Lamp Post News (2024)

13/02/2024

Diving into the world of books is every bibliophile’s favourite hobby. It is astonishing how a handful of pages can make us feel so many things! And what’s more, they can also help us learn a host of new things to become a better person.

Disability is a natural part of human diversity. However, seldom are we taught about how to support people with disabilities or use assistive aids. Much of this is because we have little or no exposure to disability — either directly or indirectly.

Hence, here are a few book recommendations that can help you become more disability-aware!

The Invisible Majority: India’s Abled Disabled by C K Meena and V R Ferose

“This is a book about disability. Which means this is a book about all of us,” reads the opening line of the book. When his son was diagnosed with autism in 2010, V R Ferose looked through every resource available on disability — articles, books, blogs, etc. While there was no dearth of information available, it was of little help for a parent coming to terms with the diagnosis of their child’s disability.

Hence, taking the baton in his own hands and finding a co-author with as much zeal and enthusiasm, V R Ferose and C K Meena set out to pen a non-academic book on disability in India that covers everything from policy framework, social attitudes, employment to healthcare, education, and independent living.

Priya’s Mirror by Paromita Vohra and Ram Devineni

This paperback is an illustrated comic narrating the story of Priya, an acid attack survivor who forms an alliance with a group of women with similar experiences and helps them fight off Ahankar, the demon king. Illustrated by celebrated comic creator, Dan Goldman, the book portrays the intersection of gender and disability.

Priya’s Mirror is a sequel to Priya’s Shakti, in which Priya, a survivor of sexual abuse, galvanises women with similar ordeals. According to Devineni, one of the creators of the comic, “The problem of sexual violence is not a legal issue but a cultural problem.” This book helps evoke empathy and directs the gaze to the social lacunae instead of the victim or survivor.

This Kind of Child: The Disability Story by K. Srilata

“When I started working on the book, my daughter was the protagonist of the story. But as I dealt with the situation, I realised that I could not stop with just my story. That was when I began speaking to other people with disabilities and their caregivers,” K Srilata tells SheThePeople.

‘This Kind of Child’ is a compilation of seven mini books, each covering a different perspective on disability. Through stories, both fiction and non-fiction, interviews and case studies, the book attempts to attune the readers with a range of challenges experienced by individuals with disabilities, their parents, siblings, and even caregivers. Through this book, Srilata tries to tell her readers that disability is a part of human experience and we have no choice but to engage with it.

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

What is the link between fairy tales and disability? Wearing the cape of a critic, Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales and analyses how they play a role in influencing society’s perspectives towards people with disabilities. Leduc establishes that villains in fairy tales have been seen to possess certain deformities — a deformed limb or a blind eye — which then go on to reinforce stereotypes that people with disabilities are bad and evil.

This book, while telling us a story, helps us to reimagine them in a way that no section of society is represented in a bad light! Amanda also, in a beautiful way, conveys to her readers that fairytales are exactly what they mean – a figment of the mind and in no way represent real people.

Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau

Don’t we all struggle to find the answers to the questions around disability? Guess, the author of this book just got into our heads and solved the mystery for one and for all! Penned by globally acclaimed disability rights activist Emily Ladau, this book takes a pretty practical approach to understanding the nitty gritties of the world’s largest minority, thereby inching closer to an inclusive world.

This book covers a lot of important issues like appropriate etiquettes, how to have an informed conversation about disability, how to make accessibility a standard practice and so on. This makes this book the perfect way for someone to begin learning about disability and appreciate and acknowledge the identity.

True Biz by Sara Nović

Set in a residential high school for Deaf students, True Biz is a fast-paced novel that follows the lives of the students and provides the readers a look inside the Deaf Culture. It touches on a lot of important topics like growing up Deaf in a hearing world, the fight for civil rights by the Deaf Community, as well as more coming of age topics like family connections, romance, and friendship.

Written by Sign Language User and Deaf Activist Sara Nović, this book is a great example of the community coming forward to tell its own stories.

Swimming Against the Tide by Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

A memoir by Indian parasports champion Madhavi Latha, this book traces her personal journey of becoming a para swimming champion at the age of 40. A story of how above all, having faith in one’s own capabilities is a sure shot way to success, this book is a must read for anyone who is out on a new journey and feeling a little lost.

The book also touches upon the important role that a solid support system plays in the road to success. Prathigudupu’s parents and friends play an important role in her story and continue to be a source of motivation and inspiration for her.

