The school children of Yelahanka New Town have set an example for the rest of the BBMP zones by getting involved in a scientific and eco-friendly system of garbage disposal.
Citizens Forum Yelahanka New Town, which was initiated in 2002 with an objective to address the safety and well being of the residents, started a programme called Green Clean Yelahanka in 2008 to safeguard the green cover of Yelahanka New Town.
After a year of the project, the forum realised that the best way to educate the mass was through educating children.
Citizens Forum formulated a programme called ‘Green Glow’ with a goal of creating a model town with the disposal of garbage in a scientific way in their own backyard.
Yelahanka New Town boasts of nearly 53 parks and a mini-forest with 700 trees.
Citizens forum has planned to install Bio-digesters in each park which will be used for disposing the wet waste from the houses nearby. This will reduce BBMP’s problem of carting the garbage to another area. The schools in and around the New Town were more than enthusiastic to join the program.
Professors and scientists from the Indian Institute of Science responded to the request for help, guided the students to understand environment and nurtured their curiosity to find practical solutions to create a clean and healthy environment while preserving the natural biodiversity.
The children were given a project of maintaining and segregating the garbage in their school campus with the bins supplied free by the forum. They have been encouraged to follow the practice in their homes too.
As a result of this the students become aware of environmental science, observed Sangunni from Indian Institute of Science.
He said, “We teach the children about biodiversity and garbage clearance and inculcate a good value system in them.” The forum’s next focus is to rejuvenate the lakes in the area. The residents here did a survey four years ago and found the need to rejuvenate Allalsandra Lake and Puttenahalli Yelahanka lake.
The residents say that the Puttenahalli lake in Yelahanka is an abode for many rare bird species which migrate and come here. But the industrial waste has shrunk the lake and poses a threat to the very species.
The MLA of the zone was approached for this purpose, and he had promised a timebound action but is still stuck with the Yelahanka lake desilting process.