Pune’s Hinjewadi residents pitch in to set up drip irrigation for plants on hills

Known as the Hinjewadi Hills Green Army, the team of 25 volunteers was formed in June.

Bhavesh Karekar, a resident of Sangria, Megapolis, Hinjewadi phase 3, along with other residents of the area have been working overtime to convert a nearby hill into a green forest. Karekar and like-minded individuals volunteered to make the hills surrounding their township green and besides planting trees on the hill, they have now started drip irrigation there.

Bhavesh Karekar, a resident of Hinjewadi (right) along with members of the Hinjewadi Hills Green Army. (HT Photo)

Known as the Hinjewadi Hills Green Army, this team of 25 volunteers was formed in June. They started a plantation drive and then, continuously looked after the plants. This weekend, the group managed to set up a drip irrigation with the help of the fire brigade team.

“Since the last two years, I have been volunteering for the Paani Foundation water conservation activities in Purandar taluka. With the lack of response for solid work, I thought of starting something smaller and hence, began the Hinjewadi Hills Green Army Initiative in Hinjewadi so that people could come together and work to fight climate change,” said Bhavesh. “First, we started water conservation activities on Hinjewadi hills and later, we planted at least 500 plants this monsoon season. We continuously conducted this activity on every weekend from June to September and till date we were manually giving water to each plant, with more than 80 per cent plants surviving,” he adds.