Category Archives: Green Initiatives & Environment

Energy Management Centre, Kerala, a green, energetic building

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives & Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Energy Management Centre, Kerala | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The main campus of Energy Management Centre, Kerala is a global star in the campaign for energy efficiency

After riding for half an hour in the blazing sun, entering the new building of Energy Management Centre, Kerala(EMC), near Chavadimukku, is, literally, a cool experience. The 43,000 square foot office building inside Sree Krishna Nagar was one of the six in the world and the only project listed from India in UN’s ‘Global Status Report 2017: Towards a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector’ released in May 2017.

For a long time EMC, an autonomous institution under the Government of Kerala, was operating out of a rented building near Thycaud. “It was in 2006, when I got to visit the Confederation of Indian Industry – Sohrabji Godrej Green Businesss Centre, that I set my mind on building something similar for EMC in Thiruvananthapuram. Although a plan was on paper by 2011, it took another five years for getting the required funds, administrative sanction and construction,” says K.M. Dhareshan Unnithan, director of EMC-Kerala. The building was inaugurated in 22 February, 2016.

Built on a hillside, the building is designed to be in tune with the terrain to avoid landscaping and tampering with the natural slope of the land. Offices, auditoriums and laboratories are all set around a central green courtyard, which slants from one end to the other. “This helps in draining of rain water from the top to the other end where they are diverted to two ponds that we have in this compound,” says Dinesh Kumar A.N., an energy technologist working at EMC, while showing me around the office.

Also, the building is oriented in such a way as to get maximum sunlight on the roof, where the solar panels are located, while the spaces inside it are designed for maximum availability of natural light. On a bright day, most of the spaces inside the building is lit completely by natural light, while artificial lights inside the building are all LED lamps and that is another way of saving energy. “At the same time most of the windows face north and south directions, which means they never face direct sunlight and that brings down the heat entering the buildings in a huge manner. It has contributed a lot to the energy efficiency of the building as we didn’t have to spend a lot on cooling,” Dhareshan adds. The cross ventilation and turbo vents too help in avoiding things from getting heated up inside the EMC office while solar reflectance index coating and high-albedo painting aids in insulation.

The entire campus is powered by 30 kilowatt grid-connected solar capacity. “We are only using a portion of what we are producing and the rest is being diverted to the grid and that makes us an energy positive structure,” says Dhareshan. All this has made the EMC building four times more energy-efficient than the highly energy efficient five-star rated buildings.

Green buildings, EMC scientists say, are the way to future. Although it might cost the common man a bit more than constructing a regular house, going for the green option would mean saving money in a big manner in future. Dhareshan adds, “There are already powerful wall-mounted batteries in the market that can be charged using solar panels. They don’t come cheap, but anything extra you spend on setting such a system would be retrieved within a time period while saving you a lot of money which would otherwise be used for paying energy bills.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Environment / by Aswin V.N. / Thiruvananthapuram – June 01st, 2018

Thottara Puncha rice brand to hit market by June

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives & Environment, Nature
The Thottara Puncha before harvest. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Government’s farming success story sees revival of 652 acres of paddy land

A rice bowl that had been lying almost fallow for over a decade has now been revived fully to produce some 1,500 metric tonnes of paddy in a joint effort by the Ernakulam district administration, Agriculture Department, paddy field collectives, and local bodies.

The rejuvenated Thottara Puncha, where 652 acres of paddy land were brought under cultivation last year, will now be a brand, with the rice produced here hitting the market in that name in the first week of June. The effort to breathe life back into the Puncha, trapped amid some nine hills, was spearheaded by District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla.

The plan is to market some 20 tonnes of rice initially, followed by another batch of 20 tonnes. Keecheri Service Cooperative Bank has completed collection of paddy, threshing, packing, and branding, said a release issued here.

