On Saturday, dentist-turned-civic activist Dr Shanthi Tummala, a resident of Sector 3, HSR Layout, was bestowed with the ‘Karnataka Women Achievers’ award for 2019 (KWAA), an initiative to recognise incredible women of the state by actor Spoorthi Vishwas that began last year. She was one among the 20 women who were honoured last week.
“I feel honoured to receive the award under the category of ‘Outstanding environmental changemaker'”, says Dr Shanthi about how she was among the 20 women picked from 1023 nominations across Karnataka. “The organisers told me that 23 people nominated me. I was more happy to see that the chief guest was beloved Indian environmentalist Saalumarada Thimmakka and Guest of honour was Roopa Moudgil, the dynamic IPS officer known for her boldness.”
Readers familiar to Residents Watch need no introduction about Dr Shanthi. For a detailed profile on her, you can visit our previous story about HSR Layout’s prominent civic activists.
However, it needs to be said that this 43-year-old resident of HSR Layout for over 11 years, is a farmer’s daughter. Therefore, when she saw garbage strewn all around, she gave up her dental practice and became a social worker in HSR. Six years ago, there was zero garbage segregation and the blackspots were only growing every day. Today, according to her, there is 90 percent segregation of garbage in HSR Layout, and citizens and volunteers like her help the authorities to penalise people selling plastic in the neighbourhood.
Her efforts paid off and she became instantly recognised for waste management. She was appointed as a member of the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) and is also a ward committee member today of HSR Layout Ward 174.
Dr Shanthi’s list of achievements are one too many. From installing 10 lane composters for wet waste (and four more coming soon) to 22 leaf composting tanks in parks, to setting up a biodiversity park with rainwater recharge wells in Sector 6 “where they used to face water logging on roads every year”, to a community kitchen garden in Sector 3 to her continuous awareness sessions on sustainable living across the state to winning the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda award this year to being instrumental in setting up the SwachaGraha Kalika Kendra in Sector 4, Dr Shanthi’s list of milestones is endless.
