took up research jobs to grab all the knowledge and work experience he could attain with both hands.
He also moved on to get a Masters degree in Ecology from the Salim Ali School in Pondicherry Central University and also became a Kinship Conservation fellow in 2015.
Today, the man who has worked as an ecologist and conservationist for the last 18 years is on a mission to protect and revive forgotten savannah ecosystems.
What is a savannah ecosystem?
Kalpavalli Community conserved area
“From the time of the colonial British Empire, India has had a skewed definition of what a ‘forest’ or a savannah ecosystem is. We defined them as ‘x’ number of trees in ‘x’ amount of land and viewed from the extraction point of view for timber. As a result, many of these natural ecosystems faced a gradual degeneration over decades and turned into drylands due to over-exploitation.
Once a source of livelihood for indigenous communities, they have been losing their flora and fauna at a rapid rate, have become hotspots for man-animal conflict. The very policymakers who pay lump-sum packages to go on wild safaris abroad, continue to call these ecosystems, wastelands in India. I call them ‘forgotten ecosystems’ that need revival.”
And so for the last six years, he was working with The Timbaktu Collective as its Director of Ecology, to carry forward the same mission.
Mobilising communities
The groundwork for the regeneration of the dryland though was already laid down by the founders of the Collective, who began their work in the drought-prone Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh almost 30 years ago.
It sparked with the natural regeneration of a plot of arid dryland measuring 32 acres where the people of Timbaktu lived. The founders mobilised the local community to come forward to green as many patches as they could.
At the time, there were no standard activities or strategies that they were following.
But once the land bounced back to life, youth from surrounding villages came forward to seek their help. This led them to kickstart the larger Kalpavalli Community Conservation Area Project, where communities from villages around Urudala Konda and Thumma Konda in the district donated common dryland to be revived.
A space of 100 acres was demarcated as the experimental ground where the team used an array of techniques like protection from fires, protection from overgrazing, protection from tree cutting, construction of soil and water conservation structures (bunds, check-dams, dentures, etc.), seed dibbling and grass seed broadcasting, planting of trees where possible, monitoring of fauna lost and revived, monitoring grass being cut, monitoring the number of sheep, goats, and cows that come for grazing etc.
The success of the Kalpavalli project sparked competition with villages around, where shepherds from neighbouring villages would trespass into the conserved area and steal grass.
When confronted, they said, “Teach us the same technique, if they have done 100 acres, we will do 200 acres and do it better.”
Ecology is only a part of their development activities. The Collective is empowering 20,000 marginalised families in 180 villages through various activities such as ecological restoration of wastelands, organic farming, and marketing, alternative, thrift-and-credit based financial systems for women, the rearing of small ruminants by the landless, disability rights, creation of child-friendly forums and sites of learning.
Speaking to Mary Vattamatam, the co-founder of Timbaktu Collective, I ask: “How has Siddharth’s work been instrumental?”
With a deer
“The Collective began with experimental regeneration of a completely barren piece of land. And though we were able to scale this up to a great extent and establish a standard set of activities, for a very long time, we couldn’t establish the link between wildlife conservation and the regeneration of these ecosystems. Even for me, these were two different fields of work. But with Siddharth coming on board, especially at a time when a windmill project had been sanctioned on our conserved KCCA which was driving away wildlife from the surrounding forests into the farmers’ fields, damaging their crop, and reducing groundwater levels, it spelt hope. Since he came with a strong research and fieldwork background, he helped us bridge this gap, understand how species of flora and fauna could be brought back and conserved to help maintain a balance in the ecosystem. Today KCCA is a holistic biodiversity and wildlife conservation project with a wolf sanctuary for the endangered Indian Grey Wolves. He has played a role in helping us come up with a management plan for the 9,000 acres we have conserved and brainstorm new methods of generating employment for the indigenous communities living in these areas. He has opened up a lot of newer perspectives on the way forward, and above all, he has helped us recognise and value our work even more.”
When asked about how his experience working with the rural communities, he says,
“The idea of conservation is not just protection. It is also a sustainable use of resources. You cannot walk up to a tribal family whose source of livelihood is honey and tell them; the honey is for the bees; you must not take it. It is an elitist city-based approach. Instead, what you can do is help these families follow techniques to practice beekeeping sustainably.
My experiences have taught me that it cannot be a guards-and-guns approach, you have to include these tribal families in the decision-making instead of alienating them because whatever is left of the ecosystem is still surviving because generations of these indigenous communities have been protecting them in their own ways.”
A community forest watcher with local forest fruits
It is common for many working for the cause of the environment to receive threats. Siddharth too, has faced his share of them.
“It is common to receive threats from the sand mafia and illegal miners when you are not allowing destruction. But it doesn’t stop me. There is pressure. But there is also tremendous support from the local population and good samaritans who believe in our cause.”
The Way forward
As of this month, Siddharth has taken a step back from the Collective to focus on his own Adavi Trust, which is working with nature and wildlife conservation and conservation education.
He continues to live on an off-grid farm away from the city, with no running water or electricity.
“The basic amenities may be a luxury, but the quality of life is certainly better,” he adds.
He and his team, which consists of five people, are now also working towards addressing and resolving issues of man-wildlife conflict. The trust, alongside the Timbaktu Collective, aims to create a space for students for nature education too.
Siddharth shares an important message before bidding adieu.
“People need to start getting involved. The environment or the crisis that it is facing is not the problem of conservationists or activists alone. And please understand that your responsibility doesn’t stop merely at signing up for a newsletter or writing a cheque. People are waiting for you to get involved. The question is, are you willing to step out of your comfort zone and start working today?”
If this story inspired you, get in touch with Siddharth Rao on siddharth@adavi.org
When Kern Agarwal quit his banking job to pursue MBA, little did he know that a rural visit would effect a massive change in his life. On a two-day rural visit to Salavakam village in Kanchipuram District of Tamil Nadu in 2013, Kern came face to face with something he had only read about — the challenges that leach the life out of the farmers.
The almost barren fields due to heavy usage of easily available chemical fertilisers and pesticides, the stories of rampant hunger while they faced nature’s wrath of floods and droughts and the rotting piles of unsold fruits and vegetables that could not yield any money to the tiller.
Founders Kern and Ranjini who were former banking professionals
“With every harvest, farmers remove considerable amount of nutrition from their soils but none of it is recycled back to the soil. When food waste is dumped in the open, it starts decomposing and releases methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times worse than carbon dioxide for the atmosphere,” points out Kern.
When the 31-year-old went back to his home in Chennai, he could not help but discuss the vicious circle of poverty with his wife Ranjini Prabhakaran. The urge to help hapless farmers led the couple to zero in on the organic produce which was going to waste.
The duo spent an entire year researching and developing solutions which could not only solve issues related to solid waste disposal, but also help farmers in the process.
And Carbon Loops was thus founded in March 2017 by Ranjini and Kern with a vision of ‘Clean Cities, Fertile Fields’.
Carbon Loops has two models for solid waste treatment. The first model involves setting up of Biogas Plants within the premises of establishments like hotels, manufacturing units and educational institutions. In the other model, the start up collects waste at Rs 6 per kg from clients who want to get rid of their organic waste in an eco-friendly manner. The waste is later processed in the compost facility of Carbon Loops.
Since they started, Carbon Loops has prevented 5,437 tons of organic waste from ending up in landfills and handle waste generated by 65,000+ people daily across seven projects. They have produced more than 2,400 tons of compost and given it to farmers in addition to teaching several people about the importance of waste segregation.
How it began
The couple realised that they could come up with a solution where organic waste could be converted into compost. Also, the methane gas which is released could be used as a cooking fuel and as a substitute to LPG.
Biogas plant that Carbon Loops has developed after months of research
Their first model is most feasible in case of clients that generate more than 500 kgs of organic waste in a day. Under this model, they install the bio-gas plant for Rs. 25 lakhs, in addition to looking after the operation and maintenance of biogas plants at the client location. They also provide operational services for up to five years.
In terms of coming up with the right kind of biogas plant, they studied several existing models and then developed their own version. “Biogas has been around for more than 100 years in India. With the Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) model as a basis, we developed small improvements and installed our currently operational design,” says Kern.
So, how is their model different from the KVIC model? Kern says that they have redesigned the shredder which helps to reduce the particle size to about 5mm and has the capacity to shred about one ton waste in an hour. The hydraulic agitator has also been revamped to prevent settling of solids in the digestor and preventing the formation of a scum layer at the top, a regular problem in biogas plants. Lastly, a booster pump was also installed to increase the output pressure of the biogas flame in the kitchen.
Since the startup began its operations, its list of clients include Loyola College, Stella Maris College, Mahindra World City, and the government of Tamil Nadu among others.
As for their second model, some of the clients include Savera Hotel, ITC Hotels, Sahaas Zero Waste (Accenture, RMZ, etc).
The Utility of their models
Kern explaining the different processes of the biogas treatment plant at Stella Maris College
Kern explains that a tractor of compost (with a capacity of 2 ton organic compost) can cost upto Rs. 1000 for the farmer. However, Carbon Loops provide quality compost at Rs.100 per tractor. This way, they not not only find a sustainable way to deal with the ever growing pile of garbage but also help farmers.
One of the biggest challenges that they face in their operations is explaining to people the importance of segregating waste at source, says Ranjini. “This can take upto almost six to nine months for us to explain to the people when we first start working with them,” explains Ranjini.
Kern mentions that although their list of clientele has been increasing since they began operating, Loyola College was their only client they reached out to. Kern was initially working in the Standard Chartered bank between 2007-10 after which he quit to pursue an MBA degree from Loyola. This is why, it was easier for him and his team to reach out to them first when they started their services.
Impact
Dr. Thomas Pothakamuri, 59, Public Relations Officer from the Loyola college, says that it was becoming extremely difficult for them to manage their waste in the campus. With over 14,000 students living in the campus, the waste generated was enormous, almost 500 to 600 kg in a day, explains Dr. Thomas.
Kern, at the location where the biogas plant has been installed at Loyola College
Dr. Thomas is also responsible for handling ‘Green projects’ in the campus and since they knew Kern and the work he was doing, they decided to give Carbon Loops a chance. It took about 45 days of work to install the biogas plant in the college premises.
The plant was finally inaugurated on 2 October 2017 and has a capacity to process one ton of organic waste.
