Wild On Wheels... The Blog: April 2010

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

UnTame in the DNA Article

Page 3 of AfterHrs Pune
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?queryed=40&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=40&eddate=4/20/2010

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Stop polluting Mutha riverConsidering the rate by which the river is getting polluted, Wild on Wheels demands a check on river pollution. With increasing horizontal population growth, the water pollution of river Mutha is increasing day by day. Though water flowing from original source is less polluted the moment it enters city limits, the pollution level starts increasing to a greater extent. Same is with water flowing from Deccan area. To add more to this, garbage bins kept on the river bridge are broken, or are over flowing resulting in more water pollution.

There is need to create awareness to stop polluting river and replace broken and overflowing bins. The history of water pollution goes with the history of man itself when he first arrived on this planet. Growing civilisation, large settlements gave rise to the problem of water pollution. In earlier times, sewage was discharged untreated in the river. It was later realised that sewage must be treated before its discharge into water bodies to check pollution. Presently, the major problem is the Nirmalya (flowers offered to God). Though there is need of decomposition of these flowers most of devotees prefer to add this Nirmalya in flowing water. To stop this, many environmental NGO step forward to save this. PMC has even put up special Nirmalya bins on the bridges to prevent people from polluting river.
Environmental science student Chaitrali Ranade said, "I can understand that people cannot throw Nirmalya on garbage bins but they can definitely throw in special Kalash shaped bins kept at bridge. Also most of times the garbage is collected in plastic

bag and complete bag is tied or packed and thrown in bin. This really does not solve the problem. Plastic takes lot of time for decomposition. I would like to request that you can carry Nirmalya as it is dry, put it in Nirmalya bin and take your plastic bag back."
Another major problem is that the Nirmalya bins placed by PMC are either broken or absent resulting in major pollution. Each Puneite has his own Nirmalya and it is surely major concern for pollution. This awareness is seen during festive period most of the times. PMC garbage department either fails to collect the garbage and this overflow starts dropping into water because of the winds. Regular Nirmalya collection is need of hour to prevent water pollution to some extend as water has physio-chemical, biological, toxic and pathogenical effects of pollution.
Another nature lover Ameya Pangarkar said, "We add plastic bags and other materials to flowing water knowingly or unknowingly. But this actually affects the very badly to animals or birds. While drinking water they also swallow plastics. There are many cases where we find animals having plastic in their stomach. This is really ridiculous! In spite of regular awareness programmes, the mentality of people is not changing. It's high time and we need to show serious concern for this issue. Also PMC should support by making collection time to time. We are actually affecting our eco-system."

When Ghole road ward officer Vijay Landge was contacted he said, "I agree water pollution is major issue. I have already issued instructions to my team to work on this. We will see that Nirmalya bins are cleaned on a regular basis and broken bins will be immediately replaced. I also urge people to put the Nirmalya in the special Kalash kept for this. People should help PMC to tackle the problem of water pollution.
—Prachee Kulkarn

WOW in the Media Part 1

JagranCityPlus / Pune(Deccan)

Activists clean up river, seek serious attention towards issue

The organization, Wild On Wheels had arranged for a River Bank Clean Up event at Deccan on March 14. This event was organised to symbolise the start of fund-raiser. This organisation wishes to address the need for serious concern towards the environment.
The initiator of this movement Apoorva Joshi said, "We are students of Environmental Science and Biotechnology from FC College. We aim at working on wildlife documentation and wildlife protection. We have started on small note but it was really surprising that in span of two hours, we collected 21 bags of garbage. People should think seriously about this."
Adding further her friend Chaitrali Ranade said, "We had established this NGO Wild On Wheels two years ago. We have collected garbage from the banks of river which included plastic, medical waste, vegetables waste, worn out clothes, flowers and garlands. Actually we have garbage bin on Bhide Bridge but it is overflowing and PMC does not even bother to clean up resulting in water pollution. We had contacted Ghole Road ward office for this and they had supported us."
Amit Ambedkar of Hingewadi-based Balson Industries sponsored the bio-degradable bags for collection of garbage. In noble gesture, a young boy Zakir Hussain came up with gloves to support this initiative. Around 20 of them participated in it. Also some passersby who saw this movement joined the group wholeheartedly. Apart from this, members also urged the people not to throw paper and plastic in river.
Apoorva said, "Any kind of bio-degradable matter that is dumped into water bodies decays due to the action of micro-organisms present in the water. These organisms require oxygen for these processes to occur. However, when excess of organic matter is dumped in the water bodies, the rate of degradation decreases and most of the available oxygen is used by the microbes to decay the dumped waste. When so much oxygen is used by microbes, the other organisms in the water body, like fish, or aquatic plants and insects, get less oxygen for their survival. Hence, the biological oxygen demand of that water body increases. When the demand reaches a certain level, the water is unhealthy. And only anaerobic organisms which do not require oxygen can survive in such water. This changed basic chemistry and biology of the water body affecting all living organisms that depend on this water." Those interested can contact on wildonwheelspune@gmail.com.