All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

This book traces the story of a blind French girl and a young German Soldier whose paths cross during World War II. The book is a must read for history lovers as it shows us the reality of the World War through unique perspectives that have never been explored before.

This book has also been turned into a Netflix series which was well received, making this a great choice for 2024’s reading list!

As the year unfurls, this is a great time to renew our wish lists and add some paperbacks that will indeed be our best friends! Disability is something that affects all of us – directly or indirectly. Let these books bridge the gap between the two and help you become more inclusive and empathetic to the unseen realities of people with disabilities!

Written by V-shesh; Edited by Padmashree Pande.

Diving into the world of books is every bibliophile’s favourite hobby. It is astonishing how a handful of pages can make us feel so many thi...

13/02/2024

Let me take you back in time to a simpler era — the 16th century.

If you were to enter any Moghul court back then, an amusing sight would greet you. On hot summer afternoons, courtmen would gather around and play a game of cards, apt for the season. While to the uninitiated eye, it would appear to be a usual card game, a closer look would prove otherwise.

The ‘cards’ were made with ivory and tortoiseshells, instead of paper (commonly used today), and bedecked with illustrations of kings atop horses, chariots, royal suits and palaces. The present rectangular design was then a circular frame. And the name of the game was ganjifa.

While the Moghuls played ganjifa to their heart’s content, its popularity waned over centuries, eventually only remaining in Maharashtra’s Sawantwadi — where you can buy yourself a pack of ganjifa cards from the local bazaar even now! As the game lost favour in places where it was once a daily ritual, the artisans of Sawantwadi attempted to preserve it by learning it from the Chitrakar community, who were skilled in making the cards.

Today Sawantwadi is the only remaining place in India where ganjifa is still practised.

The royal couple — Yuvraj Lakham Sawant Bhonsle and Yuvrani Shraddha Sawant Bhonsle — shine with pride as they tell this story. Their love for culture is evident. And the Sawantwadi Palace Hotel, a boutique homestay that is a restored marvel preserving the ganjifa art is a testament to this passion.

The ganjifa card game came to India from Persia in the 16th century, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

The princely state of Sawantwadi was ruled by the Royal Family of Sawant Bhonsles, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

A stay steeped in history

Upon entering Sawantwadi, the air seems different. The villages are blanketed with a kind of mystique, and history will whisper to you from every corner if you take the time to listen.

Known as the land of the artists, the princely state was ruled by the Royal Family of Sawant Bhonsles. The Sawantwadi Palace was built by Khem Sawant III and its vibrant red laterite facade is complemented by arches that draw from English architectural styles.

When the Sawant Bhonsle family decided to open their doors to the public as a homestay, it was backed by the intent to take Sawantwadi art one step ahead by making it accessible to people from all over.

“The boutique art hotel is built for you to experience these art forms in their purest form,” Shraddha says. She and Lakham are the 19th generation of the Sawant Bhonsle family. They are united by their shared passion for the arts and food (both are professional chefs who studied at the Culinary Institute of America).

As you will see, the revival of the palace quarters and its journey to a homestay has roots in the couple’s love story.

“The plan was to get married in Goa,” Shraddha shares. “But, while planning, we realised we had a beautiful palace right here. So, we began restoring it and that’s when we saw potential. It was an informed decision by the family to turn a portion of it into a boutique hotel featuring six suite rooms.”

The said portion was called ‘Taisaheb Wada’ — a wing dedicated to the five queens of Sawantwadi. The rest of the palace continues to be a private residence.

The Sawantwadi Palace was built by Khem Sawant III during his reign from 1755 to 1803 and stands as the pride of the city, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

‘Sawantwadi Lacquerwares’ was established in 1971 as an attempt to revive ganjifa art and lacquerware, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

The artisans who are closely associated with the Sawantwadi Palace are an integral part of preserving the ganjifa art, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

And thus, the couple got started — Shraddha’s culinary prowess and Lakham’s natural instinct for art, a combination that unveiled the lost grandeur of the 18th-century palace. For Lakham, the part he thoroughly enjoyed was seeing life being breathed back into the silence of the place he calls home.

“In the past, before India got independence, there used to be a lot of people who would come to the palace to meet my grandfather. There would be activities going on, chatter and laughter. But in recent years my family were the only ones living here. Palaces are built for people. The human energy was missing,” he notes.

Starting the homestay, was an attempt at bringing it back.