Before, we were not even segregating our waste but that is not the case now. The compost is going to be used now in the tree plantation drive that we are conducting on 5 September as a part of Teacher’s Day celebration. We are going to be planting almost 7,000 plant saplings belonging to 28 different species and we are using seven to 10 tons of organic manure, points our Dr, Thomas.
Kern says that in this project alone, they have diverted over 129 tons of organic waste from ending up in landfills and resourcefully converting them into biogas and compost. Dr. Thomas further explains that almost 50 kgs of methane is generated in the biogas plant and is being used as cooking fuel in their canteens that cater to almost 6,000 students in a day.
In addition to this, Carbon Loops also employs landless labourers who work with them in their own facility and in the independent plants of its clients.
S Moorthy, 37, a former farmer, has been working with the Carbon Loops since the past three years. Kern had kept in touch with a few farmers he had met during his rural visit and Moorthy is one of them.
Since Moorthy had to sell his land due to water scarcity, he had been working on his uncle’s paddy land. Since he was a landless labourer, he got only 25 per cent of the total income that was generated from the four acres of land, despite putting in all the manual labour.
Luckily, he joined Carbon Loops full time, working as a driver and a supervisor in the different biogas plants they help operate. Although he travels almost three hours to reach work from Salavakkam, he doesn’t mind because this job ensures security for his family of five. Carbon Loops has created employment for 23 such landless farmers.
It seems that Kern and Ranjini are on the right track to realising their vision of Clean Cities, Fertile Fields’ especially by helping farmers access organic compost at subsidised rates and offering employment to landless farmers with the expansion of Carbon Loops reach. “We want to harness methane as a renewable source of energy and scale this process. Ultimately, we want to run a successful business that cleans the planet!” signs off Kern.
Not so long ago, Chinnayya Math, a resident of Sarjapur, Bengaluru, and his family, used to be heavily dependent on water tankers for their water needs.
If you happen to live in Bengaluru, this is a common issue in several pockets of the city.
“We did not receive water from the Kaveri river or borewells. Every month, we consumed almost 2600 to 3000 litres of water and were monthly paying a bill of at least Rs 3000,” says Chinnayya.
Chinnayya Math and Vaishali Chinnayya
Curious about why they were using so much water, he started to look around for ways to measure its consumption.
After failing to find a device which could help him with the task, he put his experience in embedded development and app development to use and started working towards creating one.
During this same time, a friend of Chinayya’s, was between jobs and wanted to try his hand at working with IoT.
“I needed someone who could try and test my design since I hadn’t quit and was still working at the time. So, we set up a small electronic lab in our terrace using the spare room,” explains Chinnayya.
With Ramesh’s help, Chaitanya eventually developed a meter that could not only help keep track of the water being used but also substantially reduce consumption over a period of time.
Named ‘Ni-The Water Saviour,’ this meter is a Wi-Fi-based smart water level controller, designed for individual homes and apartments.
Once fitted on tanks, the meter provides information about the water levels by real-time monitoring, which is accessible to the user through a mobile application.
Also, the water meter has a feature which switches on and switches off the motor, automatically.
In 2017, Chinnayya decided to found Nimble Vision, a startup, to market the meter and was joined by his wife, Vaishali.
Nimble Vision
The Nimble Vision product and its parts
Today, Nimble Vision provides end to end water-related solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to B2Bs (individual homes) and B2Cs (apartment complexes, institutions and in buildings that house big companies).
The differences in services are that in case of individual homes, the meter that Nimble Vision provides only monitors one overhead tank. However, in the case of apartment complexes and buildings, they monitor the sump and well as the tanks.
“Many times, what happens is, we switch on our motor and forget to switch it off. And, by the time we realise that the tank is overflowing, a lot of water gets wasted,” says Shrinivas Gowde, a 41-year-old software engineer, who has been using Ni, for over 1.5 years now.
Shrinivas was one of the 30 acquaintances Chinnayya had invited to try out the meter and give them feedback.
“Earlier, I had to manually go and check if the tanker is full or empty, but not anymore! There are settings on the app through which I can set the minimum water threshold in the tank. Once, the water levels are below this threshold, say less than 15%, I immediately get an alert, the motor switches on by itself and I don’t have to worry about switching it off!” says Gowde, sounding impressed.
Gowde says that since there is an app to track their water usage, it helps him understand for what purpose they’re over-using water. This helps him adopt measures to minimise this overuse. There is also a detector which alerts the user over the app on the cellphone in case of leakages.
Sree Krishna Madhvapathi, 50, has also been using the meter. He lives in a villa where water is stored in a sump underground and is pumped into the tank.
The Nimble Vision app and the information it provides
“Nimble Vision has automated all the processes. Not only do I get an alert, but the pump switches on by itself. There are several instances where the motor goes bad because it is not submerged underwater and this meter successfully avoids the issue,” he says.
Another solution that they have come up with is the ‘Ni Sensu,’ a product that gives information on the water quality in a pre-existing water purifier which works well for vendors who are selling water purifiers as well as for those who are using them.
For example, vendors can keep track of everyone using their product and the areas they live in. Similarly, customers can keep a track of when the water purifier was last cleaned, the level of TDS (total dissolved solids) in the water and its pH level, indicating how safe the water is for consumption.
Operation and Challenges
Chinnayya says that the initial challenges included finding the right hardware parts and web software to build up the product.
Once the product was in its pilot stage, they tested the product for a year before finally making it available in the market in 2018.
“Initially, there were issues regarding the functioning of the meter in summers when it was too hot at noon and humid in the mornings. However, we gradually overcame them and developed a viable solution,” explains Chinnayya.
Chinnaya presenting the Nimble Vision solution at water expo in Dubai
Building a team was another challenge, but now, they have four full-time employees (including him and his wife) and five freelancers.
Although based in Bengaluru, this solution has also been deployed in Delhi.
“The water pump sets were plugged to the public tap. There was no fixed timing as to when the water was supplied. The customer asked us if our solution could detect the water availability in the public tap then automatically turn on the motor. While it was a challenge for us, we worked on it and updated the firmware remotely, and it worked! The new firmware was able to automatically detect the water in the public tap and turn on the motor and subsequently, turn it off. This feature eliminated the manual intervention,” he says.
Chinnayya believes that a collaboration between Nimble Vision and the government will help in better management of water.
“Our technology can gauge the water consumption levels of the citizens based on pin codes, locality, district etc. This will help the government and other water bodies to identify the requirement of a particular area for future reference,” he says.
He further adds that their technology can be integrated with the public distribution system and identify leakages.
Up until now, Nimble Vision has sold about 100 units of their meter all across the country. The solution has also been validated by awards like the Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Best IoT award, the Pune smart city and Niti Aayog smart management Award in October 2018, among others.
So, what’s next for Nimble Vision?
Nimble Vision receiving an award at Elevate, an entrepreneurship platform
“Our objective is to simplify the way of life by a technological intervention that can meet the needs of the common man,” says Chinnayya. He stresses how Nimble Vision, as an organisation, believes in conserving our natural resources and using them judiciously.
They say necessity is the mother of all inventions. What started out as a need for Chinnayya to conserve and control his water use, resulted in an invention that is going to possibly help several other people who want to do the same.
“We are helping people become more aware of their consumption or wastage with the help of data analytics. We want to play the role of a responsible organisation that helps in achieving sustainability on the face of the earth,” he signs off.
Electric Vehicles (EV) have been in existence for the last 185 years but the concept of clean-energy vehicle is fairly new.
A rise in carbon footprint and vehicular emission has pushed governments around the world to introduce policies that promote the use of electric vehicles.
Closer to home, the first major step taken towards the use of EV came in 2010 when the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced financial incentives for EV manufacturers under a Rs 95 crore scheme. Since then, several policy changes were made in this direction, the latest being a reduction in the Goods and Services Tax on EVs from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.
Meanwhile, companies and startups are coming up with electric bikes that are both efficient and affordable. Check out 5 electric bike start-ups leading India’s switch to clean fuel here.
As a consumer, it can be a daunting task to find an electric vehicle which will suffice requirements of range, speed and price.
In this article, we give you a few pointers that you should consider before investing in an electric two-wheeler.
Range
A vehicle’s range is the distance you can travel on the available fuel in the tank. In case of an electric two-wheeler, consider the maximum distance that the bike can cover on a full battery on a single charge.
For example, Gurugram-based Revolt Intellicorp Pvt Ltd’s RV400 has the maximum range of 150 km on a single charge giving it a top speed of 85 km/hr. It comes with a portable charger and a removable battery pack which allows the owner to recharge the batteries at home or work.
Price
There is a common misconception that anything that is environmentally-friendly is expensive. However, when it comes to EVs, a customer should consider the fact that they will end up saving the money spent on petrol and diesel.
Manufacturers have made e-bikes affordable for the common man with e-bikes now available at a range of prices starting form Rs 2,999.
The second model of Revolt Intellicorp Pvt Ltd is priced as Rs 2,999 and is powered by a 2.7KW Lithium-Ion battery with a range of 80-150 km.
If your budget is flexible then you can consider Ather 340 and Ather 450.
Let’s take an average 110 cc scooter priced at Rs 70,000. This amount does not include insurance, petrol, taxes or services. Whereas, the Ather 340 and the Ather 450 come with insurance and GST included, with the lowest interest rate. Plus, you get free unlimited charging for the first year. In the long run, it is not only good for your wallet but also for the environment, says Tarun Mehta, co-founder of Bengaluru startup– Ather Energy.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad-based startup, PuREnergy’s EPLUTO at Rs 74,999 is cheaper than a Vespa scooty. The startup also has a long-range economical bicycle priced at Rs 25,000.
Battery
The battery is the powerhouse of your vehicle. The higher the wattage, the faster your two-wheeler will go, it will also enable you to carry heavier cargo and also navigate rough terrains.
One should also consider whether the battery powering your EV is portable and comes with a warranty. Also find out if the battery is waterproof, shockproof and is not damaged easily.
For instance the Revolt Intellicorp Pvt Ltd provides a removable battery pack and their batteries are compatible under all weather conditions as per Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) standards.
Gemopai Electrics is another company that offers portable and lightweight batteries. It takes four hours to charge the battery which can be done even on your laptop!
Service
You may want to visit the local bike service stations before making the purchase. Find out if they are equipped with the spare parts and whether or not they service EVs.
Apart from relying on the local shop, you can also make an informed decision by asking the company about their service policies that go beyond just a warranty.
