India: Gardens flower in vacant plots in Bengaluru
“The harvest will be charged Rs 100 for a bag containing two papaya, half-a-dozen bananas and two drumsticks for the residents of the block. The money will again go to the maintenance of the garden.”
By Hita Prakash,
Deccan Herald
Dec 1 2020
Excerpt:
Any resident of Bengaluru knows that a vacant plot is never vacant in the city. It invariably becomes a garbage dumping site and, sometimes, a public urinal.
Now, residents in upscale Koramangala have come up with a novel solution to deal with the chronic problem: community gardens. Residents of 1st Block are growing veggies, fruits and flowers for their own consumption in vacant sites in their neighbourhood, in an initiative of striking ingenuity.
‘Pratham Community Gardens’, a brainchild of Koramangala Residents Welfare Association (KRWA), is being implemented in three places on 60X40 dimension plots.
“We spoke to about half-a-dozen owners of the vacant sites with our innovative idea. While a few of them refused, many permitted us to convert them into gardens,” explained Padmashree, President of the KRWA.
Along with another KRWA member Rajgopal, Padmashree not only convinced the landowners but also sensitised the neighbours about the idea and its multiple uses.
“With everybody chipping in, we zeroed in on three plots in our block that had enough sunlight besides neighbours agreeing to provide us with water to cultivate plants,” she explained.