Mr. Safirulla sought the support of Amballoor and Edakkattuvayal panchayats to cultivate some 350 acres of the 990 acres of the Puncha in Ernakulam district (the remaining 1,082 acres are in Kottayam) in 2016-17, and the results were stunning. “Preparation of fields itself was a challenge, but paddy field collectives worked in tandem to make it happen. This time around, we were able to bring under cultivation the maximum cultivable area — around 700 acres over nine paddy land collectives barring areas acquired for various projects, canals, farm roads, and irrigation channels,” said C.K. Prakash, general coordinator of the project.

Several departments, including irrigation, Land Development Corporation, and the State Electricity Board, supported the initiative. The canals were cleaned, and pumping facility was added to the sluices at Olippuram and Pulimukham (as a chunk of the Puncha being in low-lying areas will get heavily inundated during the monsoon).

“It posed some challenges, as not every area could be cultivated in October, which delayed harvesting too. We have now set up 12 high-power submersible pumps along the Puncha for de-watering, which will help us harvest the entire field by March next. This is going to drastically reduce the harvesting cost as well. And, the idea is to incorporate Kudumbasree in threshing paddy at our own mill and brand it,” said Mr. Prakash.

A Thottara Puncha Development Council will soon be formed, and a mill will be set up at a cost of ₹40 lakh. Terming it his pet project, Mr. Safirulla said all agencies and stakeholders had chipped in with verve to script the success story.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / May 25th, 2018

Farmer awarded, gives Governor a gift that grows

Agriculture, Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives & Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

Tuber Man’s ‘seed pen’ germinates into tree after pen is disposed of

Shaji N.M., a farmer who was conferred the Biodiversity Award under special mention category by the National Biodiversity Authority, attracted many eyeballs during the award ceremony on Tuesday.

After receiving the award, he presented seed pens as return gift to the dignitaries, including Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan from whom he received the prize. “It is made of paper. You can use it as a normal disposable pen, and when the ink is exhausted, you can just throw it away. It contains a seed, which will give birth to a tree in future,” he explained.

Making seed pens is more like a hobby for Mr. Shaji, whose major occupation is conserving tuber species.

Started 20 years ago as a response to the drought conditions in Wayanad district where he lives, his passion has taken him places across the country, in search of newer tuber species. “I have a collection of 200 edible tuber species, including the rarest ones, besides herbs and medicinal plants on my four-acre land,” he says proudly.

He has shared the germplasm of the tubers with institutions such as Central Tuber Crop Research Institute and Kerala University.

Recipient of many awards, including National Plant Genome Saviour Award, Mr. Shaji’s conservation efforts are not limited to tubers; they extend to rice. He grows 17 traditional varieties of rice on the meagre plot, besides dabbling in fish farming, bee keeping and horticulture.

There were nine winners and 13 special mentions in total at the biodiversity award ceremony, among whom two were from Telangana.

Sangham Women Farmers Group from Medak won the award for ‘Sustainable use of Biological Resources’ for its efforts in traditional and organic methods of seed processing.

The Biodiversity Management Committee of Modi (Jheri) village of Kerameri mandal in Asifabad district won under special mention category, for conserving 26 native varieties of pulses and cereals. Among them, two varieties ‘Erra Machala Kandulu’ (a variety of pigeon pea) and ‘Vayunowka Jonna’ (a variety of sorghum) have been registered with the Plant Varieties and Farmer’s Rights Authority of India, while the recognition of another variety, ‘Balintha Pesalu’, is under way.

Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve Management Committee from West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh won the award for protecting the community reserve, while Lemsachenlok Organization ( Y.NukuluPhom), Longleng, Nagaland, received it in the Institutions category.

Awards were also given under Special Mention category to corporates such as Godrej & Boyce, Mumbai, and Coromandel International, Kakinada. Coringa BMC of East Godavari too won under this category.

There were five categories of awards — conservation of wild species, conservation of domesticated species, sustainable use of biological resources, replicable mechanisms for access and benefit sharing, and best biodiversity management committees.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Swathi Vadlamudi / Hyderabad – May 24th, 2018

Rare hill palm spotted in Kollam

Agriculture, Green Initiatives & Environment, Nature, Records, All, World Opinion

Road widening is threatening the palm seen at a tea estate near Thenmala

Unlike its cousin the arecanut palm, the hill areca Bentinckia condapanna is a rare sight. Now, researchers have spotted a population of the threatened wild palms in an abandoned tea plantation in Kollam district.