Source: Gemopai Electric
For example, Revolt Intellicorp Pvt Ltd allows the customer to pay for the motorcycle on a monthly basis for a period of 37 months. In that 3-year period, the company will service the bike and replace brake pads and brake fluids.
Meanwhile, most of the parts used in the motorcycle built by Ather Energy are procured from local manufacturers thus making spare parts easily-available.
Reason
Covering long distances, daily commuting or carrying products, the purpose of a vehicle differs from one person to another.
The bikes developed by Smado Labs are foldable, easy to carry and can be taken anywhere from a metro station, a car to an apartment.
The ETRANCE scooter (47 kg) by PuREnergy is ideal for commuting in heavy traffic because of its low weight and height (the ground to handle height is around 3.5 feet).
This a good scooter for commuting in city traffic because it’s low weight. It can be used by college students, delivery boys, working women and senior citizens as well. Moreover, balancing is made easier with a thick wheel radius and an efficient shock absorber system. On a single full charge, the scooter can travel up to 80 km, says Rohit Vadera, co-founder of PuREnergy.
Once upon a time, there lived a group of benevolent kings in a ‘Golden City’ who were so impressed by the services of their subjects, that they decided to gift a 1,500 feet long fort to them.
For the next hundreds of years, the descendants of those families would reap the benefits of their ancestors’ actions by residing in the glorious desert citadel for free!
This sounds like a sweet happily-ever-after tale that your grandparents must have told you, while you were tucked in bed, isn’t it?
Well, what if we told you that this is a true story, and the families currently residing in the castle without paying any rent is the biggest proof?
The fort, which was built in 1156 by the King Rawal Jaisal, is the famous Jaisalmer Fort in Rajasthan. A UNESCO heritage site, it is the only living fort in the world.
In other words, unlike other forts which are either abandoned or converted into posh hotels, the Jaisalmer fort is standing strong even today, and approximately 4,000 progenies of the castle’s earliest inhabitants continue to live inside its fortified walls, earning an income through tourism.
The fort is 250 feet tall and was built at the height of 25 stories from the dusty landscape. The walls are made from yellow sandstone bricks, and the fort has 99 bastions.
The roofs of the houses are covered with three feet of mud that keep the interiors cool when the temperature soars. Another feature that indicates an environment-friendly approach in the architecture are the jaalis (perforated stone) and jharokhas (a type of overhanging enclosed balcony) in the houses. They allow the breeze to pass smoothly.
The history of how tourism flourished inside the walls of the gigantic fort dates back to the sixteenth century. The fort became one of the essential stops on the Silk Road trading route that connected the West with Asia. From spices, teas, silks to valuable stones, the travellers would carry their goods and halt at the fort.
The locals gained tremendous profits from this exercise and locals merchants even went on to build havelis (mansions) for the outsiders to live in comfort.
Even today, after so many generations, the fort continues to be a major tourist attraction with restaurants, and rows of indigenous products like handicrafts, handbags, dupattas and sarees cramped in the narrow lanes.
Even though the families are each other’s competitors when it comes to doing business, they are always there for each other during joyous occasions or dismal times like funeral, much like any other family.
For example, the family of a prospective bride or groom announce the wedding dates and place by hanging a painting describing the details outside their house. The painting is like a formal invitation card to the members of the community.
“The entire fort is one family,” Vimal Kumar Gopa, a resident tells the BBC. “The boundaries begin and end with the main gate known as Akhrey Prol that separates the town from us. Whether it is a marriage or a death, all of us come together to observe it.”
Echoing Gopa’s words, Jitendra Purohit, another resident says, “A couple of years [ago], when my mother had a heart attack, neither my brother [nor] I was at home, but my neighbours took her to the hospital. This ‘harmony’ is what I like most about living here, and it has always been this way in this community for centuries.”
The golden fort has witnessed several rulers, from the Mughals, Rajputs to the British Raj and has survived harsh weather conditions like heavy rainfall and earthquakes. Yet, it stands strong in the never-ending Thar desert.
We know that solar panels generate electricity. But, what if a solar panel could directly heat water while also generating electricity?
Don’t believe us? Hear it from Rick Clifton, who has been working as the Director at The Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission (GSAM) in Uttarakhand’s Banbasa village, for the past 15 years.
“There are six hostels on the campus and we were looking for solutions to heat water and also cut down on electricity costs, which would go upto Rs 1.4 lakh in two months,” says the 67-year-old.
Birds Eye Solar panels installed in Uttarakhand
About a year ago, they installed 15 solar panels, known as ‘Duplex,’ which generate approximately 5 kW of electricity. Since then, they have been able to heat about 800 litres of water in a day.
These solar panels have been designed by Birds Eye Energy, a Hyderabad-based startup. In addition to generating electricity, Duplex can also harness the heat released to heat water in the building where it is installed.
Speaking to The Better India, Praneeth Pillarisetti, the founder, says,
“Any solar PV (photovoltaic) panel can only utilise about 18% of the sun’s energy, and convert it into electricity. The other 82% is wasted as heat which the panel absorbs as excess energy and releases it in ambient air. We have designed a heat recovery system that is fitted underneath the PV layer, which captures this wasted heat and utilises it to heat water instead. This way, we are using a lot more of the sun’s energy than conventional hot water panels. Birds Eye Energy panels can deliver an overall efficiency of upto 40%.”
The vision behind Duplex
Praneeth Pillarisetti
After acquiring a BTech degree in aerospace engineering from IIT Madras, Praneeth decided to pursue a masters in renewable energy, from the University of Florida. During the time, he went on to work with different green energy companies in Canada and the US.
“I felt that there was a huge gap between where R&D was being targeted and where the power sector growth was happening. Most companies were targeting the US and the EU markets, where growth in the power sector is minimal, while the real growth and demand for power is in countries like India and China. The idea of starting a green energy company in India came from the desire to bridge this gap and to apply innovation where it was needed,” says Praneeth.
After working in the field of green energy technology for a decade, Praneeth decided to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. He was joined by Harsha Vardhan Reddy, his batchmate at IIT Madras, and the duo founded Birds Eye Energy in 2016.
Developing the technology
As reported in The Hindu, in 2017, they spotted a small proof of concept clay model of the duplex solar panel at IIT Madras. It was a 10×15 cm model designed for academic demonstration, and they did further research and development to make the product viable.
A solar panel installation project at the Indian Railways in Hyderabad
Help came in from CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) and from IIT Madras.
Praneeth supervised the activities from the startup’s end and once they came up with a rough design. “We took the design forward and modified it further to make it cost competitive, easy to manufacture and market ready,” says Praneeth.
When the product was ready, they tested a prototype for residential use in Tarnaka, and a prototype for commercial complexes, at IIT Madras. For nearly a year, data was monitored closely to gauge heating capacities and changes in temperature, and the product was finally launched in April 2019.
The dimension of the panel is 2×1 m, which is the same as a standard PV panel or a conventional hot water panel. One Birds Eye Energy solar panel can generate 330W power and 100-120 litres of hot water per day. The cost of installing one Birds Eye Energy solar panel is about Rs 20,000
“Duplex generates as much electric energy as an ordinary PV panel would and heats as much hot water as an ordinary hot water panel would, except for one thing—it does this with a single panel. So customers who need both solar electricity and hot water—residences, hotels, hospitals, among others—can now install a single compact system made of our 2-in-1 panels,” says Prateek.
Praneeth and Harsha at an event organosed by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) this year
He further explains that this is more convenient as this would require less space and would cut additional installation and labour charges incurred while installing two solar panels with different utilities.
Usually, the challenge with solar heating systems is the issue of the build-up or scaling of mineral deposits in the system.
Praneeth says that their solar panels are designed to require less maintenance than ordinary solar water heating systems. They have developed their panel to prevent the overheating of water by ensuring that there isn’t any direct heating of water. In summer, the ordinary solar panels can heat up to 85 °C, which can also lead to scaling of minerals in the system.
Scaling in the system can affect the flow and reduce the performance. However, in these panels, the flow area is double, as compared to conventional solar panels. So, even if there is a little bit of scaling, this does not affect the flow of water.
“The flow passages of these panels can also withstand 10 bar pressure. All of these make our panels a robustly engineered product that can last 25 years,” says Praneeth.
What are the challenges they have faced so far?
Being bootstrapped, money and labour are the challenges that the startup struggles with. The other hurdle that Praneeth emphasises on is the fact that people are slow to adopt any new technology.
The startup administered their pilot project at an OYO building in Hyderabad
“There have been times where we lost business because the customer thought we did not have enough experience to execute the project.”
He adds that despite the lukewarm response that they have to face from customers sometimes, they try to not only educate them about their product but also about the pros and cons of solar energy in general.
Recognition, Impact and Plans
Notwithstanding these setbacks, the duo says that their work has been recognised. Along with IIT Madras, Birds Eye Energy was awarded a research grant in March 2019 by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) under the Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY).
YS Subrahmanyam, 63, a Civil Engineer based in Hyderabad, says that heard about the startup’s services from his friend who is a builder. The installation process for the solar panels in his 4000 sq ft villa started about three months back and they were fully functional from July onwards.
Being in the construction business himself, he could immediately identify the merits of installing Birds Eye solar panels. He says that it is also cost effective to install this two-in-one solar panel as it is almost 10% to 15% cheaper than installing two solar panels with different functions.
The team’s installation project in Uttarakhand is one of their most memorable assignments, says Praneeth
“The best part is that it serves two services in one. Generally, one would have had to buy two separate solar panels instead which would have consumed a lot of space. Now, I can use the extra space that I have on the terrace to start a terrace garden or develop a seating area!” he adds.
Although the startup is based out of Hyderabad, they provide installation facilities all across like they did in Uttarakhand.
Praneeth also aspires to explore further in the green technology sphere, and mentions that electric vehicles and fuel cells are on their list as of now.
“But the most exciting goal we have is to position ourselves as the most innovative company in the green energy space. We plan to achieve this by bringing out more ‘first-of-its-kind’ products into the Indian energy segment. We continue to collaborate with IIT Madras in the development of other solar products that are equally innovative, if not more,” says Praneeth signing off.
He has stopped 30,000 tons of trash from entering our lakes, seas and oceans. “It has been my life’s ‘karma’ (purpose),” he tells us.
After a glorious career spanning 26 years in the Merchant Navy and a high-flying job in finance in Singapore, Capt Sekhar felt he could no longer live a routine life. He wanted to come back to India and do something meaningful. And he thought that his best possible contribution could be to save our water bodies.