From deciding to restore the palace quarters to hosting their first guests in January 2023, the couple recount the four-year journey to be one of the most iconic adventures they have had together. The most wonderful part, according to them, was inking friendships with the local artisans of Sawantwadi who were delighted to be a part of the process.

If you recall the legacy of the ganjifa art you were treated to at the beginning of this tale, you’ll be thrilled to know that the art finds its purest expression in the palace hotel — in the facades, the decor, the cutlery, the furnishings, and the village.

A warm welcome into the palace

It is astounding how much the Sawantwadi Palace relies on the bounty of the village’s heritage and culture. Right from the cultural workshops that let tourists experiment with the ganjifa art to the furnishings of the palace.

“A lot of it has been preserved,” says Shraddha, elaborating on the furniture and the foundational structure. “However, we had to strengthen some of the walls by installing metal planks especially since there is an influx of people now. We need the structure to be strong.”

The food at the Sawantwadi Palace Hotel has Konkan influences and is prepared by the local staff, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

The Sawantwadi Palace Hotel has six suite rooms that are furnished taking inspiration from the ganjifa art, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

The couple also had modern bathrooms constructed. But aside from this, whatever you see is the original structure. Taking us on a virtual tour of the room, Shraddha says the decor is an ode to the ganjifa art.

“Instead of numbering the rooms, they are named after avatars of Lord Vishnu. The idea is for people to understand the history of Sawantwadi. When you enter a certain room, everything from the doorknob to the decor is a work of our artisans and has ganjifa symbols painted on them. We’ve inculcated the art in bits and pieces in the night lamps, the tea trays and everywhere we could,” she says.

But while this is fascinating, Shraddha says you should hear the legacy of the furniture. “These have been made by the Sawant Bhonsle family in their unit ‘Sawantwadi Lacquerwares’.

Interestingly, this is also the place where the ganjifa revival happened.

“When my grandfather-in-law HH Rajesaheb Shivramraje Bhonsle visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, he noticed a label reading Sawantwadi Cards. He and his wife learnt the art from the 80-year-old artist Pundalik Chitari who at that time would make only two sets of ganjifa a year. They started Sawantwadi Lacquerwares in 1971 to revive and promote the art of ganjifa and lacquerware.”

True to the message championed by their ancestors, the couple is insistent on empowering the local artisanal communities through their creation of the boutique hotel.

“We only hired locals. We’re always told that the process would have been easier and quicker if we had employed architectural firms from bigger cities, but we were insistent that we wanted the locals to be an integral part of the restoration from start to finish,” she adds.

And the couple is glad they opted for this. “It led us to discover so many interesting facets,” smiles Shraddha, sharing an anecdote of how they came across huge stones while they were clearing the ground where the swimming pool currently is.

“It was a forest earlier. During the clearing spree, we began seeing mosaic patterns on the stones, and that’s when we realised these were actually tiles. Eventually, we came across the first wada our ancestors had built.” Today, you will see those same stones in the boutique hotel premises.

The furniture in the rooms at the Sawantwadi Hotel Palace is made by ‘Sawantwadi Lacquerwares’, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

The food at the Sawantwadi Palace is made using produce grown in the organic gardens, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

Involving the artisans in the restoration was symbolic for many reasons.

Lakham shares that these families were always an integral part of the family’s work. But with time, their children moved to cities because of better opportunities. “Convincing these artisans’ children about our dream was tough, but we told them what we were attempting to create and they understood. We also promised we’d match their city salaries.”

Talk a walk with royalty

The beautiful part about staying at the Sawantwadi Palace is that along with living in royal quarters and witnessing history, you also get a front-row seat to the family’s iconic journey. The museum is breathtaking.

“It’s more of a photo gallery,” Shraddha is modest about it. Designed by Lakham’s grandparents, the space showcases the family history and events that stood out. “There are pictures and stories of certain untold events. For instance, before the big Dandi March happened, Gandhi was actually in hiding at one of our summer palaces. There was also a visit from Nehru. There are coronation photos of my grandfather-in-law, the last coronated King.”

The dip into culture does not end here.

The Sawantwadi Palace Hotel is surrounded by the Amboli Ghats where guests are encouraged to take a picnic and go, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

The museum features pictures of the history of the Sawant Bhonsle family along with iconic moments through history tied to their legacy, Picture source: The Sawant Bhonsle family

A short drive away from the palace hotel lies the Pinguli village where guests are treated to the story of the origin of leather puppetry. Honoured with a prestigious Padma Shri award, the legacy of the founder’s remarkable contributions remains and his son, the talented Chetan Gangavane, will personally guide you through the fascinating puppetry museum.

