Muktapur is located a kilometer away from Pochampally village in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. Godasu Narasimha comes from that village. A humble young man from fishermen community, Narasimha has tremendous energy to perform anything which he decides. He is well supported by his wife Lavanya and three children in all his ventures. Having lost his parents in succession when he was 8 years of age, it was his brother who supported him up to tenth standard and thereafter he went on to do his diploma in civil engineering, which he could not complete.

Narasimha joined a private primary school in the village as teacher and for the last 18 years continues to be associated with it. He married Lavanya from nearby village in 1994 and has two daughters and a son. Besides working as teacher, he has to do his part as a member of the local fishermen group which grows and catches fish every year in the tank of the village for the contractor from Hyderabad. Local fishermen community takes the responsibility of growing them and supply the fish as and when required by the contractor. The profits are distributed amongst the fishermen community of the village.

The fish catch depends upon the health of the tank which, like many other tanks, has the problem of luxurious growth of hyacinth. This hampers the growth of the fish. Fishermen continuously have to take turns to go into the lake, pull and push the hyacinth on to the bund. This involves almost 50 fishermen for a period of 60 days in a year. The process is slow, in very tough. Continuous exposure to water results in snake bites and fungus growth on the legs and feet of the fishermen involved. Around Muktapur at least another 10 villagers are facing similar problem. The cost of removing the hyacinth in this manner is quite substantial, which according to Narasimha, works out to Rs 3 lakh in a year. This amount, though paid by the Contractor initially, gets deducted from the sale of fish. Thus, due to hyacinth the fishermen loose that much money every year besides health problems.

Narasimha wanted to mitigate the pain of his community by reducing their drudgery. He proposed to make a device which cuts the hyacinth into pieces and sought financial help. The fishermen society rejected his suggestion due to apprehension of his abilities to make such device. Narasimha discussed with his wife and decide to make one with his own funds and some borrowed from friends.

He used a 5 hp motor to rotate a shaft with eight cutters positioned diametrically. A grill at the bottom of the cutter provides as platform for cutting and the pieces drop down from the grill. Hyacinth is supplied to the cutter through a conveyer belt positioned in front of the cutter towards the water. Hyacinth bushes are manually pushed on to the conveyer. Hyacinth is cut to pieces of 3-4 inches length by the cutter and it flows down with water downstream. The cutting process is very efficient and the flow of cut pieces is also effective. The device is installed adjacent to the pier in the water, over which the water flows downwards in to the stream. Four men are required for a period of 5 days to perform the same job of hyacinth removal by 50 people over 30 days. In comparison, the cost incurred is 2000 for labour and 1500 for diesel to run the motor. In a year the total cost using the Hyacinth cutter would be Rs 7000 against 3 lakhs manually. Besides this advantage, there is an additional income from the possibility of better growth of the fish. He christened the machine as Lavanya Water hyacinth Cutting Machine, after his beloved wife who is with him in thick and thin.

Narsimha’s Hyacinth cutter has made waves in the region and people, press and the society is very happy over such a simple device to overcome the perennial problem of hyacinth growth in the lakes. He spent almost Rs one lakh during experimentation stage.

Lavanya and Narasimha have worked hard to make the hyacinth cutter a reality. Their dedication, confidence and the passion to provide solution to the problem of their community is highly laudable.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation saw this machine and sought it for cleaning their water bodies. What a great day, a grass root innovation comes to the rescue of a metro. Hats off Narasimha!!!!


Nominated for the Award by Palle Srujana
President: Brig (Retd) P Ganesham, VSM
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