The Sapling Project: Pune Chapter

This post is an endeavor to make you aware about a Pune initiative called The Sapling Project, which involves planting trees in Pune.

 The idea is to distribute the saplings and encourage participants to plant it at their locations such as at their house, society, institutions or any other place. Idea is to avoid planting it in some park or some common area because in such case participant won’t be able to go and take care of the saplings after they are planted. I know they are right, the white carnation tree I took to work dies on a weekend.)

If it is planted at your house/society, it would be possible to monitor the health and progress of planted saplings.
 
You can find more details about the Sapling Project in Pune on their site here. The Sapling Project is brainchild of two guys, Ranjeet (@ranjeet_walunj) and Satish (@bombaylives), whom I have had opportunity to meet at Bombay.

Please send it across to your friends and spread the word. If you are in Pune and  interested to participate as a volunteer,  please write directly to Libu. His contact details are:

Email: libu.baby@gmail.com
Mobile: 9881460654
Twitter: @libu
 
Hope to see your participation. Thanks! 🙂

P.S: Venues and timings for The Sapling Project in Pune:

Kalyani Nagar (Jogger’s Park): 7.30-8.15 a.m.
University Camp (Near Jogging Park): 8.45-9.15 a.m.
F.C Road (Near Vaishali, Roopali, near FC Road): 9.30-10.15 a.m.
Law College Road (Lane next to Barista): 10.30 a.m.

Blog Action Day 2009: Environment and India

This post is part of Blog Action Day.

Every time we talk about environment, we tout and talk about Al Gore and his over-hyped documentary An Inconvenient Truth. What’s more, I have also mentioned him in my previous climate change posts. I thought it is time we recall some Indians who have done the  good work.

Here are my top 5, with a bonus thrown in.  8)

Blog Action

After my preious post that blogging is not only about ranting, I found two action-able points.

Thanks to our media, we are all warned about Manglore-incident-accused Ram Sena Chief Muthalik’s endeavor on 14th February. Good thing is bloggers in Delhi are meeting this Sunday, 8th February to protest. Here’s where you can find the details: Stand Up to Moral Policing

This protest is not because we want to uphold love-is-in-the-air sentiment of Valentine’s day but because it is our right to mix with opposite gender. Its about standing up against any regressive moral policing.

Fight to Save Yamuna

The advent of Commonwealth Games in India in 2010 instils fear in me. Yes, fear more than the pride. For more than a year now, I have been reading about Delhi Government’s mega plans for Commonwealth village. Of course, government’s decision for Commonwealth village is commercially driven. This article will tell you how much Commonwealth Games Village would be worth and what is it about.  The construction of Commonwealth Games village started in August this year amidst protests from various quarters.

Read the complete article here at my other blog, Its A Free World.

Building a Green House and Rain Water Harvesting

We all have read about green houses. We have read about exorbitantly priced environment-friendly houses made of wood. But how many of us may have thought about building a home that is made of recycled and reused stuff. Well, here is such an hero Reniassance Ronin. For ease, I will call him Ronin.

Ronin lives in costal Mississippi that was worse hit when hurricane Katrina struck. Like several others, he lost his house and property too. He laments about government apathy in his posts, says New Orleans got more attention from both media and State than his home ground. He says after storm struck, finding a decent and affordable house has been difficult.He is currently living in a very small apartment with his wife and baby. Here is what he has got to say about his apartment:

I’ve lived in third world countries, in better accommodations than where my family lives, at present.

The landlord couldn’t care less about maintenance or repair. This includes things like A/C units (it‘s in the 90’s everyday, and no A/C), Heaters (it stayed below 40 for weeks on end, and my baby nearly froze), Refrigerators that fail – spoiling our food, Stoves that don’t cook, broken windows with missing glass, ill-fitting doors that allow rodents and insects in, and sewage that backs up into the apartment every three weeks or so, to rot thru the wall, and fill up the bathtub.

World Environment Day!

June 5 is World Environment Day. This year’s World Environment theme is to have a low carbon economy. The slogan is: Co2: Kick the Habit.

