Water scarcity is fast becoming India’s biggest problem. While the northern states have many rivers and tributaries to their rescue, South Indian states have very scarce means. Reeling under a second successive drought, Telangana, is facing a water crisis, with scarcity hitting not just the villages but even the capital Hyderabad.
Helping the government of Telangana, in their effort to restore water bodies across the state, are four IIIT-H alumni. G. Gowtham (33), Nagaraja Kaushik Gampa (32), Pullata Mahendra (30) along with their professor Dr Rajan, head, Lab for spatial informatics at IIIT-H, have started their company KAIINOS, that aims to help the Telangana government with Mission Kakatiya.
Explaining the mission in detail and their roles, Gowtham says, “We have presented our research in many local forums and have worked with citizen groups like SOUL in water body conservation. After the formation of Telangana, the government, under Mission Kakatiya, wanted to evaluate the state of water bodies and create a spatial database to be integrated into their existing systems. After testing the feasibility of the technology for about a year, Government of Telangana has asked KAIINOS to create the database.”
When asked if the mission has made any impact, Kaushik says, “As part of our work, we have identified the tanks which had water earlier. With the help of the tools provided by us, department officials verified those tanks and are planning to rejuvenate them. These tanks have started holding water for longer periods, due to works like channel clearance, bund renovation and desilting.”
The team is also helping Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), with their projects. “We helped CRIDA to develop a tool for statistical analysis of watersheds, which in turn helped in developing watersheds across country,” says Mahendra.
Kaushik feels that it’s their passion to help the environment that drives the team. “All of us are passionate about our work on sustainability. It took us two years to get our first project, but our families were very supportive.”
Ask the team about their future plan, their mentor, Dr Rajan, says, “Sustainability and education are two sectors that we want to be in. The algorithms that we have developed help users to assess and plan their conservation activities. These algorithms will also help students understand the environment better.”