According to a recent study in the Journal of Threatened Taxa which publishes scientific articles to promote conservation, M. Divin Murukesh of Malappuram’s MES Mampad College and his colleague Ajith Ashokan discovered 76 adult palms and 66 seedlings of the hill areca near a road on the Arundel-Priya estate near Thenmala.

Although the palm is reported to grow in high elevations (between 1,000 and 2,000 metres above mean sea level) in the Western Ghats, the new population has been reported from a lower altitude of around 600 metres. The team also noticed birds (including the Malabar grey hornbill and Malabar barbet) and mammals (bats and bonnet macaques) feeding on the bright red fruits of the palm.

Road widening threat

The researchers spotted the palms growing on a slanting rock along the Kazhuthurutty-Arundel-Achencoil road which has been proposed for widening. “If the road is widened, these palms could be in danger,” says Mr. Murukesh.

According to them, the discovery could add to the importance of this site, which, along with five other estates in the area, has been proposed to form a potential wildlife corridor along the Aryankavu pass for the use of large fauna, including elephant and tigers.

Locally called condapanna, the hill areca grows only along steep rocky slopes of evergreen forests south of the Palakkad Gap in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is categorised as “Vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

“The palms are also rare possibly because they cannot survive without mycorrhizal associations [beneficial fungi on their plant roots],” said Mr. Murukesh.

Plant regeneration from seeds was also very poor, said V.B. Sreekumar of the Department of Forest Botany at Thrissur’s Kerala Forest Research Institute. However, with more populations of the plants being discovered, they may not be as rare as previously thought, he said.

“But there are very few studies on the palm since it is very difficult to access the rocky cliffs where they grow. There have been no surveys to assess its current status either,” he said.

Kerala’s hill areca is one of the only two such species in the world; the other, Bentinckia nicobarica, is seen only on the Nicobar Islands.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Aathira Perinchery / Kochi – May 23rd, 2018

Group of tribesmen sets a model in pesticide-free farming

Agriculture, Green Initiatives & Environment, Nature
Members of Surya Tribal Self Help Group harvesting beans from their vegetable garden at Kavadam in Wayanad district.

Five self-help groups, including three women’s groups, cultivate 16 acres of rented land

A group of tribesmen under the Kaniyampetta grama panchayat in Wayanad district of Kerala  has set a successful model in pesticide-free vegetable cultivation.

As many as 64 tribal families belong to Paniya and Mullakuruma tribal sects have grown 10 varieties of vegetables, including yard-long beans, bitter gourd, tomato, snake gourd, okra, and green chilli on 16 acres of rented land at Kavadom, Chittalur Kayakkunnu, and Nelliyambom near Nadavayal.

The vegetable promotion project was launched by the Scheduled Tribal Development Department under a special Central assistance to a tribal sub-plan in January. A sum of ₹9.64 lakh was provided for the purpose.

Five self-help groups (SHGs), including three women’s groups, have been constituted under the project and each group consists of 10 to 14 members. All expenses — including the rent of land, seeds, organic manure, pump sets for irrigation, agricultural implements, and wages — were borne by the department.

“Our produce is in good demand as our farming methods are transparent and can be viewed by anyone,” says A. Kavalan, tribal cheftain, Kavadam Paniya settlement, and president of the Surya SHG.

Lower prices

‘Though organic produce is priced at a premium, the SHGs sell vegetables at rates lower than the market price. Earlier, the members used to sell their produce to middlemen. Later, they entered into a tie-up with Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK) to avoid middlemen and to get a better income, says A. Manojkumar, a Committed Social Worker of the department.

“We sold nearly one tonne of yard-long beans through Kudumbasree at ₹22 a kg .The harvest of other vegetables will start soon,” K. Meenakshi, president of Arya SHG, said.

“While vegetable traders in nearby towns sell vegetables procured from Gundlupet in Karnataka at a higher price, we are able to sell pesticide-free produce at 20% to 25% lower than the market rate,” she said.

