EWB INTERNSHIP-2016REPORT BY:1. AVINASH.A

2. SIDDARTH.S

3. MOHAN KUMAR S

4. PURUSHOTHAMAN

5. RESHMA A

DAY 1 : 17/06/2016 (FRIDAY)

The agenda of the day was to meet Mr.Elango Rangaswamy, recipient of the “Man Of The Year 2014” and “Real Hero” awards. Mr Elango, a chemical engineer by qualification is a down-to-earth and practical person who believes that practical engineering knowledge can be utilised for achieving sustainability. He had dedicated his life to the rural people of his village Kuthambakkam. Being one of the blacklisted villages for many years, Kuthamabakkam has shown drastic developments during a short span of time in terms of building roads, providing basic facilities like electricity through solar panels, basic sanitary facilities and employment opportunities. Kuthambakkam, lies in the outskirts of Chennai, near Ponamalee. Mr Elango, is saviour of the village. He made us understand the role of agriculture and the vital role a farmer plays in our lives, and the attitude the society shows them is disheartening. He spoke about a hypothetical situation if a farmer denies accepting our money for his crops. This situation indicates how being independent is important. As in our lives would become simpler if we could generate our own food rather than depending on others. He is the Panchayat President of the village and he has brought many innovations in the villagers life. He has used solar technology to run the lights and fans of the villagers’ house. Not only that, he fabricates the motors of the fans in such a way that the movable motor remains stationary and the only the rotation of shaft causes the movement. This brings down the power consumption of a fan from 75W to mere 25W. He explained us practical situations as to how energy auditing is important. Also, he elucidated the concept of sustainability by taking into consideration the year 2050, where the Indian population would have reached 1.7billion and energy and water resources would become scarce. In terms of water resources, we can increase the water level by taking suitable measures or adopt rainwater harvesting. For more details on rainwater harvesting, surf about Rajendra Singh-Waterman of India. In terms of energy consumption, Mr Elango has adopted LED bulbs but he makes them run for 5years by making minor repairs and fixing coils when needed rather than discarding them without checking during faulty conditions. Also, we got to see the villagers preparing components for a high efficiency stove, whose design was fabricated by Mr Elango. The end component was given to another company for final arrangements of stove components. Mr Elango uses the potential of both men and women in piercing, fitting, cooling and filling operations while making the burner of the stove. Mr Elango is currently working on building a non-poisonous mosquito repellent which doesn’t damage the crops. Hence, Mr Elango is a live example of how engineering and entrepreneurship has a wide scope in making our country better.

DAY 2: 18/06/16(SATURDAY)A series of guest lectures at AC Tech, Chennai. The purpose of the lectures was to

celebrate World Environment Day 2016. Theme of the day was “Go Wild for life”

First guest lecture was on “Protection of water bodies to create a sustainable biodiversity” by Mr Piyush Manush. He started his talk with criticisms like using flex banners for conference as it is an enemy to the environment. According to the British, waterbody is any stagnant water locality for 21 days. But according to Mr Piyush, the whole world is a big waterbody because water is omnipresent (eg: air has moisture) He illustrated incidents where top corporate companies have exploited our resources. Chemplast Sanmar company used to dispose cyanide and tons of mercury in Kaveri. Kaveri is a major source of water for around 8 districts in and around Salem. Also, one gram of mercury has the potential to damage 25acres of land. Vedanta group of companies (known by different names at different places) mined bauxite for 12years in the Kolli hills (400 lorry loads every day). Bauxite was only 20% of every lorry load. So the remaining 320 load was dumped across Mettur dam. These toxic and poisonous mass is called red mud. The Hill Area Conservation Act(HACA) forbids the tribal people to pluck even a small grass or bamboo to avoid soil erosion. But the irony is top corporate companies bring the soil itself down by mining operations. Statistics reveals that over the years the mining of bauxite has increased exponentially (100million tons from 1900-2000; 300million tons from 2000-2008; 650million tons from 2008-2012). Aluminium from bauxite is widely used in coke cans, bullets, bomb, vessels, weapons and aeroplane. Mr Piyush explained how nuclear power is dangerous in terms of protecting our environment. Fukushima Plant incidents are examples of how nuclear reactor can be harmful in terms of air and water pollution. Rai

Singh Dahiya from Rajasthan has built a portable biomass gasifier which runs on wood. The charcoal by product when released in water adsorbs water thus reducing the water need by 60%. A conventional coal plant requires 6crore per megawatt whereas biomass plant requires only about 2.5crore/MW. Producer gas is used in biomass gasifier. Hence, our notion of alternate energy development should be such that it doesn’t pollute our environment. He illustrated incidents where the mining of 2000acres land by General Steel Work was stopped by mere protests.

The second guest lecture was by Mr Balasubramanian and Mr.Venakatesh of Nallur Vattam about the “Impact of Tree Plantation for thermometer Earth”. They explained the strategies adopted to create a “Model Street”. Periyar Paadhai, Pavalakkara Theru are success stories where people of all age groups segregated themselves into 4 teams-cleaning, preconditioning, fixing pluck cards and name boards, surveying. Their ideals are closely linked with Dr. Abdul Kalam’s vision of India 2020. They have now undertaken Kodambakkam area and are working to make the area clean.

