Progress Report of Waste Warriors CorbettJanuary to December 2020

Since 2013, our local teams and SHG women have tirelessly managed waste around Corbett. Raising awareness, engaging village communities, and building SWM systems has slowed down habitat degradation and mitigated the impact of waste pollution on Corbett’s flora and fauna.

The Story

Of

Our local youth team and SHG women face a new challenge and are trying to adapt to manage the waste to reduce its impact on the forest & the animals.

We want to continue this brave work. We want to keep shining a light on waste management and its urgent need in these difficult times.

The NeedFor

Corbett’s Waste Challenges

No investment in waste infrastructure despite a 5-fold rise in tourists since 1990!

No municipal body works here & massive amounts of waste get dumped & burned.

Sparsely distributed population in our project areas raises our logistics cost a lot.

photo: Daksha Bapat

400+ hotels & resorts in & around Corbett’s landscape, adding to the rural waste.

Families here can afford Rs.30 as user-fees, but it covers <10% of our cost per home.

Reduce the environmental impact on animals and forests caused by

habitat degradation, plastic waste pollution, and climate change,

by strengthening rural systems for solid waste management.

Our Goal for Corbett

Mitigate Environmental Impact Through:

● Community Behavioural Change Through Best SWM Practices.

● Activate and Sustain Rural Waste Management Systems.

● Support Rural Youth and Empower Women Through Livelihood Development & Skill-Building.

● Partnerships with Key Government & Tourism Bodies.

Our Approach

● Keystone species (Tigers and Elephants) & regional flora & fauna

● Thousands of families and students in rural communities

● Hundreds of micro/small food and hospitality businesses

● Tourists and park visitors through behavioral change

● Gram Panchayats (Village Councils) & Forest Department

Who Benefits?

Our activities this year in the 20 project village have been:

1. Awareness raising

2. Door to door waste collection

3. Cleanup drives

4. Event waste management

5. Area transformations

6. Trainings beyond project area

Our Efforts In 2020

● Essential to bring behaviour change towards waste and conservation among people.

● Initial sessions started with school-children in October 2013.

Awareness-Raising

1073Children educated

30Children’s Day

sessions

1532People sensitised

57Adult awareness

sessions

Our Impact

● No municipal or panchayat body works on SWM in the villages around Corbett, which makes our service all more essential in this landscape.

● Doorstep waste collection started by Waste Warriors in October 2013.

Door to Door Waste Collection

31050 kgDry Waste Collected

& Processed from D2D

888Families and businesses

segregate their waste

2New villages onboarded

Our Impact

1. Our women-led Self-Help Groups collect waste door-to-door, from homes, shops, offices and waste bins.

2. Organic waste is composted on-site

3. Recyclables are sold to local scrap dealers, and earnings go to the SHG women.

4. Remaining few non-recyclables are disposed at the local landfill site.

Our Self-Help Groups

19Ladies from 5

women-led SHGs

8Waste segregation

centres

22Categories in which waste

is segregated

Our Impact

● Organised to clean the communal dumping sites around villages.

● Brings in people of a community together to clean their area up.

● Organised the first cleanup in October 2013 at Dhikuli.

Cleanup Drives

5119 kgSolid Waste Collected

and Processed from cleanups

40Cleanup drives

organised

531Volunteers engaged

through cleanups

Our Impact

1339 kgDry Waste Collected

and Processed

340 kgFood Waste Collected

and Composted

674+People sensitised through

our awareness stall

The 6th Uttarakhand Spring Bird Festival was organised by the Uttarakhand Forest Department during 7th-9th February, 2020. This 3-day event was organised with an aim to popularise Uttarakhand as a bird conservation state and as a bird-watching destination.

Event Waste Management

Our Impact

92 kgDry Waste Collected

and Processed

893 kgFood Waste Collected

and Composted

150+People sensitised through

our awareness stall

The 7th Frugivores and Seed Dispersal Symposium as organised by Nature Science Initiative during 2nd-6th March, 2020. Waste Warriors Corbett managed waste of this 3-day event hosted by the Taj Corbett Resort & Spa.

Event Waste Management

Our Impact

● All of our 20 villages now have at least one dry waste drop-off point.

● The 10 big signboards installed and the 2 sites re-transformed in this year serve to spread awareness in the region.

● Maintained 34 roadside awareness signboards.

Area Transformations

Our Impact

5784 kgSolid Waste from the waste drop-off points

27Waste drop-off points

in 20 villages

10Big awareness

signboards installed

● Trained the district and block officers of various states of the country as resource people in 3 workshops by NIRDPR, Hyderabad and in 1 workshop with Mission Samriddhi, Chennai.

● Organised a mushroom cultivation training to provide livelihood options to people of Aamdanda village.

7Training sessions outside project

340People from various states

trained on SWM in Rural India

40Villagers trained on

mushroom cultivation

Training Beyond Corbett

Our Impact

● Mitigating Waste Pollution in Soil, Air, & Water.

● Reducing Danger of Plastic Consumption by Key Animals and Birds.

● Increasing Community/Tourist Awareness on SWM Best Practices.

● Training & Livelihood Development for Local Youth & SHG Women

● Improving Implementation & Enforcement from Local Authorities.

Our Impact

Anand Mahindra, Ashwin Johari, Anangaraj Saikia, Chetan Mehrotra, Conan Dumenil, Col. K Sood, Col. Anil

Kochar, Amrita & Dheeraj Singh, Disha Shekhar, Degaonkar Kshitij, Debika Chatterjee, Gaurav Kholia, Geeta

Bhatnagar, Gitanjali Roy, Gulab Singh, Hashim Tyabji, Jatin Tyagi, Joydeep Sarkar, Joyjit Ghosh, Karan Mota,

Kasturi Kabiraj & Nilanjan Coomar, Lalitha Krishnan, Lekha Nair, Madhushree Nanda, Madan Kumar, Marc

Hildreth, Monisha Krishna, Manttra, Mahua Roy, Minakshi Pandey & Ritish Suri, Neha Mishra, Namrata Yadav &

Nishant Beniwal, Neha Dixit, Nikita Khamparia, P.N. Narayan Swamy, Payal Mehta & Harsha J, Rasesh Vissanji,

Pankaj Behl, Partho Sarthi Banerjee, Reet Hazarika, Ruchika Lath & Akshay Chuttar, Shashikant Raheja, Shoba

Mohan, Shoba Chaddha, Tara & Mahesh Pandey, Varsha Bhatia & Victor Banerjee.

Our supporters and donors since 2013