Profit expectations

“We expect a profit of ₹15 lakh from the project this season,” says N.J. Reji, tribal extension officer, Kaniyampetta grama panchayat.

“We were able to provide 60 working days to 64 families in the past two months. The profit from the project will be utilised as a revolving fund to expand vegetable cultivation to ensure a sustainable income to tribal members,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by E.M.Manoj / April 28th, 2018

Creating a culture of growing their own food

Agriculture, Green Initiatives & Environment, Nature
Harvesting of vegetables at an organic farm at Prakkadavu in Ernakulam district.

There are now 48 organic cultivation groups at Prakkadavu

The people of Prakkadavu in Ernakulam have taken it upon themselves to create a culture of cultivating their own food, including rice, vegetables and fish as part of a major campaign to eat ‘poison-free’ food using the land available to them.

The agriculture and food production initiative has been taken under the aegis of the Prakkadavu Service Cooperative Bank. Because of the initiative, a land that had been lying fallow for about 25 years has now come under cultivation.

The bank’s major step was to help people produce their own food.

It included production of rice, vegetables, dairy items as well as poultry meat and eggs, said a press release from the Public Relations Department. Parakkadavu has been blessed with an abundant water resource as it lies close to the Chalakkudy river and people have used this resource fully to realise their dream of cultivating and producing their own food.

The initiative started about four years ago with the cultivation of vegetables in growbags.

It has now spread far and wide. With the cultivation of vegetables in growbags on terraces and small areas, the bank decided to form farmers’ groups to spread cultivation into wider areas gradually.

There are now a total of 48 organic cultivation groups comprising 800 homesteads. There are 10 to 15 members in each of the groups engaged in cultivation of various items. Diary and poultry activities too have been taken up along with vegetable and rice cultivation.

The Kurumassery Karukappadam, which had been lying idle for the past 25 years, has been brought under cultivation. A total of 12 acres was brought under vegetable cultivation.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – April 18th, 2018

Kannur native has a ‘brush’ with stardom

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives & Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Nature, Nri's / Pio's, World Opinion

Kannur :

Nostalgia. That sentimental longing for his homeland made Sijesh Poyil pack his bags and come back to Kannur. From Dubai. Five years ago. Nostalgia again played its part in turning him into a successful entrepreneur fortunate enough to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On April 11, Sijesh became an overnight hero as a tweet from the PMO named him and mentioned his achievement as an entrepreneur.

The PMO’s tweet said, “Mr P Sijesh from Kannur in Kerala is running a successful unit where herbal tooth powder is made. He presented his product to the Prime Minister during the interaction with various Mudra beneficiaries.”

An excited Sijesh said over phone from New Delhi: “I just cannot believe my luck. How can an ordinary man like me from a village in Kannur think about meeting the Prime Minister and spending around two-and-a-half hours with him?”

The meeting held at the PM’s residence was arranged to felicitate around 100 beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana who have shown extraordinary commitment in scripting successful stories of entrepreneurship. Of the 110 people selected for the meeting, only four were from Kerala. The other three were Sreelal from Koyilandy, Vinod of Kozhikode and Venu of Wayanad. Sijesh had expanded his tooth powder after receiving a Mudra loan of Rs 8.5 lakh.

The financial situation at home having forced him to try his luck in Dubai, where he worked for three years as a security officer with Emirates Airlines, Sijesh flew back home in 2013.“The modern world and its added facilities have never been my priority in life,” said the 32-year-old.“My heart ached for the things I had left at home. The rain, rivers, temple festivals… I realised  I’m not made for a life outside my place.”

Like every Gulf returnee, Sijesh too wanted to start a of his own. Though he had continued with his pharmacy job, which he had left before going to Dubai, he was looking for something new.

“I used to clean my teeth with rice husk ash (Umikkari). But what was available in the market was not up to standards. So I decided to make a product of my own. After researching on it for sometime, I developed it and distributed it among my family members and friends. As they all appreciated the quality of the product, I decided to move ahead,” he said.

