Jal Utsav - Children Workshop

Jal Utsav an unique Summer Workshop for Children on Water by HaSiRu Mithra. The Workshop objective is to create awareness among Children about importance of Water and how to Save, Harvest and Conserve Water. 

Participants will be issued certificate at the end of the program and will be recognized as Volunteers to take the message of Water in their Communities & Schools.

Workshop - Facts about Water, Assignments, Methods to Save/Harvest/Conserve Water, Skit, Lake Visit, Drawing/Painting/Sketching, Presentation, Certification. 

Classes will be held on Saturday & Sunday 5pm-6pm at Akruthi Silverline Apartments, for details contact Lalithaamba - 9448063776.

Sustainability at Wipro

As a part of Wipro’s deep commitment to ecological sustainability Wipro has been involved with multiple environment related programs both, within our business ecosystem as well as in the civic and social sectors outside.  Commonly called eco-eye, the inception of our sustainability program goes back to 2008.  Eco-eye, helps introduce Wiproites to different perspectives in sustainability, and also allow them to understand their ability to make a difference in everyday lives.

Our urban biodiversity program includes the twin goals of (a) converting five of our existing campuses to biodiversity zones and (b) ensuring that all new campuses incorporate biodiversity principles into their design.  Our first flagship project in the Electronic City campus in Bangalore was initiated two years back with the first phase of a unique Butterfly Park now completed. Our next phase includes an innovatively conceived wetland biodiversity zone that will use recycled water. For our Pune campus project, the first phase has seen a trebling of the number of species of flora and fauna from to more than 200+ native species.

While there are different initiatives in different locations that engage employees through the year-the months of May and June in particular are months where we host a series of engagement activities to familiarize and involve employees in specific areas to support the International day of Biological Diversity and World Environment Day respectively. One of these initiatives is what is featured below-

About the Initiative: Nurture Your Green Patch

Biodiversity @ Wipro Electronic City (EC) 4 Campus: A Community Garden by Wiproites and an initiative supported by teams @ Wipro EC across sustainability team and the facilities team.

"Nurture your green patch" is an opportunity for Wiproites to grow and harvest vegetables and other plants. This is their space their space for showcasing and learning horticulture at the workplace.

Living in urban spaces, we seem to be moving further away from natural environments. A large part of our lives is spent indoors staring at devices. Some of us are lucky to have found a favourite nature-spot around where we live and work to help us relax, unwind and be one with nature.

Ten teams at EC 4 have a 10x10 sq ft area of land and they have a chance to grow flowers, vegetables, spices of their choice on their green patch. These green patches are built along the circumference of the dome/Center Court which houses the campus cafeteria as a part of the EC 4 Biodiversity Park Project.The teams which comprise of more than 30 employees are part of Phase 1 of this program. An external resource person/expert Mr.Nadana Sigamani, guides the teams regularly by showing them basic understanding in terms of how to plant, nurture and maintain the saplings on their patches. Through this program we are building connects with other ecology projects on campus. For example, recycled water from the campus is used for watering the patches. It has been a refreshing experience for employees as a lot of them attempted gardening for the first time. The teams tend to their patches during the lunch breaks and after hours. The gardening staff have also pitched in to make watering on the weekends easy. We also plan to start similar projects in other Wipro campuses.

The teams have made a great start and have harvested various vegetables like beans, palak, methi, raddish, amaranthus, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cluster beans, cucumber, bitter gourd among others from their patches. A whatsapp group has enabled live updates every day!

“Green Spots can be created at any place - be it home, neighborhood or @ office.  Growing some greens in office is absolute fun and it gives sense of stress free atmosphere when we nurture the green patches at office after a daylong work in IT world. Green spots help us to unwind.

Wipro came up with this idea of engaging interested employees to grow and nurture their own patch. Employees formed their own teams. In the beginning employees sowed what they liked and was not much interesting to begin. But once the greens started giving yield, the enthusiasm of teams increased. Each of us wanted to experiment with different kinds of produce.  We have sown beans, palak, methi, raddish, amaranthus, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cluster beans, cucumber, bitter gourd, drum sticks and list continues.  We are eager to experiment more and each team is asking for more plots

Biggest support is from FMG and the gardening staff  who help with digging and watering over week ends and on request. They are the energy source.

