BHUBANESWAR: Thirteen-year old Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai from Odisha’s tribal-dominated Koraput district has won the Community Impact Award at the prestigious Google Science Fair competition in California.
She received a prize money of $10,000 for a project on low-cost bio-absorbent water purifier. Lalita is the only participant from India to have won an award at the science fair this year. She won the award in 13-15 age group.
Lalita will be supported for one year by Scientific American, a sponsor of the award, for further research on her project.
A Standard 9 student of Delhi Public School, Damanjodi in Koraput, Lalita came up with the project which aims to clean waste water by running through different layers of corn cobs. Her project is a cost-effective and simple technique which is useful in immobilizing contaminants in domestic and industrial effluents, and in ponds, reservoirs and water tanks.
The 13 year old was keen observer of lifestyles of tribals and used to visit the nearby villages. “They live in harmony with their surroundings by utilizing natural resources, without affecting the ecological web. Their lifestyle revolves around agriculture- in cultivating many varieties of crops. This developed an interest in me to focus on science to develop something new, related to agriculture,” she says.
During one encounter with a tribal farmer, she learnt about the low utilization of corn cobs which prompted her to find how this agricultural waste can be used and led to the conceptualisation of the project.
According to Lalita, there are many advantages of using corn cobs as they are eco-friendly, cheap, easily available and easy to handle. This, she hopes, will help people have access to clean water and the cobs can also be marketed, like kernels.
Lalita who wants to pursue a career in agricultural studies and serve for local people, says that the Google Science Fair will boost her insight and help work further for solving local problems. Dr MS Swaminathan, Father of the Green Revolution in India, is her inspiration.
Before moving to the bauxite-rich Damanjodi, Lalita studied in Nagaland, Gangetic plains of West Bengal. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated Lalita and said that she has made Odisha and India proud. Union minister of state for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has also congratulated Lalita for her success.