[Pics. by M.N. Lakshminarayana Yadav]

The View Points atop city’s landmark Chamundi Hill are beckoning tourists after the recent facelift, environment promotion and beautification works undertaken by a Non-Government Organisation since the last three months.

The District Administration had constructed special protruding platforms at the two View Points on the way to the Hill and installed two high-definition binoculars (at one View Point) for viewers to admire the city especially during the night. While one View Point has been set up at the junction between Nandi Statue Road and the Chamundi Hill Road, the other has been set up near the WELCOME sign on the same stretch.

Both these View Points are drawing a large number of visitors. As an icing to the cake, city-based Namma Mysuru Foundation, an environmental conservation organisation, has beautified the stretch by erecting medians and developing median gardens with ornamental plants.

Earlier, both View Points and nearby surroundings was a dumping yard of waste as people littered and threw plastic papers, bottles and sachets. Adding to this was visitors parking their vehicles haphazardly leading to accidents. With the beautification and facelift works, these spots are pulling visitors to spend their leisure time especially in the evening hours. 

Earlier, a long thread was tied to ensure smooth oncoming and returning traffic. Now a beautiful median has been set up at the junction between Nandi Statue Road and the Chamundi Hill Road. Cultivation of different ornamental plants above the median strip is adding to the aesthetics and soothes the eyes. Apart from these, the Namma Mysuru Foundation has also kept ornamental flower pots at different places of these View Points.      

The Circle around the other View Point which has been developed near the WELCOME sign is also beautified with ornamental flower pots of various sizes. To prevent littering, the Foundation has placed over 40 dustbins. Moreover, it has also deputed a security guard to take care of these ornamental plants and flower pots and to maintain cleanliness at both the View Points.

To spread the message to educate the people to grow more plants and to end plastic menace besides to stop polluting the environment, the NGO has also displayed boards in both Kannada and English languages. 

The Foundation has planted more than 650 saplings of different tree species along the stretch from Tavarekatte on the foothills of Chamundi towards Nandi Statue. It has also arranged drip irrigation facility and has placed 14 drums each having a capacity of 250 litres to supply water to these saplings. These drums are designed in such a way that it sprinkles water to these plants through drip irrigation for 12 hours a day.

To safeguard these trees, the Foundation has kept 250 tree guards. It has also affixed more than 1,200 fibre bowls to the trees to feed water for birds. It has also placed water bowls on the ground for the animals and monkeys to quench thirst.  

“In the last three months, we have completed these plantation and beautification works at a total cost of Rs. 45 lakh,” said Namma Mysuru Foundation Trustee Lokesh.

The Foundation has a total of 50 life members and more than 100 volunteers, including students. The volunteers participate in cleanliness drives in various parts of the city and atop the Chamundi Hill. The volunteers often conduct cleanliness drives and have so far collected approximately 40 tonnes of plastic materials on Chamundi Hill since the last six months, Lokesh said.

He also remembered the contributions of Namma Mysuru Founder Pavithra, Managing Trustees Dasharath, N. Mallesh, Veerash, Ramesh, Sriraj, Kalyan, Rangaraju, Anuradha and Niharika.

Not stopping at this, the Namma Mysuru Foundation has also planted over 250 herbal plants at Madhuvana Park behind the District Court Complex in city as part of environment protection activities, he added.