Teaming up for a greener tomorrow

A group of youngsters from Wanaparthy took action after noticing that tourists and locals had left trash on the revered Tirumalayya Gutta which has a Lord Venkateswara temple on the top of the hill.

Hyderabad:  How many times have you seen empty plastic bottles, chips packets, and chocolate wrappers dumped in public places and simply walked away as if it didn’t matter? Or do you litter yourself? Plastics contribute to climate change – not just are they environmentally costly to make and dispose of but they also emit greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming and climate change.

A group of youngsters from Wanaparthy took action after noticing that tourists and locals had left trash on the revered Tirumalayya Gutta which has a Lord Venkateswara temple on the top of the hill. To rid the forest of plastic, they formed the ‘Green Team’, a conservative group.

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“We are an active team of nine members, but around 60 members are part of the Green Team. Every year, during the ‘Sravana masam’ the locals cook on the hill and leave so much plastic waste behind. I have always been very connected to Tirumalayya Gutta and I noticed how a beautiful place was being converted into a dustbin! That’s when my cousin Abhi Ram and I decided to start cleaning up the place. On one fine Sunday, we invited a few more friends to this cleaning drive and we had a sense of satisfaction after we were able to make some difference,” shared 34-year-old Kyasani Krishna Kanth Sagar, the founder of ‘Green Team’.

Every Sunday after that, it became routine, and the team has been growing ever since. The team has currently been working to restore the stepwell Garuda Pushkarini in Wanaparthy, which was constructed in 1868. “We weren’t sure how much we could accomplish at first, but after we got to work, the trespassers joined in. The weeds were pulled out, most of the plastic was cleaned, and we were excited to revive a historic place. Even, the Additional District Collector Ashish Sangwan visited the well and gave his valuable suggestions. We are now able to move forward with this project thanks to funding from CREDAI Builders Association Wanaparthy,” shared 23-year-old Divya Teja Reddy, a volunteer.

The stepwell provides a three-foot-deep groundwater spring, and the gates are still functional. The well can hold 37 lakh litres of water, however right now, 25 lakh litres can be filled. In addition to providing the municipality with the outlet, they want the K.D.R. Government Polytechnic College to utilise the water from the stepwell. “We wish to restore more stepwells, and Hanumanhalli in Hampi is the location of one of our cleanup campaigns. In Tirumalayya Gutta, we also seek to expand the butterfly population. We urge people to stop leaving trash in wells, water bodies, and other areas around us,” added Krishna.

With the assistance of the fire station, the team has now sprayed water throughout the well and added bioenzymes (natural cleansers) to the water to guarantee that the well is thoroughly cleaned while also protecting the well’s life. They have been joined by additional collector Ashish Sangwan and The Rainwater Project founder Kalpana Ramesh. “We want to make Wanaparthy a plastic-free zone,” the team, which has members like Venkatswamy, Rambabu, Shiva Krishna, and John Rinaldi, concluded.