82% homes not green: Report

BANGALORE: Going by a recent survey conducted by the Biodiversity Conservation India Limited (BCIL), it seems the independent residential owners in city give less importance to green cover in their households. The survey was conducted on as many as 400 houses from different parts of the city. Results revealed that about 82 per cent of city’s homes are not green. Despite government emphasising on rain water harvesting at every household, only about 12 percent (from the survey) used rain water for their daily chores.BCIL conducted the survey over a period of one month, under the BCIL ZED Eco Pulse-Green Homes survey.  The survey was conducted on independent (flats not included) homes. Chandrashekar Hariharan, chairman, BCIL-ZED Habitats, said, “Green cover is fast dwindling in the city and the reason is not just tree felling but also the lesser number of private gardens. During the survey it was known that only 19 percent of the houses had plants in pots and 54 per cent of the houses with gardens use chemicals and pesticides.”Meanwhile, only 19 per cent of the respondents use eco-friendly lighting sources like solar power for daily chores. “Also, about 70 per cent of the homes do not segregate their waste into wet wastes and dry solid waste” he added. Government has to bring strong regulations and make eco-friendly measures compulsory in every household in order to safegaurd the environmental resources, he suggested.