During his visit to Chennai in May 2017, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar announced the launch of pond cleaning program. Under this program, The Art of Living will clean and rejuvenate 423 water bodies with Jag Pavani Project in Chennai, which includes 145 Greater Chennai Corporation water bodies, 39 temple tanks, under the Hindu Religious Endowment Board, and other remaining Public Works Department (PWD) water bodies in Chennai.
The initiative, called Namma Ooru Namma Kulam, includes de-silting and strengthening its bunds, removing solid waste, planting trees along the bunds and reaching out to the community through specific engagements and social media. The team, led by Sekar Satagopan, Niraj Shah, Srinivasan Krishnan, Balaji Sundaravadhan and Kannan, reached out to over 50 Art of Living centers in Chennai and has at least 150 volunteers actively involved till date.
Additionally, the goal is to inspire and align each center’s volunteers to the initiative’s vision and goals, identify coordinators to lead local cleaning programs, empower teams to plan and execute these programs as well as encourage them to participate in the outreach programs actively.
The journey began with a comprehensive survey of ponds managed by the Chennai Municipal Corporation. Using advanced technologies such as Kobo Toolbox, Edmonto, and Google Maps, the survey captured the pond coordinates, actual size, and depth of water in ponds, the extent of encroachment, pollution, and types of pollutants among others. At least 70 ponds have been surveyed so far.
Five ponds belonging to the corporation in Sholinganallur zone and a temple tank in Thoraipakkam were shortlisted. The first pond undertaken for cleaning gave encouraging results with key water quality parameters like Bio-Chemical Oxygen on Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen on Demand (COD) and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) improving by over 50%. The Art of Living has cleaned eight such ponds with excellent results, including improvement in aquatic life.
Highlights of work done so far
Most ponds are filled with plastic, bottles, metal containers, clothes, footwear, and other non-degradable waste. In July 2017, a clean-up exercise was undertaken in Srinivasapuram slum along the Adyar River Creek, a pond, and a temple tank. Around 100 volunteers undertook a rally in Srinivasapuram slum for protecting the Adyar River. Zero Waste Management program has also been underway in Srinivasapuram slum to protect the Adyar River.
Following this, on Independence Day (15 August), volunteers from nine centers cleaned a lake, two ponds, and two temple tanks across Chennai. Student volunteers from SRM, Ramapuram and IIT Madras joined efforts of The Art of Living with the aim to clean all the ponds in Chennai every fortnight. A 90-minute cultural program highlighting the need to protect environment and importance of tree plantation for Melanur villagers was showcased by 25 volunteers. They also did a door-to-door campaign in Sholinganallur to sensitize people on damage caused to a nearby pond due to the dumping of solid waste and letting drainage seep into the pond.
To create a sustainable ecosystem, strengthening the pond bunds is of equal importance. Keeping this in mind as well as to increase the green cover, The Art of Living is planting tree saplings along the pond bund and its surroundings. Volunteers planted 500 saplings in Mellanur village. Saplings of marudhu, a water-friendly tree, were planted beside the bund of three ponds along with shade-providing trees like pungan, naval, and redwood.
Creating sustainable environment
Rejuvenation and creating a sustainable environment is an ongoing process. Thus, in its effort to create awareness around environment deterioration and sensitizing people on their duty to protect it, The Art of Living has been engaging with local communities via rallies, awareness walks, theme-based cultural events, social media campaigns, and training them on water treatment and other cleaning programs.
The Art of Living is working towards a sustainably healthy environment for the citizens, and other stakeholders of Chennai are invited to participate and contribute in the cleaning and rejuvenation of ponds.
