Project Green Glow: Adopting Lake Allalsandra to Sustain the Change in community

Sustainability seems to be widely now the norm. What exactly is put into action towards this is always a thing for debate.We at Infopace Management Pvt Ltd asked ourselves as to what do we do to demonstrate to the community on sustainability and at the same time see that the engagement is meaningful wherein it might give ample space for a vibrant community participation from all the various sections of the habitat. after deliberating this topic and scanning the environment we zeroed down on the possibilities that we can focus on the platform of Project Green Glow- an initiative for conservation of biodiversity in Yelahanka Bangalore North. We came up with the this novel idea of adopting the Allalsandra Lake which has been desilted recently by BBMP and partner along in its rejuvenation.This might bring a wide scope of activity and help us apply the ADKAR model of Change.

With the leadership of Rotary Club of Yelahanka partnering with Rotary club of Lakeside, Nagarjuna Vidhyaniketan, New Town Public School, Residential Association of Janapriya Appts, Agragami School,Rotaractors the youth wing and about 200 young IT professionals as volunteers from SAP INDIA-white field, the BBMP officials,Citizen Forum, The forest department and the media all converged to begin this work on 31st Oct 2012 at the lake.

As part of the work we pledged ourselves to protect the biodiversity in and around the lake and also to rejuvenate it

1. To plant 5000 saplings in and around the lake 
2. Play active role in vigilance and protection of the vegetation
3. To beautiful the islands with fruit bearing trees and ecological planning
4. Maintain and water the plants with schools sharing the responsibilities along with local residences
5. Educating the local villagers and community in the vitality of its survival
6. Encouraging Children to Study,develop and monitor the lake in the building of the ecosystem thereby the sense of ownership and emotional connection to the eco system is established.
7. Encourage and find ways of attracting birds to the lake 
8. Varieties of Acquatic species to be introduced as a study for the schools
9. Scientific method of water inlets and outlets to be worked out.
10. convert the place into ZERO WASTE Zone.   

Despite the torrential rains due to the cyclone effect of Nila and a cold chilly morning, over 300 people gathered braving the gusty winds and rains. Against all heavy odds the crowd cheered their way with the spade and planted 500 saplings to commence the work.It was inaugurated by Sri S.R Vishwanath the MLA of Yelahanka Constituency and Corporators Munniraju and Ashwath. Sri Vishwanath stated to the media "more such public participation should be encouraged "and applauded that Yelahanka has about 73 parks with not just play space but also has been planted with high quality fruit bearing trees for lung space retaining the essence of Bangalore as a garden city.

" We have to plan more meticulously and monitor it with deeper scientific methods" said Dr Sangunni from IISC who represented Citizen Forum. "  Sri Rajsekar chairman of the environment committee of Rotary RI Dist 3190 also stated " Rotary is more known for Polio eradication programmes, we want the people to know that we are also equally vociferous in protecting our lakes and conservations of our biodiversity" 
Dr Lakshmi an environmentalist suggested that we could also examine the possibilities of protecting the cattle here and providing them with fresh grass so that they do not eat away the saplings.

Kishor Jagirdar

Kishor Jagirdar with Manjunath Dist Rotaract Representative

For Infopace team this is an opportunity to show case the model of change and innovate creative solution for a demonstrated change which evidently brings out the need to partner with the government and collaborate to bring change collectively by innovation. The universe too seems to be resonating with this thought as the lake bed was completely dry and on this day we witnessed torrential rains suddenly flooding the lake with water and the bed slowly disappearing under the water.