Hyderabad: Raising gardens turns a new passion in urban areas

Rangareddy: The trend of cultivating gardens at home, both indoors and on rooftops, is gaining momentum in the city. Enthusiasts and health-conscious individuals are increasingly embracing the concept of growing their own vegetables, fueling this growing movement.

Gardens are being hailed by experts as a means to grow chemical-free vegetables, promoting a healthy lifestyle while also making significant contributions to reducing carbon footprint.

Recently, on the occasion of World Environment Day, the Department of Horticulture in collaboration with the City of Terrace Garden (CTG) - a campaigner that promotes terrace gardens in the city and districts, has organised an awareness programme against reused and recycled plastic that contributes to growing threat of pollution all over the globe.

The event was chaired by Yadagiri, the former Director Department of Horticulture and Srinivas Harkara, the founder of CTG group. The event saw the gathering of over 250 CTG members from city and surrounding districts led by the Chief Admins of the group Saroja and Mounika Sumreddy.

During the programme, all the attendees pledged the oath to reduce reuse and recycled plastic in their day to day life. Apart from this, they decided to share atleast one plant to their peers and apprise them about the importance of raising gardens to help improve the ambient temperature and protect the environment.

Talking to Hans India on the occasion, DrSrinivas Harkara, the founder of CTG group said, “Awareness about raising terrace gardens is the need of the hour to protect the environment from a life threatening element called pollution which is by every means leaving a catastrophic impact on the humans all over the globe.”

When asked about how the people in urban areas are becoming nutritionally self-sufficient by developing the gardens, he said, “There are many advantages of raising gardens in the back yard or over the roof. Apart from providing fresh and chemical free vegetables for a healthy living, it also provides fresh air and promotes a habit of exercise on daily bases that keep your body healthy and fit to live an active life besides helping improve the ambient environment and air quality. It also offers to maintain a family budget and improve personal savings.”

Apart from this, he said, growing a garden in backyards or on terraces also helps reduce the carbon footprint in several ways. Primarily it helps to control emission of carbon dioxide (Co2) and methane (CH4) that is contributing to climate change and evolving into a grave threat like global warming.

When asked about how many acres of terrace gardens covered in the city so far through CTG campaign, he said, “As urban gardening squarely deals with backyard gardens that developed in excess land or at the terrace of the house, we can’t exactly scale it into acres. However, the City of Terrace Gardens (CTG) campaign inspired and attracts atleast 42-45,000 people in both the Telugu States to raise the gardens in whatever space available with them in the backyards and over the roof. As per our estimation, the CTG campaign will attract more one lakh garden enthusiasts to raise gardens by the end of 2024.”

To encourage the plant enthusiasts, distribution of seeds, saplings and liquid fertilizers were also distributed among the participants. “Grafted Vegetable Saplings, Turmeric Tubers, Ghana Jeevamrutham and Gokrupamrutham were distributed among the participants,” he said. Raising the occasion in order to support the green cause through wearing green sarees, the members of the CTG group, took part in the event with placards and gave slogans like ‘Go Green and Grow Green’ and ‘Raise the Gardens and Save the Planet.’ They even plant some saplings to mark the World Environment Day during the programme.