Redhills Forest Nursery Relocates
Chennai - India
- On 20 October 2014, a potential setback confronted the nursery when the nursery was forced to relocate as the lessor had decided to sell the farm.
- Fortunately, the Foundation holds a lease for a neighbouring farm on which construction of a Women's Empowerment Centre had commenced.
- What was almost barren land was transformed into an ecological outdoor lab in only 90 days!
- Sprinkler systems were lifted and laid to cover the length and breadth of the new farm. Over 20 000 saplings were quickly transferred to enable them to establish during the ongoing monsoon rains and more than 300 large saplings were transplanted to ensure quick forest cover.
- Within 2 weeks, excavating to create a road for mobility through the site was complete.
- The construction team arrived on 10 November 2014 along with a northeast monsoon! The team adopted a 'build-and-drain' technique using a 2 HP motor, to continuously pump out the rainwater, and high-grade quick-drying cement.
- Samarpan Foundation's first prototype double-storey building (including staircase and columns) was constructed utilising mud bricks and Nylon-6 fish net, without an ounce of steel! The building includes 2 warehouses for storing nursery equipment, an office and a guest room.
- Construction work utilising PET bottle bricks (filled with waste mud) and Nylon-6 fish net includes:
- a 3-feet-high raised platform for the pre-fabricated house,
- 25-feet-high columns to support a large water tank, and
- a platform for the 25 KVA generator, a storeroom and an electricity board room.
- Further construction includes:
- columns constructed with conventional bricks to support a smaller water tank for immediate use,
- a kitchenette constructed with fly ash bricks, a duck pen and pond, staff quarters and an outside lavatory facility.
- Several ecological projects were dismantled and reassembled on the new site.
- It took four hours to demolish the prototype greenhouse on the original farm site due to the tensile strength and impact tolerance of structures constructed with Nylon-6 fish net and PET bottle bricks.
