Coming from a small village near Kottayam, Kerala, Ullas Sashidharan (36) found the lack of communication between neighbours in a metro like Bengaluru worrisome. His worst fears were realised six months ago when a 50-year-old woman in his building in Sarjapur, who had just moved to the city, collapsed in her flat. By the time her daughter-in-law managed to get help to shift her to a hospital, she had passed away.
“This incident made me feel it was necessary for neighbours to get to know each other, because unless you meet and interact with people, it is not easy to call for help or to get people ready to help in an emergency,” said Sashidharan, who teaches at an engineering college in the city.
Mr. Sashidharan, who moved to the city 10 years ago, has organised several meetings of residents of his neighbourhood. He is among the breed of ‘new’ Bengalureans from other parts of the country who have adopted the city and strive to give back by getting involved in causes such as waste segregation, cleaning up their neighbourhood and saving lakes.
“We’re all part of the same country and I’m just as responsible for making this city, where I live and work, a better place,” said Jamshedpur-born Paritosh Gupta (38), who moved to the city five years ago. He and other members of the Domlur Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) identify black spots in the neighbourhood and clean and beautify them so that offenders hesitate to throw garbage there again. The RWA also ran a ‘Kill Bill’ campaign to remove flyers and pamphlets pasted on public walls.
Taking out the trash
For HSR Layout resident Shanti Tummala, who moved to Bengaluru 10 years ago from her hometown Ballari, the journey began five years ago when she spotted pourakarmikas going through garbage with their bare hands. When she followed the garbage truck to the landfill, the magnitude of the problem struck her.
“I realised there was no point in segregating my waste and sitting within the walls of my home, not seeing where that waste ends up,” she said. She began raising awareness on segregation and her efforts led to the formation of the HSR Citizens’ Forum. The group’s achievements are remarkable — HSR Layout now has 80 to 90 per cent waste segregation, and the plastic ban was enforced here months before the government notification.
“Sanitary waste is collected separately and sent for incineration. Even low-grade plastic gets recycled in the ward. It goes to show how far one can go with teamwork and persistence,” Dr. Tummala said.
Working together is key
Media professional R. Daniel (40), who has been living in Bengaluru since 2012, got involved with her local RWA when they needed help in creating promotional material for their activities. She found volunteering with them an outlet for her interests and a way to meet like-minded people. “I was part of a movement to save trees when I was in college. Working for environmental issues is always something I have been keen on,” she said.
She and other residents of Sarjapur have been working to save the lakes in the area. “Most of us live in apartments and layouts where water shortage is common. We first thought there were two lakes which we could revive. A look through land records revealed there were 27. If these lakes are revived, we would be able to dig open wells instead of digging hundreds of feet underground for water,” she said.
