Plea to CREDAI: Community waste-to-energy plant

The Hindu report on Chennai civic body's initiative for area-specific bio-gas plants with food-traders participation should be read with an earlier post in this blog - Waste-to-energy plant: A Padur proposal.

The Hindu report: Chennai Corporation, at a meeting with representatives of hotelsThe , marriage halls and other commercial food business operators asked the traders to commission decentralised waste processing facility based on a technology of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

OMR Resident : OMR Greens would like to see a zero waste project set up at Padur as a cost-sharing venture involving the civic body, developers and residents of Mantri Synergy,  Akshayas,  TVH,  ETA,  X S Real and the Gem Group. Corporate offices located in the area can be tapped for CSR funding.

The Chennai corporation, faced with resistance from traders to a hike in conservancy charges, is seeking to promote private-funded  bio-gas plants in various areas. The BARC model for waste processing provides for source segregation of garbage and energy generation from bio-waste. The technology offers a decentralized way of garbage disposal as 300 sq. ft. of land is enough to process one tonne of waste a day.

OMR Greens suggestion for joint-venture bio-gas plants, involving panchayat, residents, real-estate developers and CSR-minded corporates, addresses waste-processing  needs of emerging OMR residential communities that do not come under Chennai municipal corporation. When OMR Greens representatives broached the subject at a recent meeting with Mrs Snehal Mantri she expressed the view that such proposals work better if they are taken up by CREDAI, developers association, with the govt. and the relevant authorities. On her part, Mrs Mantri offered to refer our plea to CREDAI chief (Tamil Nadu Chapter) and Akshaya founder Mr T Chitty Babu.

   

A webpost for Snehal Mantri

Dear Ms Snehal Mantri,
Rahul (D-1204) and I (D-901)  took a walk around  Mantri complex last evening, talking trees. We are  aware of your concern for trees. As you put it, in The Hindu (Property Plus Chennai), dated Jan.12,2008,  When MDPL took over the land on OMR at Chennai, the entire area looked so green we had second thoughts about building Mantri Synergy there.
The Hindu report said, "Mantri Developers (MDPL) transplanted an entire grove of trees scattered through their site on the OMR, to the periphery of the site".

Our Sunday walk - Rahul's and mine - was to get an idea of the number of trees that are still standing . By your own account, Ms Mantri, the tree count when your company took over was 24 mango, 140 teak, and 165 coconut trees.

I'm sure,  Ms Mantri,  you would be just as mad as I was when you see this patch (photo) where, not many weeks ago,  stood three coconut trees in a row.. Mantri's slaughtered them to pave way for car-park space. You can't bring back the trees they killed. But Mantri's need to be made accountable. Could consider compensating us for the loss of trees on our campus.

This is the lone mango that has survived  a grove of 24 mango trees Mantri's inherited from previous landowners. To celebrate the lone mango we request Mantri's to do a spot of landscaping around the tree,  put in a couple of benches and a picnic table, so that retires seniors such as myself can make it a daytime hangout for gupshap. In the evening the place can double up as as chaat/samosa  corner, and,  possibly, Avin milk parlour. Our children at Mantri's love flavoured milk.

Rahul and I walked past this well preserved green patch around 'Wish Well'. I, however, wish our landscape architect Mr Sekhar James had listened to our plea for planting tulsi as a hedge. We could have also done with herbal plants for the well being of residents.
It might interest you to learn that we treat plants as people -  have given them  names  - Nityadhya (planted by Nitya and Adhya on Children's Day), Sidharth and Nikhil (named after my grandsons),  Aadit Chakraborti (the first child born at Mantri's) NASA Srinivas (schoolboy who did internship at the US Space center). We have saplings named Nambiar (first Mantri resident) and Ujjal (who plays Santa at our Christmas). The next time you visit us, we would plant a sapling named after Snehal Mantri.

The last time you were at Mantri Synergy they wouldn't have taken you to this spot near  the tennis court ,  where the row of  transplanted teak includes these two with only their stumps standing. And then, near STP, they covered the roots of two teak with cement concrete, leaving the trees to suffocate and starve themselves to death.

We blogged about this , took it up personally,  more than once,  and eventually threatened  direct action before Mantri project team decided to  dig up breathing space around the teaks you see in the photo. We are now on damage control mode;  and a couple of tree-friendly security men have voluteered to nurish the teaks back to health.
Must thank Mr D Venkatesan (A-209) who sent us the link to The Hindu report carrying Ms. Snehal Mantri's statement.

A 'Pickaxe Stir' at Mantri,OMR

Neem in the foreground was planted to celebrate Mantri Synergy's first resident, Mr Nambiar (G-001) who moved here in February last year.
The two teaks behind Nambiar's neem are sentenced to a slow death by Mantri project team, which has coffined the teaks in concrete.
Had Mantri managers on site been aware of Ms Snehal Mantri's commitment to save trees they wouldn't have done such thing. To refresh their memory we refer them to The Hindu dated Jan.12,2008 which published the write-up - The right move to save trees. The media reports quotes Ms Mantri as saying, When MDPL took over the land on OMR at Chennai, the entire area looked so green we had second thoughts about building Mantri Synergy there. We then thought of transplantation. There were a total of 165 coconut trees, 24 mango trees and around 140 teak wood trees spread there, and we managed to save 90% of the trees.
I don't suppose Ms Snehal Mantri would be pleased to see the plight of the teak near STP plant in our complex (see photo). The issue came up at Mantri's Memorial Service held last Sunday on site where Mantri project team had slaughtered three coconut trees.

The Memorial Service Group - MSG(in photo) resolved to do something, anything,to save the teaks,if it is still possible. I conveyed to PropCare that they get Mantri project team to dig up the concrete, one foot wide in a circle around each teak, so as to provide breathing space. We wait till Friday (tomorrow evening); if nothing is done, we resolved to dig up the concrete space ourselves, Saturday, March 31, around 9 a m.
Pickaxe Action
(by Memorial Service Group)
Car-wash space, near Sewage Treatment Plant
9.a m- 9.15 a m
Saturday, March 31.
The digging will be followed up with a 15 minute walk-around in the Mantri complex, to get an idea of the number of teaks and other trees Snehal Mantri has saved - out of a total of 140 teak,165 coconut, and 24 mango trees they found when Mantri developers took over this farmland.
(Would someone arrange for a pickaxe and shovel, please ?)