Some of the puppets also feature in the palace hotel. Shraddha finds them a great ice-breaker. “We love striking up conversations with our guests. This is a wonderful way to.”

Another conversation starter is the ganjifa cards and Shraddha is proud to share that the family has acquired the largest collection of ganjifa cards all over India. At the homestay, you’ll also be able to attend an exclusive workshop where you can learn all about the famed art form.

Agreed, there is a lot to do during your stay. But, we recommend spending an evening of bliss in the organic gardens on the property where the family cultivates their greens — chillies, eggplant, edible flowers and other vegetables.

The gardens are fascinating and you can only imagine why the lunch is a kaleidoscope of flavours, the colours paralleling the beauty of the place itself. The Konkan influence is visible in each dish and fish is the obvious hero with curries and fried delights that bring out its flavour to perfection.

The Sawantwadi Palace Hotel is bliss in all its splendid geometry. And I am still reeling over the fact that I have spoken to royalty themselves.

But I can testify that neither the grandeur of the Sawantwadi Palace Hotel nor the beautiful shades it turns as the sun sets can parallel the warmth of this couple who says all they want to do is dream bigger and carry the legacy forward.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Let me take you back in time to a simpler era — the 16th century. If you were to enter any Moghul court back then, an amusing sight would g...

13/02/2024

One of the most drought-prone districts of Maharashtra, Solapur struggles to end its water woes. With unseasonal rains and hailstorms, farmers of the district have been bearing the brunt of climate change and unprecedented agricultural losses over the last few decades.

Interestingly, Mahesh Asabe, an innovative farmer from the dry Akola village of the district, has made agriculture a profit-making sector in the dry region. He has led the way with dragon fruit cultivation and is now earning Rs 10 lakh per acre.

“Traditionally, we have been growing pomegranates, custard apples, and grapes. With climate change, it has been difficult to cultivate these crops,” Mahesh tells The Better India.

“Today, we experience unseasonal rains and hailstorms. Sometimes, we get rain during the harvesting period of grapes. This washes away our year’s worth of hard work. Additionally, there has been an unprecedented increase in the cost of fertilisers over the years. It collectively made farming unprofitable,” adds the 27-year-old.

Mahesh has opened the doors of his ‘Rukmini Farms’ to serve as demonstration fields for other farmers.

We sat down with the young farmer to understand how he reaped profits after switching to dragon fruit cultivation.

A dicey experiment

Since his childhood, Mahesh dreamt of becoming a farmer. To shape his dreams into reality, he went on to study agricultural engineering and then completed his master’s in food processing and engineering from Udaipur, Rajasthan, in 2020.

It was during his graduation years that the engineer read about dragon fruit farming in a magazine. “As it belongs to the cactus family, dragon fruit requires less water and nutrient requirements. It has a life expectancy of 20-25 years and gives multiple harvests in a year,” he explains.

“It has a high benefit-to-cost ratio, can survive the high summer heat and can be cultivated in any kind of harsh land,” he adds.

“I understood that it was the future crop of farming and we could earn handsomely with dragon fruits even in dry regions like ours,” Mahesh says.

Mahesh has led the way with dragon fruit cultivation and is now earning Rs 10 lakh per acre.

So, in 2012, he went to Bangladesh to procure dragon fruit saplings. He bought 9,000 saplings at the rate of Rs 110 each and planted them on three acres of land.

With high hopes, he had invested the family income of up to Rs 17 lakh to prepare the farmland and plant the new crop that was still unknown to a large number of farmers in the region.

What happened next devastated him.

Turning perils into opportunities

After a year of planting the crop, Mahesh did not get even a single fruit out of the 9,000 saplings. “I was very young and I was questioned about my decision to cultivate dragon fruits. When we got zero returns in the first year, I started feeling depressed. We didn’t even have any other business to survive on,” he shares.

Mahesh realised that the saplings he procured were not mature. “Ideally, the mother saplings should have been two years old. We got fooled with the produce. So, it took us two whole years to get returns from the crop,” he adds.

With dragon fruit farming, Mahesh Asabe has made agriculture a profit-making sector in the dry region.

