The state may be guilty of neglecting environmental concerns, but it now has a golden opportunity — in fact three of them — to make amends. The last 36 months have seen three projects - Hasiru Honnu (Green Gold), Baradu Bangara (Plain Gold) and Suvarna Bhoomi (Golden land) — aiming to increase Karnataka's green cover and produce biofuel as an offshoot, take off .
Under these programmes, multiple tree species that can provide seeds for use in bio fuel production are being planted with the help of farmers in the state and the State Bio Diesel Task Force (SBDTF) which is responsible, is beginning to taste success.
“We are planting trees over 75,000 hectares in the state. In the process the biofuel produced is helping several government industries cut down their dependence on fossil fuel and environment pollution is taking a downturn ,” says SBDTF chairman, Dr Y.B. Ramakrishna, adding, “We will have enough seeds to produce bio fuel in large quantity. Besides complementing the economic growth of farmers, the planting of seed trees has improved the green cover of the region. Major biofuel plants with a capacity of 50,000 litres/day are coming up in the state and in the next few years the pongemia and neem seeds which are presently sold for `20 and `8 a kg respectively, will gain in demand.”
The three ‘golden’ projects could reduce carbon footprint as they aim at decentralising the growing of seeds, processing the oil and using the biofuel locally. “We are coming up with refinery units where farmers can produce biofuel and use it for local needs. This will reduce their dependency on diesel and cut down travel time,” Dr Ramakrishna explains. While these schemes seem to be making headway, there is dismay among greens about the lack of enthusiasm for similar projects in the state . “A gencies like IISc and SBDTF are coming up with new programmes to address green concerns ,” they lament, recalling that experts have suggested using the waste in the KMF milk factory to generate electricity for running the unit, the project has not taken off.