Pune's Vaibhav Dugar does his bit for the environment

Fed up of pesticide laden vegetables? Then why not grow organic vegetables at home. No space? Even a small gallery or even unused bottles and cans are enough to grow vegetables at home. How? Ask Ek Titli.

Ek Titli is an entrepreneurial venture by young enthusiasts such as Vaibhav Dugar, who have given up lucrative careers to find green solutions.

Along with their other initiatives they have started developing micro organic farms in the city.

Co-founder Dugar believes that instead of discussing environment degradation one has to act in his/her own way to save it.

From growing food, to creating organic farms and promoting renewable energy; Ek Titli does it all.

They have been encouraging people to go organic by producing their own food. Provide them a space, of any size and they'll help you grow food on it.

One such has been developed at the residence of Subhash Kulkarni at Kothrud. He started growing vegetables organically a few months ago.

"I have been growing 22 vegetables on a 400-sq ft terrace. Initially, one has to invest a lot of time but once the plants start growing there is no problem. Savouring the fresh organic vegetables is a different experience," said Kulkarni.

"One can grow the plants anywhere. Just cut the bottom of a bottle, fill it with soil, sow the seed and hang it in a window with its tapering side down. The plant will start growing from the tapering side," said Dugar, who believes in developing the garden with waste items.

Even while making a terrace garden, he uses flex (plastic) sheets to make a soil bed.

"These sheets are waterproof therefore when you water the plants, the water does not percolate in the floor," he added.

Taking up organic farming was not easy for this telecommunication engineer. He studied and read for six to eight months, met people, who had the knowledge of growing plants, understood the difficulties and challenges of growing plants organically in a small space and finally launched Ek Titli in 2010.

After setting up the micro farm, Ek Titli keeps track of the progress of plants through an online observation chart.

"The owner is supposed to check the plants with regular interval and fill up the chart. We also make visits and help out in case of difficulties," said Dugar.

He and his team are now on a new project - creating Chakra Garden. The garden will be based on the seven main chakras in human bodies which are considered to be energy centres.

When one or more of these chakras are imbalanced that's when one feels physically or psychologically unfit or sick.

"There are plants which resonate with these chakras. For example, the carrot plant resonates with the mooladhar chakra. These plants will help balance the respective chakras. But this project will take some time to be completed," said Dugar.