During his travels as a mariner, he noticed that the waterfronts of other countries are taken great care of, unlike in India where we have accepted dirty water bodies as the ‘normal’.
“I wanted to change this normal. I think that if we give people a clear water body, then they will hesitate to spoil it,” he says, setting his mind on finding the most practical solution.
He adds, “If we do not clean up our trash, no one else will.”
This thought inspired him to leave everything behind to return to India to do his life’s work–building efficient solutions for the water woes of our times through his start-up ‘Alphamers’.
Sekhar is a master designer with great acumen for engineering. He believes that the mind is a fantastic design machine and devoted hours to designing and thinking, investing his life’s earnings into perhaps one of the most simplest, cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions that we have today–floating barriers.
Floating barriers are barricades made out of steel and aluminium, installed at the inlets of water bodies. All the trash–plastic, weed, sludge and mixed trash–get caught there, and are prevented from flowing into rivers and lakes.
It’s definitely not a pretty scene when this trash gets flushed back into our neighbourhoods, hovering on the surfaces, polluting the waters, destroying the ecosystem and disrupting the free flow of water, aggravating the problem of urban flooding.
The collected trash gets removed from the barriers by the municipality and is taken for recycling.
The installation of the barriers is a quick and easy process and they quietly start doing their job once installed. The barriers are placed in locations with road access, which makes it easy to remove the trash, making the earlier practice of using motorboats for the job, redundant. Since JCB trucks are used for trash removal, no human is required to step into these dirty waters.
The floating barriers need no fuel or energy supply to function and require zero maintenance. Built strong enough to withstand flood situations, they are also highly durable in the corrosive, polluted waters that they are installed in.
“I wanted to make sure that my solution should be practical and easily implementable,” says Sekhar.
Since he came back to India and settled in Bengaluru, his first experiments started with the city’s Ulsoor Lake in 2015. Soon, the Chennai City Corporation found this to be a valuable solution and commissioned a pilot project for the Cooum river in 2016.
After the success of the pilot, the floating barriers were installed at eight inlets across the Cooum river in 2017. Capt. Sekhar says that 20,000 tons of trash were removed from Cooum alone in the last one year. Anyone who visited Chennai will know the state of the river, often called as the ‘Sorrow of Chennai’. The efforts to clean it date back to 1872 under the British but the river remains polluted and the water quality is considered toxic till date. But with the floating barriers in place, all the trash gets accumulated within the confines of the barriers, the surface of the Cooum is swept clean and devoid of floating trash.
“Today, Chennai is the only city in the world that does not dump its solid waste into the sea,” claims Sekhar, proud of what his innovation has been able to achieve.
Here’s a screenshot of the Google Earth image of the river where the barriers are deployed. The image clearly shows how the barrier has blocked garbage from flowing into the sea.
The floating barriers, however, are only a first step in the process of cleaning up our rivers and lakes. Ensuring that the water quality improves is the next step, an issue that needs to be addressed at the infrastructural level.
The floating barriers have been installed in water bodies in Puducherry and Tuticorin, and soon at the Adyar river in Chennai. The barriers installed in storm water drains in Bengaluru in Domlur, Silk Board and Agara Lake–have proven to be highly successful in facilitating the free flow of water.
Capt Sekhar and his six-member team at Alphamers is invested in various water-focused innovations. Municipal drain filters, oil spill curtains, weed pullers and wave energy converters are some of them. He is proud that all these solutions were designed and made in India.
To know more about Alphamers, write to Captain D C Sekhar at sekhar@alphamers.com.
Despite being the world’s largest producer of milk and second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, almost $440 billion worth of produce ends up getting wasted, says a joint study by the ASSOCHAM and MRSS. In simpler terms, about 40 to 50 per cent of the total production goes to waste! The report goes on to add that the current number of cold storage facilities at 6,300, is only able to store about 11 per cent of the country’s total perishable produce.
Inficold’s cold storage solution installed in Tripura
Inficold is a Noida-based start-up doing its bit to provide cold storage solutions with the objective to curb wastage. Not only is Inficold trying to patch this gap in the supply chain, they’re doing it sustainably. They have an off-grid solar cooling system which enables cooling of perishable items like fruits, vegetables, milk, fruits, flowers, among other things. This allows the farmer or producer to increase their profit margins.
Case in point, Jayant Chandavarkar, 40, a Bengaluru-based IT professional, who turned to agriculture and dairy farming with six cows about two and a half years back, along with his cousin. His 2.5-acre farm is in Tavarekere about 25 km from Bengaluru.
“Initially, we started selling to a Milk Cooperative but we realised that once we supply our milk to them, it gets mixed up with the rest of their stock. This makes it difficult to distinguish between different grades of milk,” says Jayant.
It was not long before they decided to supply milk independently. “The biggest hurdle is that once the cow is milked, the milk needs to be refrigerated immediately at four degree celsius,” informs Jayant. Once this major logistical gap was identified, he started looking for solutions which he found while browsing the internet when he came across Inficold.
Inficold’s milk storage solution
Jayant now has 40 adult cows that are producing milk which is stored in Inficold’s solar milk cooler. He says that he can store upto 100 litres of milk which he bottles up and sells to apartment complexes.
Inficold – The Background Story
Inficold was founded in August 2015 by Dr. Nitin Goel and Dr. Himanshu Pokharna, whose families have roots in the rural agricultural sector.
The friends and IIT-Bombay alumni used to work with Intel. After quitting Intel, Himanshu founded Sheetak, a company that provides high-efficiency electromagnetic green coolers that aim to phase out compressor systems. Nitin soon joined his company and the two started working closely on developing thermo-electric cooling systems.
“But, we soon realised that solar energy solutions are something we should explore which would serve useful in the Indian context. This realisation is what led to the founding of the startup in 2015,” says Nitin who has a PhD in solar cooling from the University of Florida
Nitin, the founder of Inficold
Inficold came up with patented thermal energy storage based cold chain solutions and have integrated solar technology to this. This solar integration been done in collaboration with the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE). These solutions are meant for cooling milk, vegetables, fruits and other solid perishable materials in bulk.
Existing solar integration requires electric batteries and off-grid solar inverters where the inverters might give up after a point. It also requires replacement of electric batteries every 5 years. Inficold solar integration doesn’t require off-grid solar inverter or electric batteries and is most useful in case of sudden and prolonged power cuts. The cooling system can function without any kind of electricity for upto four days.
The cold storage solution for items like fruits, vegetables etc. comprises of an ISO Marine grade container which serves as the body of the cold storage. Inside the container is a condensing unit which uses electricity (generated from the solar panels above the container) to make ice and stores it in the thermal storage system.
This ice in the thermal storage provides cooling through the evaporating unit. Thermal energy storage acts as an energy buffer during low or non solar hours.
The cold storage solution has two options that the customers can choose from – one with a capacity of 5,000 kgs, while the other with a capacity of 10,000 kgs.
Inficold’s team that is trying to develop cold storage solutions to curb waste
In case of Inficold’s solution for milk storage, the solar photovoltaic (PV) panels generate electricity which passes through a condensing unit to make ice in thermal storage unit. When there is no solar power, the thermal energy automatically provides cooling with the help of the ice stored in it.
Here, the customers can choose to install a unit with a capacity of 500 litres or 1,000 litres.
Challenges and Impact
Nitin says that throughout the process of development and deployment of their services, they have come across several challenges. One of the biggest challenges pertain to people’s perceptions regarding the effectiveness of solar integrated cold chain solutions.
“Previous efforts by other companies have not fetched favorable results due to obsolete technology integrations of solar and thermal energy storage. It has resulted in longer sales conversion period to convince the prospective customers about the upgraded and efficient solution,” says Nitin.
Despite all of this, Inficold’s solutions have been recognised and awarded by various tech platforms. One notable win for them was in the category of Low Carbon Technology Deployment Program, an initiative by United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Inficold is awarded a certificate of recognition by Nitin Gadkari and RK Singh for their innovation in strengthening the supply chain of milk collection through instant milk cooling.
Inficold’s storage systems have now been installed in states like Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tripura. They are catering to big dairy cooperatives and even small dairy farmers and their solution has even been installed at a temple in Gokarna!Kumar PK, 38, Maintenance and construction Manager at the Mahabaleshwara Temple in Gokarna says that they have been using Inficold’s cold storage solution for over a month now. The need for this arose because the temple served food without charge to about 1,000 to 1,500 devotees in a day.
“We serve food in the afternoon and at night everyday. For this we would end up buying a lot of vegetables which would get wasted because we live in a coastal town and it gets really hot in the day,” he says.
But, he says that prepping for meals have become easier for them after the cooling storage system was installed. “Before, we would have to wake up really early and start prepping the meals. But now, we can finish half our work the night before without anything going stale,” he says.
The temple in Gokarna which has installed Inficold’s storage solution
Inficold is now providing their services to about 15 clients across the country. “Our clients are milk cooperatives in Sikkim, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat. We are also working with a private large dairy in Maharashtra. Our solar cold storage units are installed by state governments of Kerala and Tripura, which are being used by farmers to extend shelf life of perishable commodities such as fruits and vegetables,” says Nitin.
He adds that they are also working closely with social impact led foundations such as Selco Foundation to develop sustainable use cases for increasing farmer incomes.
So, what is in store for Inficold now?
“In the next 2 years, Inficold would like to have 1000+ solar integrated cooling installations across dairy, horticulture and various other value added agriculture segments. The primary vision is to double farmer income while creating a sustainable cold chain network across India,” says Nitin signing off.
News like the planned felling over 2600 trees in Aarey Colony in Mumbai to make space for a proposed car shed is disheartening to say the least. In an age where global warming is not just a term but an active phenomenon unfolding in front of us, cutting down forests is a self-defeating behaviour.
IRS Rohit Mehra is also known as the ‘Green Man’ in Ludhiana for growing mini forests and making the city green
Now let’s travel 1,722 kms from Mumbai to Ludhiana, Punjab where one man has created 25 mini forests ranging from 500 sq feet to 4 acres within just two years! Meet Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer Rohit Mehra, who was named the Green Man of Ludhiana when he successfully created a vertical garden at the Ludhiana Railway station. After that he went on to create 75 vertical gardens in Punjab!
“People got to know about these vertical gardens and started contacting me to convert open spaces in their properties to forests,” says the 41-year-old. Rohit says that an industrialist from Jagraon, located about 40 km from Ludhiana, called him to convert a 6,000 sq ft of plot into a forest.