Sigamani sir and his team are a great help to the teams - be it clarifying doubts, helping to procure seeds, organizing meetings near plots and giving feedback etc.

Testimonials from Wiproites:

Hope every corporate encourages their employees to grow and nurture some green patch and this is sustainability and giving back to nature.” Lalithamba Vishwanathaiah

“Gardening is cheaper than therapy, plus you get to keep the produce” – Nadana Sigamani

“Pledge to make our Environment clean and reduce waste” – Uttam Shukla

“It is heartening to see the enthusiasm and dedication amongst all team members. From sowing to harvesting, these teams are committed to the upkeep of their plots. Excited to see this initiative spread across and outside Wipro”- Arathi Hanumanthappa

Agara Lake mini-Forest clean-up drive, 23rd Oct 2016

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Agara Lake mini-Forest clean up drive was taken up to remove the garbage that is been getting dumped due to the near by BBMP garbage transfer point. The curse to this mini-Forest that is a creating of Citizen enthusiasm is the BBMP irresponsibility in managing garbage and the transfer points. HaSiRu Mithra team clean the mini-Forest, cleared all the garbage and also closed the gate that was being used to only throw garbage. We hope BBMP considers HaSiRu Mithra suggestions and shifts the transfer point, because if the transfer point is on the main road it will only get used to dump more garbage around.  

#PotholePooje Somasundrapalya, 17th July 2016

#PotholePooje 11th Cross, 9th July 2016

‪‎PotholePooje‬ was organised by HaSiRu Mithra offering prayers to potholes in HSR Layout not to injure or kill citizens. Sector 2 RWA, Residents, School Children, Walkers, People who were driving through the area took part in the Pooje and prayed for every ones well being.

This was a unique protest against the apathy of BBMP n Elected Representative, even after repeated request the authorities have not taken any steps to fill the potholes or better the road condition.

For over 8 years asphalting has not need done in most of HSR Layout n the increasing bad condition of the roads are posing a great danger for citizens.

We home at least now authorities will take measures and address this serious issue of bad roads in HSR Layout.

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#KillBills now a Bengaluru Campaign

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#KillBills is now a citywide event, BBMP & B.PAC on 2nd July took the HaSiRu Mithra initiative across the city with over 30 Wards participating from all 8 BBMP Zones. BCLIP, Civic Hubs, RWAs, NGOs & Citizen groups took on the fight against 'Visual Pollution' to the streets. 

Every Ward had a local Team and had identified a distance of 1-2 Kms where they would be removing the Posters, Bills, Banners, Flex etc that were either stick, tied or simply dangled. HaSiRu Mithra has already completed the 27th Main stretch and 17th Cross from NIFT to Nandini cool joint junction, so the choice was obvious and it was decided that the stretch from Nandini cool joint junction to BDA Complex will be taken up. 

With volunteers from Govt Degree College the HaSiRu Mithra Team and the BBMP PKs and Staff lead by Mr Vinayak the fight against 'Visual Pollution' started at 7.30am. Everyone seemed more than happy to bring down the ugly Banners, Flex and were seen ripping off the Posters & Bills stuck of Trees, Electric Poles. by 10.00am the #KillBills team reached and cleared most of the 'Visual Pollution' around BDA Complex and the tractor was a full load of ugliness. There is hope that BBMP will file cases against these illegal and ugly Posters, Bills, Banners, Flex that are defacing the locality and city. 

HaSiRu Mithra will be submitting a report on list of offenders BPAC which will be then sent to BBMP for action. With more citizen participation and vigil it will not be difficult to put an end to the 'Visual Pollution' in Bengaluru. 