The final guest lecture was from Mr. Shiva from Nallasandhai Producer Company about “Environment related to farming and biodiversity”. He explained us the basic concepts of virtual water and glycemic index. Easily digestable foods have high glycemic index. He blamed us for not knowing the information which we need to know like the difference between raw and boiled rice, standardised milk etc. He expressed his idea of food technology and farming techniques like avoiding chemicals, preferring multicropping over monocropping and avoid dyeing of cotton fibres.

DAY 3: 19/06/16(SUNDAY)

The agenda of the day was beach cleaning. We assembled at 6am at Santhome beach. We were allocated a part wherein we spent 2 hours cleaning the entire place. We were given gloves and bags. The instruction was to separate wastes into 3 categories-Plastic, Glass and Others. Plastic is the only thing in the world that is created by mankind which can’t be destroyed by God. The whole idea of

the day was to spread awareness about why and how we can keep our environment clean. Mere beach cleaning for a single day is not going to help because people will start dumping garbage from the next day itself. Targeting the school and college students is the best method to spread awareness as they are the next generation. While cleaning, I became very furious seeing all the waste that had been dumped in the form of slippers, liquor bottles, plastic covers of tetra packs, chips etc. Also, the sight of a dead dog with a decomposed head in the sands of the beach made me giddy. I immediately informed the people in-charge as this situation can lead to many infections if left untreated. I realized that we have taken nature for granted and its high time we take proper action for its maintenance.

DAY 4: (20/06/16)-RAIN CENTRE

The agenda of the day was to meet Mr.Sekhar Raghavan, founder of the Rain Centre in Mandavelipakkam. Rain Centre was started in August 2002 by Akash Ganga Trust.. The three prominent issues in the city are rainwater harvesting, solid waste management and urban greening.

Villages usually do not face the problem of rainwater harvesting because rainwater automatically percolates through the soil in the open lands. Also, villages are cooler than cities. India is one among the world leaders of rainwater harvesting. There are evidences of rainwater harvesting in India in the past 5000 years. As a matter of fact, natural rainwater harvesting existed in cities, but the builders to gain business have obstructed the way for water to percolate into the soil and hence water flows into the streets. Also, the use of tar roads has made the layer impermeable. Knowledge of soil is very important for rainwater harvesting. The sources of water are from ocean or from land. We depend more on water from land like the melting of glaciers and rainfall. The activities of the Rain Centre is to create awareness about rain water harvesting to various sectors of the society, help the people implement in day-to-day lives and also to carry out periodic surveys. He also discussed the causes and effects of drought and floods. He asked us to read “Dying Wisdom” book for more motivation.

Finally, he showed us practically various rainwater harvest strategies that could be implemented at our places for efficient RWH. Few of them were creating appropriate sized manholes, piercing slabs at entrance, bore pit, tank storage from rooftop, well recharge by rooftop harvesting. Also, he showed us that the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of the recharged water is well above our normal drinking water and is within permissible limits.

DAY 5: (21/06/16)

The agenda of the day was to meet Mr Jagannadhan, founder of Nallasandhai,Nallakeerai and learn about organic farming. Nallasandhai is a place near Thiruniravur where green leafy vegetables are cultivated by organic farming and marketed across Chennai. Mr Jagannadhan discussed why we adopt chemical farming even after knowing it is harmful. Probable reasons are government’s influence, profit margin, high yield and mindset of people. He discussed various areas where chemical fertilisers have disturbed the ecological balance like the death of birds, slow disappearance of honeybees (which affects pollination). Also, he claimed that 10lakh people die in India due to cancer because of consuming chemical farming goods. Even though pulses and oilseeds require only 5% water compared to cultivating rice or paddy, yet we import these from other countries. This situation is called virtual economy. Planting groundnut will enhance the soil because legumes will hold the soil tight. By using multi-crop pattern, one can enhance the fertility of soil. Hence, the use of fertilisers can be limited. Also, oilseeds waste can be used as cattle for dairy farming. For further inspiration, he asked us to read “Sustainable economy by J.C.Kumarappa”. A detailed survey which the speaker conducted in his own village revealed that 60% of the income that a villager is receives is spent or fertiliser or pesticides or pharmaceuticals or alcohol. By shifting to organic farming, we can cut down costs related to pesticide, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals. Nitish Kumar, a farmer in Bihar had harvested 72.9 tonnes of potato per hectare by organic farming and set a world record. The speaker highlighted the importance of tulsi and other herbal plants. Finally, they showed us their plantation where manure was added in the form of sawdust, ash, cowdung, cow’s urine and vermicompost in proper proportions. He concluded his speech by highlighting the economic opportunities available by linking the farmer and consumer.

