New compost pits for green waste

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Bhubaneswar: In order to manage the insurmountable green waste generated post severe cyclonic storm, the civic authorities here have proposed to add new composting pits along with the existing ones across different parks in the city.
While the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has created 220 composting pits in its 55 parks, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has developed new pits at Madhusudan Park, Netaji Subash Chandra Park and Kharavela Park.
The BDA, which manages the bigger parks of the city that range from 5-20, has started new green composting pits for the large amount of green trash collected from the parks during cleaning process.
“The generation of green compost will also help in producing quality green manure that would be used in city-based parks for better growth of saplings as there will be compensatory plantations in all the green spaces to revive the canopy cover and greenery,’’ BMC Additional Commissioner Ananya Das said.
Following the loss of green cover in the aftermath of Fani, the BDA has added three more parks in the Capital city. Meanwhile it will make three more compost pits in Biju Patnaik Park, one in Indira Gandhi Park and two in Buddha Jayanti Park.
Detailing about the working of these pits, BDA’s Chief Horticulturist Ashokananda Dhar explained, “We cannot use all types of pits. Very deep pits and old laterite quarries cannot be used. The depth of the compost pit should not be more than 5 to 6 feet. Also the pits need to have adequate sunlight for the conversion of green waste to manure.’’
Adding to this, a staff of a private cleaning agency stationed at Biju Patnaik Park said that the green compost pits are sprinkled with water manually or through use of drip irrigation and chemicals, bio digesters and jaggery (gur) are used to speed up the composting process.
“The compost pits produce high quality green manure which is best suited for rearing saplings to be used for afforestation work after the Fani devastation,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, city-based environmentalist Bijay Mishra said that not only government agencies and civic authorities, but also individuals and educational institutions should take up composting of the green waste and once the manure is harvested, the same could be used for planting trees.