CHENNAI: Vani Murthy is often called the ‘Worm Queen of India’ — a title she accepts with much pride — for having been one of the few successful eco crusaders to popularise composting in an urban scenario like Bengaluru. Purnima Devi Barman, fondly called ‘The Mother of the Hargilas,’ is a wildlife biologist, who is credited for repopulating the wild with the once near-extinct hargila (Greater Adjutant).
Two very different women with a shared love for the world around them — both changemakers selected by the National Geographic to be featured in their ongoing campaign, ‘One for Change’. “Most people find working with soil, earthworms and garbage quite gross. But if they visit a nearby landfill and realise that their kitchen waste is contributing to that monstrosity, the shift to becoming a compost maker will become quite easy,” begins Vani Murthy, who was a homemaker before she decided to step out of her home for the cause of kitchen waste management.
Popular across the country for her composting techniques, she is also a mini-celebrity with over 23 lakh followers on Instagram. Dr Purnima Devi Barman may not have the same number of followers online, but she is no less a hero in her home state of Assam. Winner of the prestigious Whitley Award in 2017, the wildlife biologist chimes in, “It all begins with you wanting to do something. I still remember that day when I made the decision to help the hargilas (Greater Adjutant).
That day changed everything for me. I remember it vividly. I saw a man cutting down a tree where the hargila were nesting. The baby birds fell down and a few of them died right in front of me. As a mother, it pained me so much, but the locals were unperturbed as they considered the bird a bad omen. That’s when I knew I had to do something about this and save this bird,” she tells us.
Offering her wisdom, Vani adds, “I think people are able to relate to me more easily because I am just like them. I take every effort to break down the whole process of composting to ensure people realise how simple it actually is. Plus, I focus on the many benefits of making your own compost and how you can also nourish a kitchen garden with this all-natural fertiliser, while reducing your contribution to the ever-growing problem of waste-management in India.”
Vani and Dr Purnima are only two out of ten change makers selected for this campaign and short videos featuring all ten are now on air. Dr Purnima’s method was vastly different but equally effective. “I decided to make people love the bird like their own family and in some way remove the superstitions associated with the bird. One idea that clicked was holding baby showers every time we discovered a mother and her nest. That and constant interventions with local villagers. Today, we’ve been able to make locals proud to be the guardians of the hargila, often even picking a fight to save the birds from being hunted, and I think this sense of ownership is what makes all the difference,” concludes Purnima.
Meet the other change makers
Vidyut Mohan: Winner of the 2021 Earthshot Prize in the ‘Clean Our Air’ category, Delhi-based Vidyut has developed and patented the design of small-scale, low-cost, portable equipment. He is working towards the mission to drastically scale the utilisation of waste biomass to make fuels, fertilizers and specialty chemicals to reduce air pollution associated with crop residue burning, mitigate carbon emissions, and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Tejas Sidnal: With the intention of creating a commercial solution to curb carbon emission, Mumbai-based Tejas started a start-up that is turning polluted air into carbon tiles. The platform enables him to experiment with challenging work at the intersection of Tech-Craft-Design and explore innovative, sustainable strategies for a cleaner environment.
Thulasi Gouda: A native of Honnali (Karnataka), Thulasi is known for being the living encyclopedia of the trees and herbs of North Karnataka. For over five decades, she has been associated with the local forest department — planting saplings and maintaining nursery facilities. She has won many awards for her work including the prestigious Padma Shri in 2021 — for her contribution towards conservation of trees.
Poonam Singh & Aditya SingH: Based in Ranthambore, the sculptor and photographer transformed a barren patch of land into a lush forest inhabited by a variety of wildlife. For over a decade, they have been planting indigenous trees, weeding out invasive species, plotting and maintaining watering holes. Their efforts have significantly reduced predators like tigers from roaming into fields of nearby farmers, reducing conflict on the other side of the reserve.
Varsha Raikwar: Radio reporter at 90.4FM Bundelkhand (Madhya Pradesh & Uttar Pradesh), Varsha uses her voice to raise climate awareness among people in villages and encourage them to bring positive change in their daily lives through storytelling. Her vision is to educate people about environmental issues and how each one of us can make an impact by adopting practices of sustainability. She has also been on the list of 17 young climate leaders of UN India.
Venkatesh Charloo: With a passion for marine conservation, Venkatesh quit his banking job and started a citizen science initiative for certified scuba divers to monitor and help coral restoration in Goa. He built awareness about marine ecosystems and motivated people to become divers and ‘ocean ambassadors’ to save Goa’s precious marine life. He is now working towards replicating and standardizing micro reef restoration across Goa and on, a larger scale, across India.
Sonam Wangchuk: Sonam is the founding director and brain behind the design of the SECMOL (Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) campus that runs renewable energy resources and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting, or heating. He also invented the internationally used Ice Stupa technique that creates artificial glaciers for storing winter water in the form of conical-shaped ice heaps.
Rukmani Katara: From owning a grocery shop to becoming the CEO of a solar company, married at 13 and a mother by 16, Rukmani has become the face of an effort to ignite a solar energy revolution in India’s villages. She runs a solar manufacturing company in Dungarpur (Rajasthan), where her company is located and employs 53 women to manufacture solar panels.