JOIN USBookworms to keep earthworms busy
The varsity will adopt scientific solid waste management and establish a mega vermi compost plant at its 800-acre campus, Jnanaganga. It will supply the plastic waste to the Plastic Handloom Unit in the city, to be recycled into new plastic products.
The unit has been jointly established by the Hyderabad Karnataka Development Board, the Gulbarga Mahanagara Palike and the Centre for Environment Education.
If all goes well, the compost unit will start production in two months. Initially, the compost will be for in-house consumption, and later exploited commercially.
Brainchild
The eco-friendly plans are the brainchild of Vice-Chancellor Dr E T Puttaiah, who is from an environment science background.
He has also roped in the departments of botany, zoology, microbiology and biotechnology for the project.
“For the first time in its three-decade history, the university is venturing into an eco-friendly enterprise, which will not only produce organic manure but also keep the campus clean and green,” Puttaiah said.
The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India has sanctioned a three-year project with an assistance of Rs 15 lakh, to the Department of Microbiology of the university for the project, which aims at empowering farmers belonging to the SCs, STs and the weaker sections of society, by training them to set up vermi compost units.
Training for farmers
“After the commencement of the compost unit, the university will train 100 farmers of five taluks in the district in vermi compost culture. Each farmer will be given an assistance of Rs 1,000 for constructing compost pits,” project co-ordinator K Lingappa said.
Three pits, which are 15 feet long, 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide each, will be dug. Tree waste, abundantly available on the campus, will be the major raw material for preparing the vermi compost, apart from the biodegradable civic waste.
The pits will be filled with all the waste and treated suitably. Thousands of earthworms will be let into the pits, so that they produce vermi compost. By March, the university will start production of vermi compost.
Urban domestic waste will be collected from about 100 residential quarters, five student hostels, the university canteen and all the varsity departments in the campus. The civic waste will be segregated as biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.
The varsity has already started a bio-diesel manufacturing unit on the campus by cultivating bio-diesel seed plants on about 100 acres of waste and barren land.