One of the other challenges before Mahesh was a lack of awareness from customers about this fruit, which heavily impacted the crop’s demand. “Nobody knew what dragon fruit was. After we managed to get some produce, we took it to the market. People doubted that this would even make any sale,” he says.

To overcome these challenges, Mahesh opened a YouTube channel to make farmers aware about the perks of dragon fruit farming which in turn led to a rise in consumption of the fruit. Over time, he gained good viewership and started attracting farmers to his field.

The progressive farmer has become an example for several other farmers in the region. He has also opened the doors of his ‘Rukmini Farms’ to serve as demonstration fields for others who wish to grow dragon fruits.

His farm has been visited by at least 35,000 farmers from across Maharashtra. Of these, he has trained and helped 500 switch to dragon fruit cultivation.

Today, Mahesh has developed a good customer base in the nearby Sangli and Kolhapur markets where he manages to sell his seasonal produce of at least 200 tonnes, earning an income of Rs 2 crores from his 20-acre dragon fruit farm.

Mahesh sells his seasonal produce of at least 200 tonnes at Rs 100 on average.

This June, he also aims to launch his processing unit to sell Value-Added Products (VAP) including dragon fruit juice, squash, jam, and chocolates. “With our team of 500 farmers, I aim to enter into the export business with our top quality produce along with the VAPs in the processing industry,” he adds.

For his outstanding work in the field of agriculture, Mahesh was bestowed with several awards including the prestigious National Innovative Agri Youth Award 2021 by the Krishibhushan Maharashtra FPO Startup Federation.

He was also given the Krishak Samman Award by the Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, and the Krish*thon Innovative Young Farmer award for innovative fruit farming and multi-fruit crop pattern by Krish*thon – India’s premier agriculture trade fair in Nashik.

Looking back at his success, he shares, “Today’s generation looks at agriculture as a loss-making sector. With my example, I want to showcase that agriculture can be turned into a good business opportunity.”

“We need the younger generation in farming so that they can turn agriculture profitable by adopting new technologies over conventional methods because of their wit and skills. It was because of my education that I used social media and visited many countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Israel to learn how to deal with the challenges in farming and progress. This would not have been expected from the older generations,” he adds.

Edited by Padmashree Pande. All photos: Mahesh Asabe.

One of the most drought-prone districts of Maharashtra, Solapur struggles to end its water woes. With unseasonal rains and hailstorms, farme...

12/02/2024

Researchers at IIT-Guwahati have developed a novel two-stage biodegradation technique. This can not only help municipal corporations and other governing bodies to manage organic waste in an eco-friendly manner, but also generate quality vermicompost and organic compost with high NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) value and other micronutrients for farmers.

Led by Dr Ajay S Kalamdhad, a professor of civil engineering at IIT-Guwahati, researchers under the institute’s Waste Management Research Group (WMRG) have devised an efficient and environmentally-friendly technique, which combines Rotary Drum Composting with Vermicomposting (RDVC). This novel technique, the institute claims, minimises biodegradation time, yields vermicompost with 4.2% total nitrogen in 27 days (as compared to the standard 45 to 60 days) for urban waste management and reduces the volume of waste by 71%.

Going further, they also claim that this technique was also used to produce nutrient-rich soil conditioner (vermicompost) from invasive aquatic w**ds like the water hyacinth.

‘Mati Dhan’ — a high-quality organic vermicompost produced by the IIT Guwahati researchers by the novel two-stage biodegradation technique — is now available in the market and benefiting local farmers, according to Prof Kalamdhad.

The institute transferred this technology to AMER Private Ltd, a startup incubated at IIT-Guwahati, which is now manufacturing Mati Dhan Organic Vermicompost Fertilizer Manure for Plants — available on Amazon and other online marketplaces.

Studying waste management

Speaking to The Better India, Professor Kalamdhad talks about dedicating his career to solid waste management. During his tenure as a professor, he has worked with many PhD students addressing a diverse range of issues related to solid waste management in the Indian context.

There are two major sets of projects which stand out according to him:

1) Studying different techniques of composting of water hyacinth (a freshwater w**d) given its ubiquitous presence in aquatic ecosystems all over Northeast India.

2) Pilot-scale studies on rotary drum composting and anaerobic bi-phased baffled reactor (aka ABBR, which digests any kind of biomass) technology for the biomethanation (a process by which organic material is converted under anaerobic conditions to biogas) of industrial sludge and aquatic w**ds.

Both these projects received funding from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) under the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology.