“This particular industrialist was running a rice bran oil factory and the area the factory was in was extremely polluted. He wanted to counter the emissions by creating a forest in the plot,” explains Rohit.
Since, Ludhiana is a hub of industries, the pollution scenario in Ludhiana is worrisome so much that sometimes schools declare holidays for three to four days at a stretch, informs Rohit. When he received the request, Rohit did not know much about creating such forests. Hence, began his research on how to create forests in a short duration.
The Miyawaki technique and the Vrikshayurveda
A forest plantation drive that brought together several people
This is when Rohit came across the Japanese technique of Miyawaki. Broadening his knowledge base on the techniques of growing trees quickly, he also turned to ancient Indian texts like the Vrikshayurveda that outlines the concept of the ancient science of growing plants and forests.
“Interestingly, this ancient text imbibed the techniques mentioned in the Miyawaki method. The soil is dug about 2.5 feet deep and is then mixed with manure made from leaves, cow dung and other kinds of compost. Even agricultural waste like stubble, rice husk etc is added to improve the fertility of the soil,” he explains.
After this, different varieties of trees are grown together in a staggered pattern. Most of the plants chosen are indigenous like Neem, Amla, Harad, Bael, Arjuna, Moringa, Gulmohar, Bargad, and Kaner, among others.
In recognition of Rohit’s work, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has tied up with him to convert open spaces near industries in Ludhiana to curb pollution. Out of the 25 jungles now, at least seven to eight of them are in industrial areas.
Plantation drive at the Gurudwara premises
And that is not all, as even individuals, institutions and organisations approach him with the same request. “There was this one industrialist who contacted me to make a jungle in his farmhouse. As his mother had lung issues, he wanted me to convert half an acre of land into a mini forest for cleaner air,” he says.
Rohit has also created a mini-forest in Ludhiana’s Gurudwara Dukhniwaran and named it, Nanak-Van dedicated to 550 years of Guru Nanak Dev. “Different communities of people from these organisations, industries and NGOs volunteer to help me during the plantation process which creates a sense of community and awareness,” smiles Rohit.
Other work and challenges
Despite people’s support, Rohit says that it is often difficult to find free space to create these forests in an urban area. “Also, convincing people of the benefits of jungles over grass-covered farmhouses is difficult,” he says.
Regardless, Rohit continues with his work and is also involved in another initiative where he collaborates with schools, organisations and other institutions to create seed balls. These seed balls comprise of clay, manure, nutrients and seeds.
With his initiatives, IRS Rohit has inspired different sections of the society including children
“One interesting collaboration was with a local cricket league where the winner of the tournament was not just judged on the number of runs the team scored but also on the number of seed balls made,” he shares.
Rohit has visited all over the country sensitising school children and adults alike on the importance of green cover.
“We are literally living in a time bomb where the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we breathe are contaminated. I want to educate and inspire masses while teaching them the importance of ecology. In the next five years, I want to create 1,000 jungles across the country,” says the enthusiastic IRS officer as he signs off.
Vehicular emissions were responsible for two thirds (3.85 lakhs) of deaths from air pollution in India in 2015, as per a joint study by George Washington University and University of Colorado Boulder in US. Meanwhile, the registration of private vehicles has gone up by 700 times since 1951, from 0.3 million to a staggering 210 million in 2015. With a rise in private vehicles on the road, there is a dire need to come up with alternatives like electric vehicles. Among the people who are experimenting on pollution-free vehicles, is a man from Nagpur who has converted his regular car to a solar-powered one. The eureka moment for Dilip Chitre came when he converted his second-hand Maruti van into a solar-run vehicle last year. It took 25 years for Chitre to perfect his innovation and his e-vehicle has so far covered a distance of 3,500 kilometres without any bumps.
“Every day I cover approximately 25 kilometres by driving it from my house to the school. There is no additional maintenance service and all it requires is sunlight for a smooth run. People park their cars in the shade and I park mine under the sun,” Chitre tells The Better India.
As a curious kid, Chitre had the habit of dismantling his toys and adding things to make a new toy. His interest in innovation and, by extension, the scale and volume of his experiments grew with time.
The Nagpur based innovator. Source: Ritesh Keshri/Facebook
Chitre has worked on several small-time innovations like developing a system that prevents stealing petrol from bikes. In 1995, when Chitre learnt of the benefits of solar energy, he began tinkering around with solar energy and electric vehicles.
Solar energy is not new to India. We have trains running on steam and even electric vehicles. It is only the lack of encouragement given to energy-saving devices that environmentally-sound vehicles and equipment are not used in the mainstream, says the 65-year-old innovator, who runs a driving school in Nagpur.
In 2003, after years of research, Chitre conducted his first experiment on an auto rickshaw in which he replaced the engine with an electric battery. Chitre even took the effort of getting it tested in the Regional Transport Office in Nagpur, “I thought if the electric rickshaw clears the test, it can be introduced commercially in the market. It did clear the test but due to insufficient resources, it met a dead end.”
He also made a presentation of the e-rickshaw at the Petroleum Conservation Research Association in Dehradun but unluckily, he did not receive any response, “Honestly, I was discouraged so I quit working on vehicles.”
Chitre then channelised his knowledge by experimenting on household appliances. For instance, four years ago, he installed 140 lights in his friend’s car showroom that run on solar. In 2017, after gaining experience in solar-run devices, his passion for vehicles rekindled.
To that end, he purchased Mahindra’s e2o electric car for Rs 10 lakh to convert it into solar-run car. He worked on it for a year but the experiment failed. Instead of giving up, Chitre applied new methods to a second-hand van that cost him Rs 5 lakh. He replaced the engine with a 48 volt battery, a DC motor, gear box, charge controller and an electronic accelerator.
He installed a speed regulator and installed solar panels with a capacity of 400 watts on the roof of the car.
The battery stores the electricity generated from the solar panels and sends it to the motor where it gets converted into mechanical energy with the help of the gearbox. As for charging the battery, he has had to recharge it only two twice in eight months.
Seeing the success of the van, Chitre wishes to replicate the system in school buses and rickshaws but his hands are tied due to financial constraints. “I do not have that kind of money to get equipment to help rickshaws run on solar power. My method is primitive. But, with the necessary research and development, I am certain it can change the face of public transportation in India,” Chitre says.
Chitre is only one of the many people who are striving towards pollution-free vehicles, but many of these experiments fail to take off due to lack of resources and support.
We hope organisations working in the field come forward and support such brilliant ideas.
You can get in touch with Dilip Chitre at: +919371161415
Spending time with sparrows was an intrinsic part of Rakesh Khatri’s childhood. Upon returning home from school, he would run up to the terrace of his house in Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, and feed grains to his winged friends, in their nest inside a tin shed, and then fly them off.
“When I was growing up, sparrows would make their nests on switchboards, balcony, window panes but now we have covered all our homes with doors and windows. It is sad how we have robbed them of their houses to build our own,” Rakesh tells The Better India.
While acknowledging that his memories belonged to a different, kinder time, Rakesh, who also had an eye on the future, was unwilling to accept what many believe is inevitable—future generations might not be able to spot even one sparrow in their entire lifetime.
To ensure that this does not happen, the media professional quit his job in 2008 and started working towards sparrow conservation by building artificial nests in Delhi. So far, he has constructed over one lakh nests and every month he purchases 8-10 kilos of grains to feed sparrows around the city.
“I became a conservationist not by choice, but due to the unfortunate circumstances. It is my mission to educate the future generation about the importance of sparrows in our ecosystem,” asserts the 57-year-old.
Four years later, he registered his NGO Eco Roots Foundation (ERF) with his wife Monica Kapoor and son, Animesh, to create awareness among the younger generation through workshops on making nests for the birds.
Rakesh has conducted more than 2.5 lakh workshops in schools, corporates and Residential Welfare Associations. The 3-hour-long workshop is for every age group, and the proceeds go towards building more nests.
He begins the workshop with questions that eventually lead to the issue of how and why sparrows are on the verge of extinction.
‘When was the last time you spotted a sparrow on your window?’
‘Name five birds that are commonly seen around your house.’
‘What colour is the koel?’
As participants wrack their brains for an answer, Rakesh sheds light on the reasons behind their decline.
“Modern houses are built in a way that leaves no room for sparrows. We have become intolerant towards the supposed ‘nuisance’ birds create. Earlier, Indians households would dry the grains and pulses on the roof, which would attract the sparrows. But now, we get everything in packets, and this is also responsible for their disappearance,” he mentions.
He backs up his purpose by mentioning facts about how sparrows are relevant in our ecosystem.
“They prey on insects and prevents plants from being infested, are a part of the food chain for other birds, and utilise waste items like cotton, paper, fallen leaves and twigs to make their nests. Having sparrows around your house is a sign of healthy biome,” quips Rakesh.
Once it is clear that the people attending the workshop are on board, he moves towards demonstrating the correct way to build sparrow nests with equipment like bamboo sticks, grass, threads, jute bags, and even recycled tetra packs.
Tracing The Journey to Save The Humble Birds
Some called him crazy, some advised him not to waste his time, and some mocked the Delhi-based photographer and filmmaker for sitting for hours at one place to click a picture of a sparrow. But all the taunts failed to dissuade him from embarking on his mission as he had the full support of his family.
“When I expressed my desire to quit the media industry to dedicate my time for sparrows, Monica was immediately on board and gave her commitment to ERF. My children have also encouraged me at every step of the way,” says Khatri.
He started with waste coconut shells and newspapers to make nests and underwent several trial and error methods before zeroing on jute bags and tetra packs.
Rakesh Khatri with his family
Rakesh would stroll around his locality to identify pockets in the city where sparrows usually fly and build nests on trees accordingly.
Among the many nests he built, one of his first efforts took a concrete shape in 2012 when he was on his way to work.
“I spotted a group of sparrows trying to build a nest under a bridge in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area. Next day I saw some workers cementing the hole where the nest was. When I questioned, I was directed to a government office. After a lot of convincing, the officer-in-charge granted permission, and I built the nest. Within a few days, there were so many sparrows that the area started resembling a tourist attraction. Passersby would stop and click pictures of the birdhouse,” he recalls.
Seeing Rakesh’s number on the birdhouse, people started calling him and ordering the nests. The calls haven’t stopped since, and he has sold thousands of artificial nests across India.
Recalling another fond memory, Rakesh says, “When I was building a nest in city’s Wazirabad area, an elderly man gave me Rs 100 after he saw my efforts. He said it was rare to see someone rebuild houses for sparrows that humans have destroyed.”
