Bengaluru garbage Bengaluru: Five reasons why our city is filled with potholes The BBMP has been working at a frantic pace to meet the court’s deadline – which was extended till Monday – of filling up all the potholes in the city. But a closer look at the workings of the Palike shows that there are mainly five reasons why Bengaluru’s roads are perennially pock-marked. compost coconut Muralikrishna puts wet waste dumped by the BBMP to good use. All the composting material is ‘donated’ by his neighbours. Photo by Kaushik JN/MMCL Praveen Kumar Following rains, 6-inch potholes return; three dead in two accidents In October 2017, Bengalureans were shocked by two fatal accidents that left three people dead after they were run over by buses while trying to avoid potholes. Following the heavy spells of rain that the city has received over the last few days, Bengaluru’s roads are unravelling and caving in, again. By Reya MehrotraMeet three game changers of. While two of them put their locality’sto good use, the other wants to use it to provide livelihood for farmers. You’ll never look at waste the same way againThirty-eight-year-old Muralikrishna’s job begins where BBMP’s ends. But neither is he a pourkarmika nor a BBMP official. He’s techie from Maithri Layout, Hope Farm Circle, working for a Bengaluru based IT company. But what makes Muralikrishna special is that he has been composting for the past five years, not just waste from his home but from various homes in his area as well. In fact, to the residents of the layout, he’s truly their ‘composting star’.After moving back to India from the US in 2014, Muralikrishna noticed that even though people were aware of composting and its benefits, no one was really taking the initiative to get on the job. In fact, all that BBMP did was collect waste from one place and dump it on another. He decided to take the lead. Muralikrishna began by researching the subject and learning composting from Anu Govind and Shailaja Rangarajan, his neighbours who have been raising awareness for composting for a while.He started by composting in plastic crates, but as the space filled up he moved his ‘work area’ directly to the dump yard. “Fifty to 75 crates can accommodate about 500-600 kg of waste. For the first year, I mixed the wet waste manually every day and left it to decompose. Gradually, people started to appreciate what I was doing, and began to buy thefrom me for their gardens. Whatever I earned from the selling compost, I gave it to Iranna, my helper, who helped me with the mixing of the wet waste. Now, the residents have also started giving me old newspapers from their homes for me to sell and use the money either to pay Iranna, or use the paper to add to the compost mix. So far, I have spent around `5 lakh from my personal funds, and I have earned about `1,00,000 from selling compost - the money goes into Iranna’s salary or towards composting. If somebody buys compost in bulk, I sell it for `8 per kg,” Muralikrisha said.In Maithri Layout, there are 1500 households, three separate waste bins – for wet, dry, and other discarded waste. While BBMP collects the dry waste and the discarded stuff twice a week, it dumps the wet waste in the dump yard of the layout. According to Muralikrishna, the first step is to collect that wet waste. The second step is to mix the wet waste with old newspapers, cardboards and dry leaves. It then has to be turned and mixed for nearly a month. Waste material such asshells or mango seeds take time to compost. It is filtered from the gooey compost using a net. Whatever is left behind in the net needs more time to decompose and is therefore added back into a new batch of waste that is being prepped for composting. “I prepare approximately 700kg of compost in a month. In the last five years, I have prepared 5-6 tonnes of compost and sold about 300kg of it to the residents of Maithri Layout,” he added.At the moment, the entire dumpyard is filled with compost, and that makes this techie a happy man. “We keep adding wet waste to the existing compost and mix it regularly. My wife, who is an expert in waste management, too helps me at times by volunteering with me.”Another Bengalurean,, who works in an IT firm and is a resident of Brindavan Layout, started composting five years ago. And he has a beautiful garden, with one even on the terrace, at home. He uses the manure that he prepares for nurturing the plants in his gardens. Initially, he started by mixing wet waste in his garden soil and covering it with dried leaves and a layer of soil. But when he saw composting videos on youtube, he was motivated to follow a more step-by-step process. And therefore he bought three composting stacks. “I collect wet waste from three families in my layout. I compost every weekend and it does not take more than 15 minutes. It takes about 45-60 days for the compost to be ready,” he says. Kumar first puts cardboard at the bottom-most layer, followed by dry leaves, cow dung, and wet waste. And then he covers it up with more dry leaves, cow dung and cardboard. He also collects used tea leaves from local restaurants and covers the compost with a layer of used tea. The top most layer is sprinkled with some coconut powder. “It gives a nice natural smell when the compost is ready. To keep worms and insects away, I sprinkle lemon spray or neem powder at times.” Supporting his efforts, his family and his neighbours collect wet waste in buckets for the whole week and give it to him during the weekend.It might not yet be a success story but Amol Mukewar definitely has a plan. He wanted to utilise his piece of land in Bagalur by doing organic farming, and thought of collecting compost from households that produce it. Now, he plans not only to provide a fixed livelihood for farmers but also provide inexpensive organic vegetables to families who contribute to the compost.Mukewar, a chemical engineer and resident of Whitefield, says, “Along with seven other friends, I have been collecting compost for the last four months from apartments and homes near my residence. There are people who compost but do not know what to do with the excess compost. We collect it from them and send it all to my small piece of land in Bagalur to be used for growing organic vegetables. The vegetables grown are then distributed among my seven friends and me. This is just a pilot plan, but I do intend to extend it to other areas in the city where people are producing compost. I plan to hire more farmers for growing vegetables organically for those who are contributing compost. Only the farmers’ fee and transport charges will be paid by them. This way I want to enable others to take up organic farming as well as provide livelihood to farmers in the smaller districts as well.”

Stay updated with all the Bangalore Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.