Moving forward together

Come June, PNLIT will be ten years old, completing a decade of the nurturing of Puttenahalli Lake! Time has really flown by. 

Residents of the neighbourhood, donors, volunteers, CSR funders - it is with your help that we have been able to maintain the lake and carry out environmental projects and awareness-related activities for ten long years. Your support has made our Puttakere truly a People's Lake and a model for many others in the city. A recent episode feature on Republic TV has catapulted PNLIT to the national level. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been a part of our journey.

  

We work closely with the government and, as you would be aware, BBMP and BWSSB are in the process of preventing sewage from entering the lake once and for all. We are also actively pursuing slum rehabilitation. We are close to achieving our goals with transforming the lake. What will be required in the future is regular maintenance by PNLIT and vigilance from the neighbourhood to protect the lake. 

We're almost at the end of FY 2019-20 and we, at PNLIT, have started planning for the new financial year. Our estimated annual expenses for FY 2020-21 are Rs 12.55 lakhs, which we look to raise through individual donations and corporate grants/CSR. 

A grant of Rs. 2,45,000 from Wipro will bring down the target to a little over Rs. 10 lakhs.   

This is an appeal to everyone to donate to PNLIT for our neighbourhood lake - in your individual capacity and/or through your organisation. Do refer us to your CSR department. You will find a dedicated team of lake conservationists in us!

For those seeking income tax exemption under section 80G, this might be your last chance, given the new proposed income tax rules.

In addition to the annual expenses, we are also looking to build up the Corpus Fund, so that in future, the interest earned would meet the annual maintenance expenses to a large extent. Donations to the Corpus Fund will be much appreciated.

There are many ways in which you can make a donation – cheque, cash (up to Rs 2000) and direct transfer. You may also donate through a payment gateway as a last option – avoidable as there are 2% - 3% extra charges involved, and we'd much prefer to directly utilize every rupee you donate. Please visit our web page for details http://www.puttenahallilake.in/how-to-donate.

Together let us nurture and protect our Puttenahalli Puttakere and give our children an increasingly rare gift - a thriving lake.   

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” —Ryunosuke Satoro 

Best regards,

The PNLIT Team

Artificial Floating Islands in our lake

Those of you who visited Puttenahalli Lake within the past few months may have noticed small platforms floating in the water. These are Artificial Floating Islands (AFIs) which we "launched", starting in June this year. The Vetiver and Canna planted in them are growing beautifully. PNLIT trustee Nupur, her husband Pranshu Jain together with our gardener, Jayanna, are the builders of five AFIs. With volunteers from Deloitte making two last Friday we now have seven AFIs. 

AFIs, Sep 2016

A Coot's nest in one of the AFIs

Deloitte volunteers with the AFIs they made, 25-Nov-2016

Briefly about the AFI - this is a variant of the wetland, an innovative way to improve water quality and keep the lake clean. In this system of Hydroponic Phytoremediation, plants in floating platforms absorb pollutants in the water to grow. AFIs are widely used abroad but not yet popular in India. 

Simultaneously with the AFIs, we began monthly testing of the water. We are delighted to see steady improvement in the each of the eight parameters we measure - pH, Turbidity, DO, BOD, Total Solids, Total Dissolved Solids, Nitrates and Phosphates. Some parameters still need improvement, but the trends are very encouraging. It may be too early to attribute this improvement to just the AFIs since they are few in number. We have been also curtailing the growth of aquatic weeds thereby exposing more water to the sun.  

Our sincere thanks to BMS College of Engineering for testing the water samples every month, their invaluable contribution to PNLIT. To Srinivas SK for analysing the test results.  CSR support from Deloitte Shared Services India Pvt Ltd. enabled us to remove the thick spread of invasive weed from the water, to hire people to keep the water clear of new sprouts as well as to fund the AFIs. 

Usha

An "I Support" click can help us raise funds for Puttenahalli Lake

Over the last couple of years, we've tried many different ways of raising funds for Puttenahalli Lake, with the objective of eventually making the lake more-or-less self sustaining. And with your support, we are slowly getting there.

We've just registered for the Ripple Rewards competition on Gudville. Every month, causes that garner maximum supporters will win funding from Gudville.    

All you need to do is click on the link below to view our cause. Then login using one of your social media credentials and click the "I support" button. Done! 

 "Sustaining Puttenahalli Lake"

We are aiming for the December funding to start off with, and if we do not make it, our points will get carried over to the next month.

Thank you for your support.

Arathi

Trustee, PNLIT

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Our cause on Gudville: "Sustaining Puttenahalli Lake". Please click on the link to view the cause. You can login using your Facebook credentials.

Click on "I Support" to help us win funding.

Gudville - A home for your cause.

Gudville is a private social action network for discovering and sharing personal causes  and inspiring others to take positive action.