Nature

How can a residential society with multiple buildings reduce electricity and water bills while making compost from waste? Here are some innovative ideas from around India.

Kerala-based Gopalakrishnan KR, a retired bank employee, used his retirement benefits to convert a 1-acre rubber plantation into a mini forest with hundreds of fruit trees, medicinal plants, and more.

Abdul Kareem from Kerala single-handedly turned 27 acres of barren land into a flourishing forest of 5000 trees that today hosts innumerable varieties of flora and fauna.

Folks at the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh believe Vatsala is the oldest elephant in the world. Though her exact age is unknown, she is the most doting granny to the young calves born at the reserve who are now her eyes.

CommuniTREE is collecting firecracker cases to reuse them to plant saplings.

“I think we are making good use of our building area. It is a good way to make our children connect with nature in a cosmopolitan city. This is a rarity in big cities.”

In a very short span of time, Paradise Gardens has helped transform 22,680 sq ft of land into gardens while 33,600 sq ft of land is under construction!

Remarkably, her conservation efforts are driven by more than 200 local women, whom she calls the 'Hargila Army'.

One of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) registered programmes in Kerala for June 5, the drive witnessed large scale planting of trees, cleaning of the nearby catchment area and forested stretch as well as a collection of about 15 sacks of plastic waste.

What started as a fascination for Aswatha Biju after seeing a picture of an ammonite fossil in encyclopedia soon turned into a passion that had no plans of dying done.