Witnessing A Positive Change
One of the best thing that comes out of every workshop is the enthusiasm shown by the participants to conserve sparrows.
“I have observed that young parents are the most excited of the lot, and eager to learn and make their children a part of the initiative. It is a validation that our future is safe hands,” shares Rakesh. Gifting birdhouses is another trend that he has observed. Parents often order birdhouses to give as return gifts.
Rakesh is now working on a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) kit to build the artificial nests for children and eventually aims to reach every household in the country.
While his journey has been mostly positive, there have been hurdles as well.
“There have been times when people have destroyed the nests built by my foundation. But that has not stopped me. If they destroy one, I will build another five,” he asserts.
For his extraordinary measures and dedication towards saving sparrows, Rakesh has received several accolades and recognition including the International Green Apple Award in the House of Commons in London (2008) and even made it to the Limca Book of Record 2019 for conducting maximum workshops of handmade nests.
In our fast-paced lives, we often miss out on the common issues that prevail in silence but need equal attention. It is only when people like Rakesh make some noise, do we open our eyes and acknowledge the problem.
Now, the time has come for us to not just acknowledge the problem, but also work towards addressing it so that we can save the ecosystem and consequently, our lives.
Set up in 1981, Panna National Park, Madhya Pradesh became a tiger reserve in early 1994. Fifteen years later, in 2008, Panna’s official tiger count stood at a shocking zero.
The revelation created a public furore, with forest department officials facing a nationwide backlash. They stood dejected; the damning statistics shattered their morale. The state committee set up to probe into the matter suggested the transfer of all the existing forest officials at Panna. But IFS officer R Sreenivasa Murthy, the newly instated Director of Panna Tiger Reserve, opposed the move, stating that the current officials already possessed a hands-on knowledge of Panna and her tigers.
Murthy and his team’s dedicated efforts in the Panna Tiger Reintroduction programme, amidst a series of failures and obstacles, has now resulted in 54 tigers including adult males, females and cubs calling the Panna reserve home.
The Emerald forest or ‘Panna’
The Story behind the Success
“Such remarkable success in tiger revival has not happened anywhere else in the world,” claims KS Bhadoriya, the present Director at Panna Tiger Reserve
Reintroduction of tigers in a buffer forest zone is a hugely painstaking task, involving risk at every step. It was no cakewalk in Panna as well.
“There had been multiple setbacks for us at the helm of some hopeful results, bringing us back to square one. For instance, the first male tiger we introduced in Panna strayed off the grid within ten days. It took an army of around 70 forest staff and four elephants to track him down a month later, without any signals from his ‘very high frequency’ (VHF) collar. We later re-released him in the wild,” narrates Murthy in a conversation with The Better India.
To understand the tiger reintroduction project, one has to know a bit about the socio-cultural demographics of the Panna region. Pardhi tribes, known to consider hunting as a parameter of valour and prowess, inhabit the outskirts of Panna National Park.
Before the imposition of a strict vigilance in Panna to check tiger poaching, the Pardhis often engaged in hunting the wild animal and allegedly engaged in the illegal trade of its body parts. “Often, the tigers would venture into human habitats in the vicinity of the forest and kill cattle. The villagers laid traps or poisoned some of the tigers to protect their cows and goats,” tells Murthy.
But, the main reason behind the extinction of tigers in Panna has to be the mindless poaching by outsiders. These poachers were trained to hunt discreetly in the night, evading the forest guards. They brutally hunted down every last tiger in Panna, until no tiger lived in the National Park.
When the administration tabled the tiger reintroduction programme in 2009, it involved a two-pronged approach. While the forest department, under Murthy’s supervision, focussed on repopulating the tiger reserve, the non-profit organisation, Last Wilderness Foundation (LWF), was roped in to relocate the Pardhi tribes and make them surrender hunting.
A waterfall inside Panna
The Tiger Reintroduction Project
In March 2009, the administration chose to translocate two adult female tigers (T1 & T2) from Bandhavgarh and Kanha respectively, in the hope that they would mate with the recently-spotted last male tiger.
Unfortunately, a few days before the introduction of T1 & T2, the sole surviving male tiger in Panna also disappeared, bringing down the tiger count to an official zero. The project thus got postponed indefinitely.
The morale of the forest staff was in shambles. LWF conducted exclusive motivational sessions for them, guiding and training them for the long journey ahead.
In September 2009, after being transferred to Panna, Murthy ordered the revival of the project on a war footing, with a revised project plan. Before implementing his plan of action, Murthy openly spoke with the local tribals to take them into confidence.
“I pleaded them with folded hands to save the tigers.”
Murthy’s earnest appeal worked as the locals took ownership of the revival process, and vouched to refrain from hurting any wildlife.
Inside the forest, T1 & T2 came back in the picture and brought to Panna, this time along with another adult male (T3) from Pench National Park, Seoni, MP.
T3 was the tiger who infamously strayed off after ten days and needed an entire army of 70 forest guards with four elephants to track him. Interestingly, officials believe that perhaps, the tiger wanted to go ‘home’ to Pench, his original habitat. The incident was one of the rare instances in zoological history where a tiger displayed signs of ‘homing instincts’.
“Tracking a tiger in an open area is inherently difficult. There was no signal from the VHF collar. Our staff ventured into all directions, despite communication hassles; they had to stay alert day and night. Finally, we managed to trace him after spraying an extensive area with female tiger urine, to lure T3 with pheromones from the opposite sex,” says Murthy.
The wildlife of Panna
Finally, T1 delivered the first litter of cubs in April 2010, followed by T2 in October of 2010. By the end of 2010, there were eight new tiger cubs in Panna along with T1, T2 and T3.
Next, the forest department brought in two five-year-old, orphaned male and female tigers from Kanha to Panna in March 2011.
In 2013, consecutive deaths of a few females, either naturally or due to intra-species conflict, led to a setback in the project. The next year, the team introduced another tigress in Panna from Pench.
According to current figures, of the more than 70 tigers that exist in the forested landscape between Vindhyas to Chitrakoot, Panna houses 54.
A leopard in Panna
The other side of Panna’s success story
Vidya Venkatesh from LWF shares, “It was not easy to convince a community to give up their primordial vocation of hunting suddenly. Also, these people were impoverished and illiterate, with no other viable livelihood options. So, their rehabilitation was of utmost importance.”
LWF relocated the Pardhis to the nearby village of Gandhigram. They appealed to the aborigines to stop hunting and opt for alternate livelihood options. LWF trained the unlettered youth to become forest guides, escorting tourists on nature trails in Panna.
In fact, ‘Walk With The Pardhis’ is one of the favourites among the tourists.
The team also harnessed Pardhis’ in-depth knowledge about the forest and wildlife to promote tourism, as they started using their traditional skills to design traditional household items, decor weapons, seed carvings etc. Now, they even conduct workshops to demonstrate the art of bird whistles or seed carving to interested travellers.
The forest officials of Panna
The NGO also started boarding schools for young Pardhi girls and boys, to integrate them into mainstream careers in future.
At present, the foundation is working on-ground with 15 tribal settlements in the sensitive forested zone of Panna. They condition the tribes with reality-based scenarios – how and where to mitigate human-tiger conflict.
“For instance, if a tiger strays into their village, what steps they can take for protection without harming the tiger – LWF covers all these points,” informs Vidya.
“In the last ten years, Panna and her tigers have seen many ups and downs. Foes have turned friends, dreaded beasts have found a loving home. It is indeed heartwarming at a time when the tiger population in the world is under threat,” shares Murthy.
As Panna gears up for the Tiger Festival to celebrate the success, somewhere, deep within the forest, the national animal sleeps soundly after having found a safe abode.
The report—‘Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018’, named India as the ‘lowest-cost’ producer of solar energy in the world. With the vast solar potential of our country, it’s no wonder it left behind western giants like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and France, among others.
ONergy provides a solar irrigation solutions that reduces farmer’s expenditure on diesel powered water pumps.
The report published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) stated that ‘the total installed costs of utility-scale solar PV in India is as low as $793 per kilowatt (kW) (around Rs 57,000) in 2018’.
Utilising the same space for the upliftment and development of rural areas in the start—ONergy, founded in 2010, to address the significant gap in the rural energy situation which is a major cause of hindrance in economic growth.
“ONergy was registered as a for-profit enterprise not only to develop an ecosystem for uptake of complete energy solutions for rural India but also to address the gap within distribution system and financing for solar irrigation pump and solar lighting,” says Piyush Jaju, one of the co-founders of the startup which spun off from their SwitchON Foundation.
Since they began their operations, the startup has impacted about 8.3 lakh lives by operating across West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam, Maharashtra, Rajasthan.
ONergy and its Services
In the past 10 years that ONergy has been in existence, it has tried to solve developmental issues with solar solutions. ONergy has worked with industries, individual clients, corporates, NGOs and the government alike.
ONergy has installed about 5700 solar street lamps across the country which has helped electrify several streets
Once the startup is onboarded for a project, they develop and customise the solution and then work with various vendors in the sustainable energy space to acquire the different parts required to assemble and install their solution on the ground.
Since 2011, the start up has completed 7,081 such projects. They have installed power plants with the capacity of 15MW, installed 5700 street lights and 756 solar water pumps and also set up Renewable Energy Centers (RECs or Shakti Kendras) in communities to act as a hub – hosting a retail center, a training facility, and servicing team.
ONergy recruits rural entrepreneurs for sales and distribution, and provides them with technical training to install, service, and sell their systems, thereby creating direct jobs in the community.
“The RECs run in partnership with grassroots’ organisations (NGOs). We manage the distribution and service network, leveraging the network, infrastructure and local knowledge of the partner,” shares Piyush.
The three Solar Solutions that ONergy offers
The first is an irrigation water pump for farmers in rural areas where power cuts are frequent. Additionally, this substantially cuts down costs for the farmers dependent on diesel-run irrigation pumps.
Vinay (left) and Piyush are brothers and founders of ONergy
A solar water pump set costs about Rs. 3 lakh per set. This solar pump can be used to pump water for drinking water with minor modifications.
The other solution is the setting up of a solar power plant which includes installation of solar panels at homes, institutions or commercial complexes to meet their energy needs through solar. The installation of this solar power plant costs about Rs. 50,000 per KW.
The third solution comprises of solar street lights with each costing about Rs. 20,000.