Minutes of the Meeting 25th June 2016

Members: Ward 174 & 190 Contractor Team lead by Rupesh & Shankar Reddy, BBMP HI Mahesh, Lalitha, Kavitha

Objective: Streamlining of Garbage Collection & Transportation, Brining is transparency, Information sharing

Points discussed:

Segregation: It was indicated that during collection all the households who are not segregating waste has to be told to segregate waste and a proper escalation process to be followed in case of non-compliance, and action should be lead by BBMP HI.

It was also discussed that areas like Ibblur, Agara, RG Nagar should be given more emphasis of collections, as regular collection only can lead to reduction in black-spots and increase segregation.

The contractor of Ward 190 expressed his concern that other than the SSPalya area segregation is not happening in the Ward, it was suggested that if zones are created based on the number of households a targeted awareness drive like in SSPlaya can improve segregation.

Zones/Routes: Both Ward 174 & Ward 190 are divided into Zones/Routes with approximately 1000 houses each. This process will help in ensuring that the autos allocated are operated fully and will increase transparency in the collection process. The map of the same will be shared with all RWAs & Groups.

Bins in autos for Wet & Rejects separately: It was informed that Wet waste is collected both in Ward 174 & 190 directly in the auto leading to leaking water content on the roads and creating foul smell. The unhygienic and improper method had to be stopped, and since the rainy season is adding to the issue Bins in all autos has to be made mandatory. The contractors agreed that the Wet waste should not be collected directly but they have problems using the Bins as the transfer becomes difficult and autos may has to do additional trips to empty the Bins.

It was insisted that cleanness is critical and contractors have to find methods to lift the filled Bins to unload to compactor. It was agreed that in 1-2 Zones Bins will be tried for few weeks and the contractors will work on modalities to implement across zones. It was also told that this is an important issue and unless the cleanliness is not maintained no amount of efforts will bring results or satisfaction among residents. 

Audio: It was insisted upon that there has to be an Audio/announcement system that makes basic announcement about segregation and that it’s mandatory to segregate. Both the contractors have agreed to install Audio system in the autos in 15-20 days time. 

Information Boards: It was agreed that all autos will have A4 size sticker that will include Zone/Route #, Driver name, Driver #, Supervisor #, BBMP HI #, Ward #. It was also agreed that on providing the information the stickers will be sponsored by a NGO.

It was also told that all the autos should have pictorial representation of Wet, Dry, Reject waste Bins and 2-3 lines in Kannada & English about Waste Segregation, it was agreed that basic design will be provided so that it can be painted on both sides of the autos. 

Information handouts: There will be a handout/poster designed with Zone/Route #, Auto # Driver name, Driver #, Supervisor #, BBMP HI #, which will be shared with all RWAs, Groups, Citizens so that there is access to information and people can interact with them directly. Direct interaction of the citizens will also help in relationship building and better the quality of segregation.

Transfer point: Is a concern, with the ORR in front of Freedom School as the Transfer point the park and the area around is affected, the schools around have expressed displeasure due to the stink and the monsoon is adding to the misery and making the entire place unhygienic. An alternate Transfer point has to be considered, there are limited options but unless the transfer is not in a closed environment the random dumping will continue. Even though the Ward 174 contractor is getting it cleaned, the place is ending up as a black-spot and also spreading to the mini forest. This issue is still open and some thinking should go into this so that there is a permanent solution.

Sweeping: It has been noticed that both ward 174 & 190 road sweeping is not done on a regular basis, more so Ward 174, the contractor & BBMP Hi agreed that it is an issue that is pending and will be addressed shortly.

Point clearance: Many spots in Ward 174 & 190 are re-appearing every day, eg 7^th Cross, 27^th Main, Hosapalya bus stop and road behind Agara Govt School are some highly visible ones. It was agreed that just cleaning everyday will not address the issue, there has to be plan/solution that is long-term. BBMP HI suggested that weekly drives with citizen involvement, putting up few benches, planting few trees and getting a street vendor is occupying the black-spot will eventually erase the black-spot. It was also agreed that we will take up 7^th cross point and beautify the place on a trial basis.  

Next immediate step: 1. BBMP HI to share information requested for stickers & information handouts. 2. BBMP HI to share date for 1^st weekly clean-up drive in advance.