Drip irrigation mooted to water saplings at BU

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

To increase green cover in the city, the volunteers of Adamya Chetana planted more than 1000 saplings on Saturday and Sunday at the Jnanabharathi campus of Bangalore varsity.

“It is not the first time our volunteers have planted saplings at the campus. We had planted around 1,000 saplings in 2017 and 200 saplings in 2019 at the campus,’’ said Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, managing trustee of Adamya Chetana.

Around 600 volunteers participated in the event at the campus. “We are in discussion with Bangalore University authorities on the maintenance of the saplings. As of now, we are supplying water through tankers for the saplings. We are contemplating to have a drip irrigation facility for the saplings,” said Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, adding that around 20 volunteers would be sent to the campus every Saturday for watering the saplings.

Prakash N., a volunteer of Adamya Chetana, said some volunteers visited the campus on Sunday to plant 50 more saplings on the campus.

“We supplied water to the saplings planted on Saturday. I am very happy to be part of this initiative,” said Prakash.

Meanwhile, T.J. Renuka Prasad, president, Jnanabharathi Vaayuvihaarigala Sangha, has suggested that Adamya Chetana should deploy a drip irrigation facility to supply water to the saplings as tankers are not viable.

“We have installed a drip irrigation facility at an estimated cost of Rs 1.50 lakh. There is a borewell for water. If Adamya Chetana comes forward to spend Rs 75,000, the existing drip irrigation facility can be extended to the area, where around 1,000 saplings are planted,” said Renuka Prasad

He said that saplings need around 20 water tankers per week and Adamya Chetana has to spend Rs 40,000 per month for watering the saplings. “We are ready to help Adamya Chetana if we succeed in finding donors.’’

On Saturday, many prominent personalities including High Court Judge (retired) Justice N Kumar, Bangalore University Vice Chancellor Prof. K R Venugopal, and BMS College Principal Dr. Muralidhar and many children attended the event.