One of the beneficiaries is Uttam Mondal, a farmer from Gopalpur village in West Bengal’s Burdwan district. The 56-year-old has about 10 acres of farmland where he grows crops like paddy, potatoes, mustard and wheat.
Most of these crops are water guzzling crops and naturally, irrigating his fields adequately is something he needs to take care of.
“I would spend about Rs. 12,000 every month in running this water pump. This is a big expense for me because in one crop cycle I make between Rs.1 lakh to 1.5 lakhs above my investment,” he explains.
Onergy’s micro grids have electrified and empowered people in the villages
But, five months back, things changed for him. “I went for a meeting at the agriculture department of office and saw that there were people who were speaking about a solar powered water pump,” he says.
And now, his diesel powered water pump remains unused and costs have come down considerably.
The Founders and Model Solar Village Project
The company was co-founded in 2010 by four individuals. Brothers Vinay Jaju, 36, and Piyush Jaju, 34, and their wives. Shweta Jaju, 34, Piyush’s wife, who worked in leading creative agencies prior to this stint, currently heads the communication and the branding department at ONergy.
Ekta Kothari, 36, is a documentary filmmaker and joined her husband Vinay when ONergy first started out. She now heads her own startup which sells organic food.
Piyush has prior experience working in finance and investment banking across India, Hong Kong and South-east Asia. While, Vinay has worked in the field of management, operations and finance in India, Bangladesh and Australia.
One of the projects under ONergy that the brothers recall is the Solar Powered Model Village project in Bankura district in West Bengal which was started in September 2017 as part of a CSR intervention.
There are several farmers who have benefitted from using ONergy’s water pump as they are not only meeting their own irrigation needs, but also selling water to others.
In this project, ONergy installed street lights, home lighting systems, solar-powered drinking water kiosks with RO and UV purification mechanism. It even went beyond the scope of solar energy by digitally empowering the folk and disseminating education through solar information centres in the village.
“The interventions in this project have been designed to achieve universal sustainable development goals. The objectives have been merged with the Indian government initiatives such as the Digital India Campaign, and National Solar Mission among others, ensuring permanent societal impact,” says Piyush.
Vinay explains that the villagers benefited greatly from this project as they were not only becoming more digitally adept but also getting access to basic amenities like clean drinking water and electricity.
“Women and children are the greatest beneficiaries as they were spending more time in the house. The availability of clean lighting without exposure to toxic fumes from kerosene lamps was a big achievement for us. This helped their incomes because of the additional productive hours in the evening,” shares Vinay.
Challenges and Impact
“When we first started out, there was a lack of awareness and a general apprehension about the use and impact of solar. Also, at the time, solar solutions in India were very expensive as research in this field was still at a nascent stage,” explains Vinay.
The ONergy team
However, the challenges for the company have changed now. “The solar energy space has become extremely competitive. There is a constant need for fast and technical innovation to cope with the present demand for modular solar solutions,” says Piyush.
Despite the challenges, ONergy has impacted a lot of lives. In East Medinipur district in West Bengal, ONergy installed about 107 solar power street lights in a project with the Ramchak Gram Panchayat.
Kuntal Sasmal, 42, an engineer in Ramchak Gram Panchayat, says that the areas where these street lights were installed experienced frequent power cuts.
“Also, if one had to travel from one village to the other, the road leading up to it would not be well lit. Even if some street lights were running on electricity on the grid, they would not be lit due to load shedding in the evenings which lasted for four to five hours,” he explains.
Their work has also been recognised by different platforms. The United Nations awarded them with the SEED Award which is given to eco-inclusive enterprises in 2014. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy awarded them with Solar Energy Startup Award in 2018 among a host of other awards.
So, what’s next for the startup?
ONergy now plans to scale up their operations.
“ONergy Solar is envisioning the potential for EV charging stations powered by solar and innovative financing model for rooftop and irrigation projects,” shares Vinay.
“The failure of the grid to meet the energy expectations of the rural populace was clearly evident and attributable to the lack of development in these areas. There was a need to develop a sustainable model to address the gaps that existed and we have tried our best to do that,” says Piyush signing off.
For the last 15-odd years, Joseph Sekar has seen several ups and downs in his personal and professional life, but there is one thing that has not altered—hosting his ‘green friends’, the parakeets.
Fondly known as ‘Birdman of Chennai’, Sekar, an electrician and camera repairman, feeds thousands of parakeets on a daily basis.
Sekar’s terrace in one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Triplicane, Chennai, plays host to almost 8,000 parakeets to be more specific.
The daily intake of these parakeets is around 75 kilos of rice and Sekar spends 40 per cent of his monthly income to purchase his guests their choice of food!
How it all began
It was a fateful morning of 27 December 2004 when Sekar spotted around five parakeets sitting in a corner of his terrace and trying to eat rice.
Chennai had been hit by the world’s deadliest tsunami and even birds were not spared.
“Keeping soaked rice and water for the sparrows is a family tradition. So after I moved to Chennai some three decades ago, I continued the practice. But this was the first time when I saw parakeets coming to my terrace regularly. That was the beginning of my tryst with the beautiful birds. I didn’t even realise when the numbers touched thousands,” Sekar tells The Better India.
A Sight to Behold
“When there is a sea of parakeets, it is a sight to behold. Seeing them eat peacefully gives me immense satisfaction,” says this avid bird-lover.
Every day around 4 AM, Sekar walks up to his terrace and spends about 20 minutes cleaning the place and placing several wooden planks in a step-like formation.
He transfers the soaked rice to a huge container and takes around 5-6 rounds from the kitchen up the stairs to get the rice to the terrace.
He assembles small portions of the grains for each bird and aligns them neatly on the planks. The process takes him another half an hour, “The portions help them eat at their own pace without interfering with their fellow birds. Sometimes, even pigeons come to eat here.”
He follows the same practice in the evening for the second batch of parakeets post work.
Between serving the birds, Sekar mans his shop which is on the ground floor of his house. He caters to his customers till 7 PM and in between breaks, he checks on the birds or cleans the terrace after the ring-necked parakeets leave.
“But there is also this unfortunate problem of incessant honking of the cars in the area. Though the parakeets have become more or less immune to the noise, they still get startled every time there is a honk,” informs Sekar.
Sekar’s house has also found its way in the list of must-visit places for tourists coming from all over the world. After hearing his contributions for the birds, tourists even offer money but he politely turns them down. “They are like my children. I will never take a loan or accept money to feed my kids.”
Sekar’s humble words and awe-inspiring efforts for the parakeets show that peaceful co-existence between birds and humans is possible. We just need to be more accepting and considerate with other species cohabiting this planet with us. Kudos to him for his endeavour!
Ajay Reddy, the founder of Go Heritage Run, is all for heritage sightseeing with a bit of adrenaline. His upcoming run in Hampi takes him back to when he started the first of these destination runs in the city in 2015. He touts these events as ‘Runcations’ because he believes that they provide the experience of a vacation alongside the thrill of the run.
In its sixth year now, Go Heritage Run aims to get seasoned runners as well as novices to participate because Reddy doesn’t believe in races, only runs. He says there is no pressure to finish the run in a stipulated duration because they’re un-timed, so you can go at your own sweet pace, soaking in all the gorgeous sights and sounds along the way.
When asked what the runners must look forward to in the run, Reddy was quick to add that Hampi has the best of both worlds—the historical and the natural. As a World Heritage Site and the erstwhile capital of the Vijayanagar Empire, Hampi is supremely rich in heritage as well as culture.
The run route crosses the core area of the town and covers some of the most spectacular monuments such as the Monolithic Nandi (which is the start and endpoint of the run), Virupaksha Temple, the underground Shiva Temple, Queen’s Bath, and the Vijaya Vitthala Temple.
Besides the monuments, Reddy adds that the runners can also look forward to the natural landscapes—especially the banana and sugarcane plantations—and if they are on the longer route, they will cross some of the most scenic streams and rivers.
With over 8,000 participants each year, Reddy also has these training plans to make you a fitter, more efficient runner. He advocates warm-ups before the run and cool down right after to make it a memorable and injury-free experience.
What’s even more unique about the Hampi run, in particular, is that it happens right at the heart of the World Heritage Site—unlike anywhere else in India. Which made us ask him what are the heritage cities they’ve already covered and wish to cover this year?
“We’ve covered 17 destinations so far, including Udaipur, Bhopal, Halebidu and Badami. We have runs coming up in Pachmarhi, Khajuraho, Pench National Park, coming up in March; Ooty in May or June; and Orchha, Gwalior, and Coorg later in the year.”
The sixth edition of the Go Heritage Run Hampi will happen on February 2. These runs usually happen on a Sunday so that the participants can fly down or drive in a day before, settle in, look around Hospet and Hampi, do their sight-seeing, pick up their kits and get ready for the run early next morning.
After the run (which usually lasts for 4-5 hours), participants can explore around some more before travelling back overnight to their respective cities.
Whether you’re a family with children, a young couple, or fall in the old age bracket, there’s something for everybody at Go Heritage Run. They conduct runs that vary from 5 km, 10 km to 21 km depending on the location. It will be conducted against a nominal fee of Rs 847 per head. The cost will include registration fee, after-run refreshments, a runner kit with a souvenir t-shirt and a bib, plus a certificate and a medal.
One of the participants, Deepali Bhatt, from Hyderabad, says, “This is a beautiful concept for heritage lovers. The Hyderabad run was planned on a green route with options to get ourselves clicked at the various heritage spots, and a special mention goes to the unique medal given to all runners.”
Go Heritage Run is an award-winning series of fun runs and half marathons organised across various heritage locations throughout the round the year. The runs are designed to be a holistic experience that help you explore the scenic beauty and cultural variety of our rich heritage.
(Edited by Shruti Singhal)
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Isn’t it beautiful to be surrounded by greenery in the lap of nature? As someone who has recently been promoted to the status of being a ‘plant parent’, going back home and looking at my plants gives me a kind of joy that is very hard to explain. Surrounding yourself with plants also has a positive impact on mental health, shows a UK based research. So, wouldn’t it be great if we could enveloped ourselves with nature’s bountiful goodness, especially in the middle of the urban jungles we live in?
Nineteen-year-old Engineering student Zuber Mohammad understood these merits of living in the midst of greenery from a very young age.
Paradise Gardens will transform free space at home into a beautiful garden.
“During our ancestor’s times, we used to have big homes with large, designated spaces for gardens. But, times have changed now especially in the urban spaces where people struggle to even find a big enough house. With an increase in construction, green spaces are also diminishing quite rapidly,” states Zuber matter of factly.