As the stuff he made with husk ash, clove, pepper and salt received appreciation, he had decided to produce it on a large scale. At this stage, the Positive Commune Entrepreneurship Club (PC) — a WhatsApp group for young entrepreneurs — stepped in. The association with PC changed Sijesh’s fortunes, for the people at PC helped him redesign the brand logo.

Armed with the group’s valuable inputs and the experience received by participating in the ‘Vijayi Bhava’ training camp conducted by Kochouseph Chittilappilly, Sijesh was out to reap more from his . By that time, he had given a name to his product — Shanthiz husk ash — which he had earlier sold without a name in a plain bottle.“Shanthi is the name of my mother-in-law,” he chuckled.

With a designer look and a brand name, Shanthiz husk ash has become a much sought after product. From a nameless, label-less product, Shanthiz now sells around 5,000-6,000 bottles in Kannur district alone. The price per 25 gm bottle is Rs 30 and Sijesh is keen on expanding to other districts as well.

Along with his family members, especially brother Dhanesh, sister Dhanya and wife Sajina, there are five women helping Sijesh make Shanthiz. He has a three-year old son, Sreehari.
Two years after the first bottle was produced, Shanthiz has now reached the hands of the Prime Minister too. Because Sijesh presented 10 bottles of Shanthiz to him during the interaction.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by M.A. Rajeev Kumar / Express News Service / April 13th, 2018

‘Thottara Rice’ brand to hit the shelves soon

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives & Environment, Nature, Records, All

Harvest of paddy to be inaugurated on April 10

The Thottara organic rice brand harvested from Thottara Puncha, a vast expanse of paddy field spread over Amballoor and Edakkattuvayal in Ernakulam district, will hit the market by the end of this month.

Come April 10, and the inauguration of this year’s harvest of paddy cultivated in nearly 550 acres will take place amid a gathering of hundreds of farmers, elected representatives, and officials.

“We plan to brand nearly 40 tonnes of organic rice as Thottara Rice and market it through the existing network of the Agriculture Department. In the next phase, larger quantities of the produce will be taken up for branding,” said Sujith Karun, Ernakulam district co-ordinator of the Haritha Keralam Mission. The organisers are hoping to harvest around 1,500 metric tonnes of paddy from Thottara Puncha, which extends to around 1,200 acres at Amballur and Edakkattuvayal in Ernakulam district and Vellur panchayat in Kottayam district.

Farmers affiliated to nine Padashekhara Samitis are engaged in paddy cultivation. It is expected that around 300 tonnes of rice can be produced from 1,500 metric tonnes of paddy cultivated in the 550-acre area. The Agriculture Department has the capacity to market nearly 40 tonnes of Thottara brand rice in the first phase. And, farmers can sell the remaining rice to private mills.

Mill at Amballoor

Mr. Sujith said that the Kudumbasree Mission had agreed to set up a mill at Amballoor. It will also provide ₹40 lakh for the realisation of the project.

Interestingly, District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla had taken the lead in bringing the maximum available cultivable land under Thottara Puncha for paddy cultivation. Farming in the barren land began in 2015.

Major preparatory works like the cleaning up of 11 km of main canals by the Minor Irrigation Department to de-water the paddy fields, land preparatory work in padashekharams, field survey for installation of 12 submersible pumps, consultations with stakeholders, and field visits to padashekharams were completed as part of the initiative.

The district administration had increased the acreage of Thottara Puncha over the last couple of years starting with 150 acres in 2015-16 followed by 350 acres in 2016-17.

The district administration’s efforts to revive the rice bowl of Ernakulam were ably assisted by the agriculture and irrigation departments, KLDC, KSEB, local bodies, land owners, Padashekhara Samitis, and the local community at large. The Agriculture Technology Management Agency had offered training to farmers.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – April 09th, 2018

New plant species found in Western Ghats

Agriculture, Green Initiatives & Environment, Nature, Records, All, World Opinion
Fimbristylis agasthyamalaensis.

Grass-like plant, discovered in Ponmudi, has been named Fimbristylis agasthyamalaensis

Researchers from the University College here have reported the discovery of a new plant species from the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. Classified as a sedge, the grass-like plant has been named Fimbristylis agasthyamalaensis, after the locality from which it was found.