Day 6 (22/6/2016): ISRO LAUNCH VISIT:

Day started with journey to sriharikota to see launch of PSLV-C34 rocket which carries 20 satellites in a single flight. This is the thirty fifth consecutively successful mission of PSLV and the fourteenth in its 'XL' configuration.  The total weight of all the 20 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C34 was 1288 kg. Of the 19 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C34, two – SATHYABAMASAT weighing 1.5 kg and SWAYAM weighing 1 kg – are University/Academic institute satellites and were built with the

involvement of students from Sathyabama University, Chennai and College Of Engineering, Pune, respectively.

The remaining 17 co-passenger satellites were international customer satellites from Canada (2), Germany (1), Indonesia (1) and the United States (13).People all around from India gather to ISRO to see beautiful view of launch .People were asked to gather in an auditorium and given with snake and where shown with ongoing updates of the rocket status. Later we moved to the museum and there models of all

the rockets which ISRO launched were placed and information about rocket was also given for the readers. Inside the museum in a room a video play about the history of ISRO was played to visited. The day ended with learning what is happening in ISRO and it was pretty excited to be in very proud place like ISRO.

Day 7 (23/6/2016) : Trip to Auroville

We had assembled in the youth hostel premises at 6.30am to board our bus to Auroville, a village 10Km before Pondicherry in the ECR; when we were informed that there was a breakdown and the bus would reach a little late. We waited till 9.30 with the bus driver telling us excuses, then we realised that we had to make alternate plans. We vacated the hostel, dumped the luggages in my house (as there was none of us in the hostel), and started for our trip in a TNSTC bus in the ECR route to Auroville. It was a whole new experience, managing and planning by ourselves, which taught us a lot of lessons in life. We reached the place at about 4pm and rushed for our session in the Auroville Earth Institute.

The institute focused on researching, developing and promoting earth based technologies which are cost and energy efficient. We were briefed upon Compressed Earth Block (CSEB) Technology which uses the subsoil of an area to produce blocks to raise buildings. According to their data, a finished m 3

CSEB wall is 6% cheaper than country fired bricks and 42% cheaper than wire cut fire bricks. It is also energy effective in comparison with the latter in terms of energy consumption as well as Pollution emission (CO2 Kg per m3). Different types and shapes of blocks can be produced, and various structures, such as multi-storeyed buildings, vaults and domes. The famous Dhyanalinga temple near

Coimbatore was built using CSEB. The institute also offers internships and training courses to learn and apply this technology.

Our next program for the day was in Sustainable Livelihood Institute (SLI), with Mr. Ram Subramanian, who runs the place. He gave us an insight about the various ways in which one can live a whole life, towards self development, along with contributing to the betterment of our community in which we live in, rather than focussing on the monotonous life that we choose to live in. Sir then made arrangements for our program the next day.

After dinner, we went to our accommodation at about 10.30pm, Tenderness hostel in Auroville, which was very dark, it was like the building was in the middle of the jungle. After the long travel and tiring day, we had a good sleep.

Day 8 (24/6/2016) : We woke up to the beautiful greenery and mango trees around our building, very peaceful and calm. At 7.30am, we got ready for our trek inside the artificial forest, the Pichandikulam forest. More than 18,200 indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest trees had been planted on the 70 acres of severely eroded, infertile land. This had been done with the labour and love of volunteers, from every corner of our planet. The trees have an exceptionally high viability rate, because they are planted with care and attention by motivated people who understand the importance of their work. It is a place for various areas of bio-research. There are also many sustainable technologies that are established in the forest, one of which was the windmill that we saw which draws water from the ground several feet below and it also produces electricity.

After our trek, we met Fif Fernandes, who is a wonderful person by nature, who is a clown by profession, who had founded the Komali MeDi Clown Academy in 2013 by along with her husband Hamish Boyd out of a need to train people to bring more joy and reduce stress, lower suicide, eradicate domestic violence, increase academic standings and increase healing times. She also made us realize the importance of living a happy, and a de-stressed life, to remove all that negative thoughts and inculcate a positive atmosphere for ourselves as well as others.

We then had a delicious meal at the SLI and left Auroville to catch our bus to Chennai.

Day 9: (26/06/1016) – Water management

Chennai faced a massive disaster during monsoon of November and December of 2015. The question arises , the cause for the flood is public or the government. To answer this question and to give a better solution people interested in social work gather a meet regarding this issue. ’Arappor Iyakkam’ organised an seminar session about the Chennai flood. The seminar is very informative session which provoked ideas to prevent the next flood. The seminar has an overview of structure of the whole city and its reckless infraction system which led to transformation rain into floods. And the seminar exposed the bureaucratic problems involved in this flood .It gave the information about the rivers, lakes, ponds which are flowing around the Chennai. The session gave us clear explanation about the Chennai flood.

Day 10: (27/06/2016)-Solar Energy

We begin our trip in afternoon to head office of team ENACT, an organization working towards the sustainable use of solar energy. This organisation is working worldwide around 30 country .The overview of the organisation and its goal. He introduces the basic lying concept of solar power and the initial methods to harness the energy and the practical problems associated with it.

He also gave the information about best places to use solar panels and their application in daily life like calculator, watches, mobile charger and the future technologies. We people gather more idea regarding solar energy and its application.