As of now, this nursery is self-reliant in supplying saplings for horticultural purposes, park development, road median development, greening and beautification projects within the city
More than 200 types of plants and small trees are planted here. Photo: Ashish Kumar Chauhan. Badanpet city in Rangareddy district is one of 13 municipal corporations of Telangana. Before 2020, the city’s solid waste management was in a miserable state. Neighbouring towns of Badanpet had been complaining about the city’s careless waste management system.
Residents used to complain to the local authority about garbage heaps, bad odour, the menace of stray dogs, animals and sporadic burning of wastes in their vicinity.
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Gradually, these heaps of garbage enlarged into a small open dumpsite between the residential and institutional areas. At this point, the municipal corporation stepped in and started the green transformation project, according to an official of Badanpet Municipal Corporation.
Badanpet’s current municipal commissioner led this project to transform the waste dumping site into a new nursery and rock garden.
In the first phase, the authority collected nearly 500-700 tonnes of mixed waste which are four-five years old. Then it transferred the waste to a dedicated facility for scientific processing and final disposal.
After that, in the second phase, the authority developed a nursery and rock garden in 1.2. acres of land using its own resources.
As of now, this nursery is self-reliant in supplying saplings for horticultural purposes, park development, road medians development, greening and beautification projects within the city. More than 200 types of plants and small trees are planted here.
Credit: Ashish Kumar Chauhan
Six-seven workers manage approximately 1,000 small and medium plants and an adjacent rock garden. With such an initiative, Badanpet Municipal Corporation not only resolved the issue of open dumpsites but also increase the green cover to improve the air quality of this area, Dev Singh Thakur, a representative in the local authority, told Down To Earth.
Telangana government launched ‘Telangana Ku Haritha Haram’, a largescale tree plantation programme in 2015-2016. The scheme’s objective is to increase the state’s green cover from 24 per cent to 33 per cent of the total area of the state.
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This state government-led initiative inspired Badanpet local body to arrive at a green solution for its garbage crisis, Thakur told DTE.
Hyderabad won the prestigious World Green Cities Award 2022. It won the award by beating: Paris, Bogota, Mexico City, Montreal and Fortaleza.
The city also won in the Living Green for Economic Recovery and Inclusive Growth category at the International Association of Horticulture Producers, which was organised in Jeju, South Korea, on October 14, 2022.
“These international awards are a proof that the state government is strongly implementing the Haritaharam and urban development programmes... giving green fruits to the country,” said Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Telangana bagged more than 40 per cent of awards in different categories of Swachh Survekshan-2022 in South Zone states under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).
Remarkable implementation of such initiatives can set examples for the remaining 4,354 urban local bodies in the country. Unused areas and open dumpsites can be used to develop gardens, nurseries and other spaces for the betterment of society.
Local bodies need to identify such sites in their towns and should tap them for their residents. Political will, administrative commitment, proper planning and sufficient budget allocation are key to executing green projects.
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