The researchers, including post doctoral fellow A.R.Viji and Assistant Professor T.S.Preetha, came across the species during an expedition to the marshy grasslands in the Ponmudi hills within the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve. The survey was part of a project funded by the Women Scientists Division of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE). The finding has been published in Phytotaxa, an international journal of botanical systematics and biodiversity.

The authors have recommended a preliminary conservation assessment of the plant as ‘critically endangered,’ according to IUCN criteria. The report says the species is highly prone to wild grazing.

As the habitat falls within a tourism spot and the perimeter of a place of worship, the plant is also subject to anthropogenic pressures that could lead to its extinction in the absence of scientific conservation.

The new species belongs to the Cyperaceae family. In India, the genus is represented by 122 species, of which 87 are reported from the Western Ghats. Many of the known Cyperaceae species are medicinal plants or used as fodder.

During a critical analysis of the specimens, F.agasthyamalaensis was found to be similar to F.onchnidiocarpa in several characters including the nature of infloresence. But detailed studies revealed distinct features which led to the conclusion that it is a new species.

Flowering and fruiting were observed from October to March.

The authors have stressed the need for more scientific studies to determine the potential uses of the new species.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by T. Nandakumar / Thiruvananthapuram – April 03rd, 2018

Fine art from weeds

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives & Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Nature
Students of the Buds Rehabilitation Centre (BRC), Aryad, displaying handicrafts made of water hyacinth.

Here is a solution to the water hyacinth menace

They are students with special needs. But at the Buds Rehabilitation Centre (BRC) in Aryad, they are doing extraordinary things.

Any one visiting the centre can see the students busy chopping water hyacinths collected from a nearby waterbody.

The chopped parts, except roots, are then boiled and transferred to a mixer for extracting pulp.

Under the watchful eyes of their instructor (rehabilitation worker), the students mix the pulp generated with paper pulp, and in no time, they are moulded into beautiful handicrafts.

These students, most of them suffering from cognitive disorders, are offering a unique solution to the vexing problem of water hyacinth, one of the most invasive aquatic weeds which is choking the life out of several freshwater ecosystems in the State.

“Articles made of water hyacinth are the latest addition to an array of products we prepare at the BRC,” says BRC rehabilitation worker Vineetha Rajesh.

“Of the students undergoing vocational training in the BRC, some are experts in making soap powder, others in producing lotion, among other things. Recently, we trained students to make toys and decorative items from water hyacinth. Some of the students are very good at it and the products they made were displayed at an expo organised by the Kudumbasree. We are now planning to create more items,” she said.

Eco-friendly

Last year, Vineetha was among the Buds school teachers, Kudumbasree members, and students who had undergone a one-day training on the value-addition of aquatic weeds offered by the community training centre under the Centre for Research on Aquatic Resources (CRAR) at SD College, Alappuzha.

The activities of the CRAR are funded under the Biotechnology Innovations for Rural Development (BIRD) programme of the Kerala  Biotechnology Commission.

The CRAR led by its principal investigator G. Nagendra Prabhu is on a mission to put aquatic weeds to good use. From various aquatic weeds, the centre has developed material for mushroom cultivation, biomass briquettes, and modified hydroponics.

In the process, the researchers also found that pulp generated from water hyacinth could be used for creating handicrafts; utensils; utility articles like multi-purpose boards; egg and fruit trays; disposable plates; painting canvases; and so on.

“Over the years, crores of rupees have been spent to keep invasive species like water hyacinth under control, but with no effect. The CRAR has developed a number of solutions for the control and value addition of aquatic weeds modelled on concepts like eradication through utilisation and use to reduce. We are happy to see that the technologies, we developed are being commercialised. These eco-friendly technologies can be developed into an alternative livelihood programme in the future,” Mr. Prabhu said.

Kudumbasree Assistant District Mission Coordinator N. Venugopal said that the project would be extended to all nine BRCs in the district soon.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Sam Paul A / Aryad(Alappuzha) – March 27th, 2018