In a year defined by curtailed travel and physical distancing norms, we cautiously resumed our tasks on ground, helping communities, cities and businesses prepare for a more resilient future. From training informal waste workers in Varanasi, conducting household surveys in Panaji to recycling PET bottles in Mumbai and empowering boatmen in Varanasi and Chitrakoot—our deepest joy, satisfaction and learning came from India’s diverse corners and communities.
When the lockdown was still in the early phase of being lifted, TERI was approached by Oil India to monitor the environmental impacts of the blowout that had occurred at Baghjan in Assam. Our researchers immediately reached the site to carry out environmental monitoring under challenging circumstances related to COVID-19, heavy rains, flooding, and local social unrest.
Using our innovative industrial overburden management technology, which uses mycorrhizal biofertilizers, we turned several industrial dumps into green belts. Here is a reclaimed site in Andhra Pradesh, earlier laden with phosphogypsum from the fertilizer industry.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot, TERI retrofitted 20 traditional boats with trolling motor and replaced diesel engine with solar-powered lithium batteries for fuel. The battery-powered boats have reduced the drudgery of boatmen and allow them to earn more while ferrying pilgrims along the 13 ghats of river Mandakini.
In Assam, a somewhat similar challenge persisted. Due to irregular supply of electricity, rural communities were struggling to make ends meet and also lived in the fear of wildlife.
TERI intervened and installed high-resolution solar LED street lights in rural areas of Golaghat district, Assam
Under a waste management programme in January 2020, TERI, in association with the Varanasi Municipal Corporation, set up a ‘Material Recovery Facility (MRF)’ to sort out and bale dry waste.
To handle biomedical waste (BMW) in lockdown, TERI prepared strategies to handle BMW in towns and rural areas of India. As India gradually unlocked, TERI conducted a series of capacity building and awareness workshops for informal waste collectors in Varanasi.
In Panaji, our team interacted with the households, street sweepers, waste collectors and waste transporters to enhance waste segregation and to assess implementation of waste management rules.
In pre-covid months of 2020, TERI steered a public campaign ‘Rethink Plastic’ in Mumbai to raise awareness about plastic pollution, its impacts, and ways to manage plastic pollution and motivate communities to reduce consumption of single-use plastic. We conducted clean-up drives at beaches and mangroves, treasure hunt exercises, rangoli-making contests to mobilise local residents, students, volunteers, and city authorities to make Mumbai marine-litter free.
In February 2020, Goa became the first state in India to come out with a resource efficiency strategy. The strategy presents a resource efficiency roadmap in the priority sectors of Goa such as tourism, construction along with addressing the issue of marine litter.
A first-of-its-kind study highlighted that the total economic value of the five ecosystem services in Delhi Zoo is estimated to be INR 422.76 crore. It was released by Hon. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar during Wildlife Week 2020.
