BENGALURU: After violent agitation, facing police lathis to stop the indiscriminate dumping of waste at S Bingipura about 30 km from Bengaluru, the 200 ft plus quarry pit is all set to come back to life by one man’s determination. Anand Malligavad, a mechanical engineer, who quit his lucrative job in 2019, is now working assiduously to restore the landfill by converting it into thick forest.
BBMP had stopped the dumping of waste in Bingipura around 2015 and later saplings were planted. However, the high level of chemicals and gas inside the landfills killed around a lakh saplings. Malligavad, hails from Koppal, and moved to Begur in Bengaluru South.
Armed with his past experience in rejuvenation of lakes Kylasnahalli under CSR in his previous company, he decided to fix Bingipura which is close to his place. The place was filled with another layer of soil and silt from lakes and was levelled to increase the fertility. For the last eight weeks, on every Sunday, volunteers and like-minded people and Say Trees NGO have joined joined forces and planted between 1,000 and 2,000 saplings. As a result, about 60,000 tree saplings have been planted in rows.
“The aim is to plant about 2 lakh saplings and make it the Miyawaki forest model of Japan. We also have hired people to water the saplings and take care of them. Since this place cannot be used for any other purpose, I along with people decided to convert this into a forest and make this a lung space in Bengaluru South,” said Malligavad.
Lauding their efforts, Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner J Manjunath said he also visits the area on Sundays and have also planted saplings to extend support. Bingipura bearing survey number 179 comes under Jigani Hobli of Bengaluru South and the villagers who have seen the mammoth change say they can breathe a sigh of relief.
A DUMP CAUSING DISEASES
Mariyappa A, a resident who been staying close to the landfill for the past 35 years, recalled seeing the quarry filling up with rainwater and waste resulting in a deplorable condition.
“BBMP started to ferry its municipal waste from Bengaluru and was dumping it into the 200 plus ft pit till it was filled to the brim and villagers started to experience the ill effects from 2011 after several spells of heavy rain. It polluted the air and the ground water. The people have been fighting vector-borne, water-borne diseases and breathing issues. I also lost my wife due to lung infection, said Mariyappa, and added that we hope we will benefit from the place being turned into a forest.