BMC comes up with ‘Golden Leaf’ concept for compost, incense sticks
| Date :07-Apr-2019 |
Staff Reporter;
Priyanka envisions a capital city where not a single dry leaf is burnt. With this in mind, the environmental-conscious working with a voluntary organisation launched a forum called ‘Golden Leaf’ in Bhopal along with the help of Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC). It is a platform connecting people who have brown leaves to dispose to prepare compost and organic incense sticks (which includes flowers, leaves and other biodegradable items). From September 2018 to April 2019, the forum has been able to stop 5,000 gunny bags of dry leaves from being burnt. The above information is shared by Priyanka herself with mediapersons in civic body office at ISBT on Saturday. On this occasion, BMC Commissioner B Vijay Datta, Additional Commissioner Mayak Verma, Mallika Nigam Nagar and Deputy Commissioner Harish Gupta were also present. She would work with BMC staff to create and sell compost.
BMC Commissioner Datta said that we are inspired by her idea that the pollution caused due to the burning of leaves and the rich organic matter that is lost and we decided not letting the dry leaves be burnt. What would she do with the piles that gathered every day in city, this is when she met civic body officials and tell them about this concept. This was when BMC officials realised how useful the leaf ‘litter’ was. Trees shed leaves from November to April to conserve water.
The fallen leaves form a protective layer on the soil, which conserve moisture through the summer. Insects and earthworms find shelter under these leaves. They decompose in the monsoon and are returned to the soil, adding nutrients to it. This method is called mulching. The other way of using brown leaves is to form compost by making piles of leaves and watering them. Your compost will be ready in six months. BMC would put up a detailed guide for composting dry leaves on its app.
The dry leaves which fall in the gardens being operated by BMC as well as PWD in Bhopal. As of now six such places are identified by BMC in city for collecting dry leaves. The schools and colleges which have garden would also be requested to give dry leaves of their garden and BMC would itself collect these leaves from their vehicles. In return, BMC would provide them compost free of cost. The organic Incense Sticks being prepared by using dry leaves would be sold in Bhopal Haat market in future. For more details people can contact on toll free number of civic body 155304.