Few days back, I had also found a cute, kids game called Toxic Town. It tells you all the sources of carbon emissions including innocent ones like cow’s fart. Have a look at the game by clicking the image below.

One of the important mantras of a great environment is Recycle. So I decided to recycle my five old posts on Environment. (I know that was a cheesy introduction, that was to make you smile. Now you did! ) Some of these posts (like ragpickers) are really close to my heart.

My first Go Green Post: I included a photo feature from TIME and a google video of Al Gore‘s controversial documentary An Inconvenient Truth. In the comments section, I found Shromon who then promised to write this post about how carbon credit works.

Blog Action Day Post: For Blog Action Day, I wrote a collection of links for green games or other games that taught children about green environment.

Ban that Bulb: This post was written to encourage the use of CFLs instead of incandescent bulbs. Check out the stats for bulbs in Delhi in the post. Avoid zero watt bulbs too. Sometimes, when my folks bring that bulb home, I quietly change it. Don’t keep chargers and TV cables plugged in when not in use, they too use electricity. I included this amazing Common Craft video that tells you why CFLs are beneficiary in long run.

Hail Our Ragpickers: This is my favorite post, one that I wrote for my other team blog Its A Free World. You would be surprised to know how these kids are mistreated when they keep our cities clean. This old post, still generates comments from some citizens who are willing to pitch in. You can find out the links to related NGOs in the comment section of this post.

World Earth Day post: It has four videos about environment from One-minute video Environment contest.

World Earth Day: Initiative

I had asked in my World Earth Day post about any initiatives in India on Earth Day.

Itinerant sent me the above Greening Young Minds (GYM) initiative to involve school kids for environmental awareness. Involving school kids early is the best idea. Ish told me in comments that even with a subject called Environmental Chemistry, they were never made aware about the possible environmental hazards by chemicals. Winrock International India (WII) is the non-profit organization (NGO) behind this initiative. You can visit Winrock Web site to know more about them.

Thanks, Itinerant for sending me this.

World Earth Day!

Today is World Earth Day. Here are few one-minute videos to inspire you to go green. These videos were part of a green videos competition that was held about a year back.

The man, nature, and God video

Revive Planet

10 Reasons Why My India is Regressive

1. Corruption: India is 83rd on world corruption index as per Transparency Index. Most bureaucrats and politicians in the country are corrupt. There is no honesty in corruption as well. In India, bribing also does not ensure that your work will be done or not. So most entrepreneurs prefer to bribe outside of India to set up an industry. 🙂

Some days back, Hindustan Times broke a story that most Indians knew in their heart. There was misuse of Red Cross funds meant for Kargil soldiers by IAS officers. We all know how various unscrupulous individuals and groups duped millions of people by asking money in name of Kargil. But the money never reached those for whom it was meant. 😦

2. Insensitivity to Environment Hazards: India has not yet woken up to the importance of conserving environment and energy.

• We still use bulbs in place of CFLs. It is not even apparent what could be other reasons of not using CFL other than cost? Do we get poor quality of CFLs in our country?
• People who take care of India’s recycling are poorest of the poor – ragpickers. Their effort is largely unrecognized. We should also not have manual scavengers work in such unprotected conditions.
• Asbestos is banned in US and EU because it is carcinogenic and also an environment hazard. But as per Outlook magazine, current Indian government is considering to revoke 20-year-old ban on asbestos mining. Forget environment, what about all those workers who would suffer from lung cancer, asbestosis, mesothelioma, a painful cancer of chest wall lining. Doesn’t this government care for its people?

Ragpickers: Hail Them and Save Them!

After posting this picture of ragpicker girl in my Children’s Day post, it was high time to write about ragpickers in Indian cities. This section constitutes of children and other marginalized poor of Indian society. The cause of ragpickers requires us to take issues like solid waste management seriously.

There will be several shocking facts to learn about this informal (because Indian government does not recognise it 😦 ) ragpicking industry that cleanses our environment and takes care of bulk of recycling.

Learn how insensitively the city, society, police, and municipality treats them.

Read the post here at It’s A Free World.