In India, a large portion of the population is dependent on agriculture for their sustenance. As many of the rural farmers with small landholdings still have rain as their only source of irrigation, it becomes a grave cause of worry if rains are erratic, which, unfortunately, happens regularly. As climate is changing rapidly, states like Maharashtra and Gujarat suffer through drought and states like Assam and West Bengal are hard hit by floods almost every year. The scarcity of water has been driving thousands of farmers to commit suicide as crops fail year after year, leaving them with less to no food and saline water, or worse, a never-ending cycle of debt. In such a scenario, Bhungroo, an indigenous technology developed by Biplab Ketan Paul comes like a ray of hope.
No hollow claims
Bhungroo, meaning a hollow pipe in Gujarati, has been in use for a long time in India. Women, to this day, use it to blow air in chulhas to ignite a dying fire, just as it ignited Biplab’s mind when he saw the native Gujaratis with no clean water to drink. As a director in Naireeta Services Private Limited, he then developed and created Bhungroo, a rainwater harvesting technology and product that requires only a square metre surface area and hardworking people, especially women, to make it work.
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