Articles by Usha Rajagopalan

PNLIT had requested volunteers to help with the planting of a few indigenous saplings at the Puttenahalli lake on Saturday 15th September. The process involved digging or expanding the existing pits, planting the saplings, filling with red soil and compost and if found necessary, securing the saplings with tree guards.Prasanna Vynatheya's report on the activity:  We had a successful day this morning at the Lake planting the saplings. It was encouraging to see our friend Pankaj who had cycled all the way from Whitefield to give us a helping hand. There were many others including Meera, Prashanth & wife from 24th…

At the Independence Day celebrations at Brigade Millennium on 15th August, PNLIT Young Rangers were given a few minutes to talk to the gathering of 200-odd residents, about lakes and PNLIT. PNLIT was also given a stall where the youngsters promoted PNLIT's T-shirts, cloth bags and nature walks. Sincere thanks to the Brigade Millennium Residents Federation (BMRF) for the opportunity.PNLIT Trustee Nupur Jain, who has been guiding the Young Rangers said, "the children gave good speeches and very excitedly sold the T-shirts, bags and a nature walk".Registration for the Nature Walk is open. Details below. Date - 20th August 2012 (Monday…

Shreya Sharma recently planted two saplings at Puttenahalli Lake, to commemorate her seventh birthday.Two saplings planted at Puttenahalli Lake, 28-Jul-2012 Pics: Munish Sharma Shreya's dad Munish Sharma, resident of the JP Nagar neighbourhood Brigade Gardenia Apartments, has "adopted" the saplings for a year. With careful nurturing, the saplings should have grown considerably by Shreya's next birthday. If everyone planted a sapling on her/ his birthday, we would have a billion trees in India every year!⊕

Whether a human being or a tree, how little we value the aged never realizing the good in them. Just outside our Puttenahalli Lake is a tall tree which had leaves growing on branches too high up to identify what species it belonged to. The branch formation gave no clue either. Perhaps it was deciduous because sometimes only the twigs remained criss-crossing in interesting formations against the sky. Ever since PNLIT assumed charge of maintaining the lake, we noticed the fellow looming outside the lake because, come evening flocks of birds like Rosy Pastors would fly from the lake and sit on its branches.…

PNLIT has been adjudged the Green Star 1st Runner-Up of the People's Green Award at the TCS World 10K Bangalore 2012! The winners were announced at a crowded press conference at ITC Windsor Manor last evening. Prasanna, Usha and Nupur received the award from Kannada actor Mr. Puneet Rajkumar and Mr. Atul Ballal of ITC Windsor Manor.  Prasanna K. Vynatheya, Usha Rajagopalan and Nupur Jain of PNLIT The TCS World 10K which was held on 27th May had launched the People's Green Awards as "a platform to admire and acknowledge people who share this dream to make earth greener and better place to live in."…

The Bangalore 10K was coming up and registrations had opened. I had not run even 10kms in the whole of last year, I decided to skip it. End of story.Hang on! A few weeks later I came across an email that said that PNLIT, which is a small organisation, trying to do its best at saving and improving the neighbourhood lake, would be one of the participating NGOs in the fund raiser. That is when I decided to change my mind and participate in the marathon. And raise funds for it at the same time. Time was short. I had about 20 days…

PNLIT is delighted to tell you that it has been shortlisted for the People's Green Award instituted as part of the TCS World 10K. Public voting and Jury assessment will together decide the final three winners.   PNLIT is a local people's initiative to tackle the problem of dying lakes and water shortage through public participation. We were instrumental in getting the Puttenahalli Lake restored and are the first citizens' group in Bangalore to officially maintain a lake.  We work within a very tight budget from donations made mostly by individual well wishers.  The People's Green Award will help us get some…

In a city of vanishing lakes, PNLIT is a small team of ordinary citizens who campaigned successfully to rejuvenate Puttenahalli Lake in J.P. Nagar and has now become its official caretakers. PNLIT's goals are to recharge the water table, indirectly providing water for an increasingly parched locality and to transform the lake into a secure bird habitat though in the middle of an urban jungle. Within two years of restoration, over 200 tree saplings have been planted and over 50 bird species spotted in and around the lake. PNLIT meets expenses from voluntary donations, mostly from residents in the area.…

Brief background: Spark the Rise is a platform built by Mahindra "for ordinary people to take charge of India's future". Anyone with a plan could submit it to http://www.sparktherise.com/ to get volunteers, advice or donations. From August 2011 to March 2012, 1346 projects were posted on the site. For six months, Mahindra awarded monthly grants of Rs 4 lakh each, to 8 outstanding projects. "PNLIT - Nurturing Puttenahalli Lake back to its pristine glory" was one such awardee, and one of the 18 projects in the Grand Finale, where additional grants were at stake.   20th April 2012 was an eventful day for the Spark…

PNLIT is happy to announce "PNLIT Greenscraps" an introduction to nature journaling which will teach children how to observe, sketch and write about what they see in the natural world around them. Too often we do not notice that little ladybird sitting on a pale green leaf or the cobweb in an early morning glistening with dew drops. These are the small pleasures that uplift our mood and give meaning to our day. These are invaluable lessons in appreciating natural wonders which stay with us as we grow older. Ms. Sangeetha Kadur and Ms. Shilpashree who designed the Greenscraps workshops…