Vermiculture: Sheela Christian shows us the way.


One fine morning, Sheela Christian put on a pair of gloves and proceeded to put her hand into a neighbour's bin. The neighbour, who happened to catch her in the act, was aghast and rushed to brush her off with a promise that she would segregate the garbage herself. This is just one of Sheela's ingenious ways of promoting the benefits of vermiculture through separation of garbage into dry or non-biodegradable waste and wet or biodegradable waste. Sheela's involvement with vermiculture began way back in 1987. As a resident of Boat Club Road, arguably one of Pune's nicest areas, Sheela noticed increasing amount of garbage piling up and overflowing from the Hume pipes. Those were the days of frenetic construction activity, bungalows were giving way to multi-storied buildings, the number of residents had increased and so did the garbage pile and as Sheela puts it,"The more affluent a resident, the greater is the amount of garbage generated from their homes." The overflowing garbage spilled on to the streets inviting stray dogs and cats that seemed to be all over the place. Sheela, a member of the Pune branch of the National Society for Clean Cities, spoke about her concern at the Boat Club Residents forum and contacted the ward office for assistance.

However, she noticed that garbage continued to accumulate despite being collected by the municipal authorities round the clock Sheela soon realised that it was unfair to hold only the PMC accountable for garbage disposal and residents would need to become responsible for the reckless amount of garbage they generated. Around this time Sheela met Nalini Shekar at the SNDT. Nalini had initiated a rag- pickers project involving women from the slum areas, Sheela requested that 10 women be assigned to the Boat Club and Koregaon Park areas to collect the dry waste. Sheela explained to the women how they were to collect the dry waste, which could then be recycled. Simultaneously, she moved from society to society, requesting housewives to segregate their waste "I go, accompanied by my two dabbas,"she informs laughingly. Sheela begins her talk by putting the women on a little guilt trip. For e.g., she asks them how despite maintaining such clean homes they remain indifferent to the filth outside?

She proceeds to explain in detail how they could contribute their bit to garbage disposal by depositing their garbage in two separate bins. The dry waste such as paper, plastic, metal & glass in one and the bio-degradable wet waste such as chicken, meat & fish bones; tea leaves; fruit and vegetable peels; egg shells; house dust and garden waste into the other. Reluctant housewives are reassured by Sheela that in no time they would get used it with different coloured bins helping the process and no, the maids would not run away, certainly not if the benefits were explained in detail. Enlightens Sheela, "The dry waste is recycled, it generates employment, prevents the choking of land fills and helps save natural sources."

Around the same time, Sheela had read about Vermicuture and its successful implementation in wasteland development. Dr Uday Bhawalkar, a city based scientist had done extensive research on the subject and had identified a particular kind of the deep burrowing earthworm as being best suited for harvesting garbage. Sheela attended a series of workshops held on vermiculture and was soon set to experiment with the most environmental method of garbage disposal. Gera Park, on Boat Club Road, was the first society to initiate vermiculture in the society premises. Sheela was anyway in charge of her society garden and dug two pits in a shady corner without drawing too much attention. She filled the pits with a layer of "culture" (Soil which has the cocoons of the earthworm); she then covered this with a layer of fresh cow dung and finally covered the pit with a layer of garden waste such as leaves and grass. The pit was kept moist with regular sprinkling and after about five weeks the pit was ready for use. Sheela instructed the gardener to spread the wet waste collected from the residents evenly into the pit and to cover it with the leaves, twigs, etc., swept from the society premises. To check and find out if any odour would emanate, Sheela put in all kinds of 'smelly stuff' like fish remains, water hyacinths and even a dead cat there was no smell, no flies and not a trace of the cat. Sheela was understandably excited, here was a simple and environmentally friendly method of garbage disposal."Virtually gold from garbage" or "Wealth from Waste" as she puts it. Enlightens Sheela, "The earthworms have an affinity for oxygen, which makes the pile very porous and aerobic. The earthworms are also capable of consuming waste matter equivalent to their body weight." Simply put, a pound of earthworms will consume a pound of waste and as they process the soil, they make it rich with vitamins.

Step into Sheela's terrace garden and you will see the fruits of her sustained labour. Healthy, robust plants seem to thrive in pots treated to vermiculture. Amidst the luscious greenery, are trees bearing guavas, lime and sweet lemon. "They grow the year round, I take no special care, just deposit my wet waste and the rest is taken care of by the earthworms,” says Sheela.

So impressed was Mr Ramnath Jha, the erstwhile city commissioner, with Sheela's efforts that a sanitation committee called the Apex Committee was formed where like minded members met once a month at the corporation to discuss the city sanitation problems and suggest solutions. For e.g., the wheelbarrows used to transport garbage was fitted with buckets so that the garbage collected in buckets could be raised to deposit it into the dumps and not left strewn all over. In fact, societies desirous of practicing vermiculture can get in touch with the respective Ward Officer in the Sanitation Department and expect all possible help in getting started with the project. Sheela on her part, visits the societies, selects the spot where the pit is to be dug - ideally on a higher level where there is no fear of water logging - decides on the size of the pit based on the amount of garbage that would be generated and the amount of culture that would be needed to get started. Today, quite a few societies across the city have opted for vermiculture as an effective means of disposal of wet waste. As for the dry waste, the number of registered rag pickers has grown from ten to a whopping ten thousand who earn, between themselves, around Rs ten lakhs a day.

Besides housing societies, Sheela has promoted vermiculture at different institutions in the city. She has helped the Army Cantonment dig pits at twenty different locations and also had eight pits dug at the Bishop's School to deal with the stupendous amount of waste generated by the Boarders. Her interest in Hospital Waste Management was sparked off by a visit to the Dentist where she watched the Ayah casually wipe the surgical gloves used by the Doctor on to her sari, powder it and repack it in plastic bags to be later sold to Beauty Parlours. Sheela then requested doctors to snip their gloves after use. Similarly, Sheela, after a thorough study of the waste generated by Jehangir Hospital recommended that the dry waste such as syringes, bottles, bags, gloves be kept separately to be recycled, the infected wastes like needles and bandages to be put in the incinerator and the hot water obtained, used for the hospital needs; and the food and kitchen waste to be put into vermiculture pits. At Jehangir Hospital, Sheela's suggestions are being followed meticulously. The hospital garden thrives on the rich soil obtained from the 7-vermiculture pits, tons of dry waste gets recycled everyday, infected material destroyed and the energy obtained put to use.

Sheela continues to promote the simplest, most cost-effective, least labour intensive and most environmentally friendly method of garbage disposal but with a difference. 12 years ago Sheela had to persuade people to try out vermiculture, today, she states happily, people come to her.

Learning the art of Vermiculture has finally become priority for environment conscious citizens.

Shabari Shetty
Photo Courtesy: Sheela Christian