“We initially found that in the rotary drum composting process, accountable degradation was observed in the first seven days followed by the cooling phase of compost materials. These studies were all conducted in a batch scale,” explains Professor Kalamdhad.

“Further we had also worked on vermicomposting using various worm cultures where we observed that Eisenia fetida (a species of earthworm) was robust in degrading diverse organic wastes including w**d biomass. In the process, the results demonstrated that the vermicomposting process was effective not from day 1 but from day 10 to 15 depending on the type of feed. The idea of replacing the initial period of the vermicomposting with rotary drum composting was thought of and studies were conducted accordingly,” he adds.

This effort resulted in the development of the two-stage biodegradation process.

Earthworms used for vermicomposting

How does this work?

Organic material often makes up more than half of the municipal solid waste deposited in open dumpsites across different Indian cities, generating a lot of heat due to long-term decomposition. This poses serious environmental challenges in the long term.

In comparison to other waste biodegradation techniques, which require two to three months, rotary drum composting (RDC) can convert “diverse organic feedstocks into nutrient-dense compost within just 20 days and significantly reduce the municipal waste volume by 60 to 70%,” according to a recent press release issued by the institute.

Having said that, RDC is known to generate compost of “moderate quality as compared to vermicompost ”. Vermicomposting, meanwhile, is a superior biodegradation process, which requires anywhere between 45 to 60 days. Given the time frame required, municipal corporations can’t employ it on a large scale.

So, the WMRG under Professor Kalamdhad developed a unique two-stage biodegradation technique which combines the best of RDC and vermicomposting to reduce the duration of biodegradation. “The earthworms, Eisenia fetida, can acclimatise faster to partially degraded organic matter from the drum compost and produce vermicompost in just 27 days,” he says.

The final product was proven to be non-toxic and safe to be used as a nutrient-rich soil conditioner (vermicompost) from waste with 4.2% total nitrogen.

Researchers engaged in substrate preparation

Speaking to The Better India, Professor Kalamdhad says, “The developed technique combines the thermophilic biodegradation of RDC and mesophilic biodegradation of vermicompost. The RDC time was studied to be seven days, and the requirement of vermicomposting was 20 days. We studied the response of the diverse organic waste with the technique before arriving at a conclusion. To explain in layman’s terms, if you use RDC before vermicomposting, it helps vermiculture (earthworms) stabilise the organic waste faster.”

“We have employed all the possible biomasses for the study, majorly including vegetable waste, aquatic w**ds, terrestrial w**ds and sewage sludge. The experimental verification of this combined technique was conducted both in the laboratory and on a large scale at the Solid Waste Laboratory of IIT Guwahati. A 5,000-litre RDC unit and a 3,000-litre stack vermicomposting unit were established to study the large-scale effect of the process, with the moisture content controlled using horticulture waste collected on campus,” he adds.

Helping him verify this technique is PhD student Mr. Suryateja Pottipati, who experimentally proved the hypothesis. They published the results in reputed international academic journals — including the Journal of Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, Journal of Environmental Management, Bioresource Technology and Waste Management, among others.

The RVDC method established by Professor Kalamdhad and his team at IIT-Guwahati

Can Municipal Corporations use this new technique?

In a press release issued by the institute, Professor Ajay Kalamdhad said, “This proven technique not only handles sizable quantities of organic waste but also offers immediate application feasibility for municipal corporations, industries, sewage treatment facilities, aquatic w**ds and various organic waste management sectors.”

The release adds, “The scaled-up process successfully produced 100 to 150 kg of vermicompost within a month from 250 to 300 kg of daily waste fed. The increased earthworm count resulted in the secondary end product being the earthworm itself.”

Speaking to The Better India, he explains, “The study included vegetable waste and aquatic w**d (water hyacinth) as prime substrates, both in mono-substrate composting and co-composting.”

“In the entire study, we have converted 15 tonnes of waste collected from the markets and ponds around the IIT Guwahati campus (350 kg per day). The confidence that we gained through the study is the basis on which we are suggesting that the technology can handle sizable quantities. We believe this process has the potential to reshape organic waste treatment facilities globally, providing an environmentally compatible solution to mitigate contamination hazards and produce an outstanding soil conditioner,” he adds.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat; Images courtesy IIT-Guwahati)

Researchers at IIT-Guwahati have developed a novel two-stage biodegradation technique. This can not only help municipal corporations and ot...

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