Living in concretised cities, there are many who long to surround themselves with the tranquility of greenery yet lack of time limits their industry. Also, it is not easy to find people offering services of urban gardening in small spaces.
Seeing the gap in what people wanted and lack in such services, Zuber officially founded Paradise Gardens in July 2019. The Bhopal-based urban gardening startup sets up gardens for clients who crave for green spaces.
In a very short span of time, the startup has had tremendous growth. So far, they have bagged about 100 projects in Bhopal. In total, they have helped transform 22,680 sq. feet of land into gardens while 33,600 sq ft of land is under construction!
Birth of a young entrepreneur
Zuber first developed an interest in gardening in 2015 when he was studying in the 10th standard.
“A friend of mine was looking for people who could transform an area in his house into an urban garden but there was no one who was offering such services. That is when I realised that this could be a successful business idea in Bhopal,” recalls Zuber.
Fuelled with a lot of enthusiasm, Zuber even started a Facebook page for the same and discussed the idea with his parents.
Nineteen-year-old Zuber is the founder of Paradise Gardens.
“I told my parents about my ideas but they sort of brought me back to reality. I was still in school and wouldn’t have been able to manage such a business. On top of that, I did not have any business plan nor did I know much about gardening. So, I put this idea on the back burner with the hope that I would get working on it one day,” shares Zuber.
But the one thing Zuber was sure of was that he did not want to ever go for a 9 to 5 job. So, when he finished his 12th board exams, he launched a small business in 2017 which was called, ‘Bhopali Food’— online food delivery management system.
But, the initial success of this venture petered out soon due to logistical issues and Zuber had to wrap up the business.
“Although we would get a lot of orders, yet we didn’t have the right logistics in place, and we would fail to fulfil all the orders. After shutting down this venture I realised that I need to have a business plan in place to succeed,” says Zuber.
Meanwhile, he enrolled for a degree in Electronic and Communications Engineering from the Sagar Group of Institutions – SISTec. But, the wish to properly start a business venture in the garden space lurked still at the back of his mind. So, he spent an entire year reading up thick encyclopedias on plants and gardening.
“No one in my family had ever ventured into the business world. But, I was confident that if I had all the knowledge, I could run a successful business. When I was sure I knew enough, I took the plunge and founded Paradise Gardens with Rs. 7000 that I had saved from the first entrepreneurial venture,” says the Engineering student.
Bringing paradise to your doorstep
Once Zuber had a small team of gardeners and supervisors in place, he started marketing his services on social media platforms before officially founding the startup.
The gardeners working at a client’s plot.
“My team came up with a website and put up an online form and many enquiries poured in. That is when we realised that what we were embarking on would be successful,” states Zuber.
Those enquiries have seamlessly moved on to become projects that Paradise Gardens is working on. The startup’s team fixes an appointment to visit the site once they receive an enquiry by a prospective customer.
“We inspect the area and ask what kind of a set up they want. The kind of flowers, plants, grass, compost and down to the kind of pots, we ask them everything before going ahead with the project. Depending on that, we quote a price,” explains Zuber.
The startup does anything and everything related to plants. These may be flowering plants, trees, indoor plants or even kitchen gardens or gazebos. They even help people with small balconies convert them into a green space. They have catered to clients with spaces as small as 36 sq. feet and now people in apartment complexes have started approaching them to help set up kitchen gardens.
Zuber still remembers the first client that he worked for.
The startup ensures they get everything right starting from the type of grass to the kind of plants.
“The customer wanted to transform an 800 sq feet space in his home compound into a garden. There was a lot of pressure on us to do this well. We quoted a price of Rs. 30,000 and made the space green by adding lawn grass, shrubs and even flowering plants. Needless to say our first customer was impressed and super happy which further gave us the confidence we needed at that point,” informs Zuber.
Since then, there have been many success stories and happy customers. Shahwar Hasan is a perfect example.
“We already had a small garden at home but my mother wanted to create a garden on a 400 sq ft area that was lying barren. Since she loves plants, it got me researching who could offer these services. That is when I discovered Paradise Gardens about three months back,” recalls the 27-year-old travel company founder.
It took Paradise Gardens just 12 days to completely revamp the space! “I was so impressed by their services. They were extremely professional and consulted me at every step. They went above and beyond what they had promised. I have already recommended them to so many I know,” says an excited Shahwar.
The startup also provides services for maintaining these gardens and the charges start from Rs. 2000 onwards.
The grass is not always green
Gardeners from Paradise gardens at work.
Zuber usually begins his day by studying his engineering books and then quickly shifts gears by looking at the agenda for the day. He also reads up books on economics and finance to equip himself with the knowledge to efficiently deal with the business operations. After that, he visits a few sites to oversee the on-ground operations.
“As a bootstrapped startup one would think staying afloat is a challenge we face. However, as of now, our profit margins are really good. In fact, investors have approached us but we do not need that kind of help at the moment,” explains Zuber.
However, there are quite a few challenges that they have faced.
“One key challenge when we started out was finding the right people who would want to work with us, be it the supervisors or the gardeners. Then, even training these gardeners was a challenge as they were reluctant to change their approach to a lot of gardening practices,” states Zuber. But, by taking his time and choosing the right people, Zuber successfully overcame this challenge.
The young entrepreneur also has a few pro tips for other small business owners like him.
“No work is small. There will be a lot of nay-sayers that you’d meet on the way but remember to always work hard. It might take a few days, months and even years but in the end, you’ll always succeed. You don’t need much money to start something new but determination is key,” says Zuber.
So, what does the future hold for the young entrepreneur?
Zuber informs TBI that there are in fact a lot of big government projects that he is looking forward to. In addition to that they are also planning to come up with a more comprehensive form on their website and then ultimately an app. This would help them understand the space and quote a price without having to visit the sites personally at an early stage.
“Cities need greenery and it is imperative to revive what we have lost over the years to rapid urbanisation. By next year, we want to scale our operation to 10 more cities. Our ultimate goal is to bring more greenery so all of us can lead a better, healthier life,” says Zuber signing off.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that hundreds of specially-abled children and their families consider Tirupati-based Madhu Babu and his wife D Varija to be their guardian angels.
Parents to specially-abled children themselves, the couple has brought in strides of positive impact since 2010, through their novel initiative—Parents Association for Children with Special Needs (PAC).
The Sreesh Mandiram school run by Babu & Varija
However, away from the limelight, Babu has single-handedly ushered in another nationwide change in the domain of energy conservation.
By motivating school children to save electricity in their daily lives, Babu’s endeavour—Energy Conservation Mission of India—has gone on to save over 6 million units of electricity since 2012. In monetary terms, the saving amounts to nearly Rs 1.5 crores in electricity bills annually.
Speaking to The Better India, he shares the small incident that prompted him to spearhead this initiative.
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“In 2012, power cut issues were rampant in the country, including our town of Tirupati. I probed into the matter and discovered that from villages to Tier 1 cities— none were exempt from this menace. While the power cuts lasted for around 12 hours in villages, the duration was around 4 hours on average in Tier 2 cities while top metropolises experienced around 1 hour of power failure daily,” informs Babu.
To combat the problem, the government’s key strategy was to raise awareness among the citizens about energy conservation, starting from their homes.
“I discovered that national-level painting competitions on energy conservation were being held every year under government directives—as a primary step towards implementing the concept. The idea failed to impress me personally. I felt that the children had immense potential to conserve energy and came up with an idea,” he recounts.
Babu printed some cards for school children participating in the Tirupati session of the painting competition, where he was a volunteer. At the end of the event, he handed over one card to each child and briefly explained the concept to them.
The card was simple. On one side, Babu had printed a series of essential energy-saving tips for a student to follow at his home, like switching off the lights when leaving the room, allowing more natural light in the daytime etc. On the other side, space had been kept for the participants to record their meter readings for consecutive two months, and notice the reduction.
Babu explaining energy conservation to students
“I announced that after two months, the highest energy saver would receive a special award. And thus began the very first edition of the Best Energy Saver Competition which is now active in eight states and cities of India,” Babu reveals.
The unprecedented impact
The impact was immediate—Babu observed school children around him thrilled to switch off lights and fans on time, or insist that their parents also follow the same strategies.
After two months, 183 cards were submitted to him with detailed meter readings, and he meticulously examined the readings and noted that around 22 units of energy were saved in a month on average. This was a never-before achievement, and Babu’s name was featured in the Limca Records for this astonishing success.
The winning students were presented with solar lamps and appliances.
The word about the competition spread like wildfire, as school students geared up to save electricity as much as possible. Babu created a team of volunteers from amongst engineering college students who visited schools and educated kids about the A to Z of energy conservation in daily life.
Students proudly flaunting their energy-saver certificates
But his mission was hardly bereft of challenges.
Complaints from irked parents started coming in soon. One IAS officer complained that his daughter was inviting all the dust by opening the window curtains in the daytime for ‘natural light.’
While another family complained about how their son’s excess enthusiasm about switching off lights ended up injuring his grandfather.
But amid all this, there was increasing appreciation about Babu’s efforts from all quarters. The nature of the complaints made him realise how his efforts were effective in educating the children. All he needed to spend was barely 10 rupees on each child!
Nationwide implementation of his idea
Babu dreamed of popularising the competition beyond the boundaries of Tirupati, and soon, it was replicated in other cities and districts across Andhra Pradesh. Following this, he wanted to leave a nationwide footprint through his efforts, but as his finances did not permit that, UK-based corporate firm Mott MacDonald came to his rescue. With financial sponsoring from them, Babu could effectively collaborate with schools and colleges in other states.
As of now, Babu’s competition is periodically organised in states of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu as well as in Delhi, Puducherry and Bengaluru. The present number of nationwide participant students in the same stands at six lakhs. “We have received the most promising results from Andhra Pradesh and Delhi,” he quips.
Eco-tourism conducted by Madhu Babu
“We have only recorded the direct savings in electricity, but the ripple effect of the awareness must also be mentioned,” he reminds us, while speaking about how the participating students have often managed to educate their families and even communities!
Alongside the competition, he also organised ecotourism tours and exhibitions on household electric appliances for the school students.
Babu, however has one regret: he failed to influence adults as much as the children. “I have organised energy-saving workshops for adults in corporate firms but found them to be least enthusiastic about it. But, the children are the most promising force to bring the change our nation needs urgently!”
