TREES- NATURAL AIR PURIFIER

My article published in a medical journal.

"TREES- NATURAL AIR PURIFIERS"
A Short Commentary
(February 2016)
INDIAN PRACTITIONER, VOL 69, NO. 2
Pgs 54-55

GROW FRESH AIR

I have always maintained a small garden in my house. Not only that gardening is among my favourite hobbies, but also I felt I could get fresh air. My garden also helps to keep the dust out, noise pollution is minimised and has a cooling effect on my home. The garden also uses up 30- 40% of my kitchen waste directly as mulch (the rest of it is converted into manure and then used in the garden).

In 2014, I became interested to find out which particular species of plants could help to maximise the air improving effects with minimum resources, mainly water. Someone told me that the ficus species (peepul, banyan) are very good for this purpose. As these are not ‘garden plants’ per se, I adapted the idea to my scale by growing them at bonsai level. But their growth is very very slow and I was thinking how much of a logic there is, in taking this further. Good part is- they are strong plants and need watering only once a week.

Last week I got forwarded this ted talk video and I am really happy to discover this piece of research. See it first:

This seems an elegant solution. But in a city like Mumbai, maintaining 10 plants per person indoors is not going to be possible. Space can be minimised with hydroponics, but this has to be proved by trying it out first. The three plants are small in size and can be kept outdoors also in shaded areas. So my idea is to see if they can be kept in building premises, on stair landings, parking areas and such other spots as much as possible. At least two plants can be kept in each room, which can provide some degree of air purification. The plants also do not require frequent watering or other fussing over, so it is a good idea to have them around. Only I need to check if the palms sold in nurseries are areca palms. The other two plants are quite easily available.

This idea is worth taking up.

CHANGE HAPPENS....ONE BUILDING AT A TIME

A subtle movement is creeping through Parle East since the last 6 months. Kolvankar Kaka has been the pioneer, visionary and guiding light of this movement. It has an equally impressive supporting cast of youngsters from Rotaract club. A number of enthusiastic Parlekars have joined in now. This group of garbage busters is called ‘Parle Clean- up Core’.

Devangini Society near Koldongari was Kaka’s laboratory where he carried out his ‘experiments with the truth’ about garbage management. Kaka is an architect. With his disarming mild manner and cheerful demeanour he was able to convince and train Devangini society members and staff to practise waste segregation. He implemented dry waste recycling and wet waste composting through vermiculture. This society now sends only minimal garbage to the landfill. They also earn some revenue through sale of dry waste and vermicompost. They have a lovely healthy garden in the society compound. All inside the premises of a standard space- starved building in the midst of Vile Parle East. Members are very busy and practically no staff has been hired. So the truth was revealed- building level waste management is possible inspite of the shortage of time, space and manpower. The Devangini team presented this truth to all of Parle in a presentation at Tilak Mandir last year. We all read Kaka’s pledge (previous posts). It was the beginning of this movement.

Through mutual consultation, core group members concluded that waste segregation is the most critical step for proper waste management and that this is best done at source. So ‘please segregate waste’ is the primary request that they are making. A letter and poster are being circulated through many societies in Parle. Many societies have taken great interest in this system and invited members of core group for presentation and consultation. Now a few elected representatives have also become supporters of this group. One milestone was achieved when simultaneously three meetings were held in Parle on 6^th Feb at different locations- the only agenda being waste management in parle. The meetings were attended by citizens and presentations were made about the principles and benefits of segregation. Group members would love to have more such meetings.

The clean up core group members hope to make Parle a zero garbage suburb, one building at a time.