Updates
Live interaction with BASC Team & Members - 2nd May 2020

Sunday, June 30, 2013

     Its June again, means all  SCHOOLs have reopened. So let us help children who are from remote villages and are poor. For this cause BASC gave uniforms and other essential things. This is a part of BASC's Social Activity, so for this BASC FUND was used.

     Last Saturday (29th June 2013) BASC distributed uniform shirts, pen, pencils and erasers to the school children. This is a part of Social activity using BASC Fund. This year I selected four school from Tribal areas of Chamarajnagar District, to help poor children from remote tribal villages.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Though I had registered my name with the Bangalore Ascenders group a year ago, I had never been for a trek with them. This time when I saw a post about a cycle trip to Gouribidanur, I nominated my name with no second thoughts. I had never met any of them earlier but I decided to join them for a cycling experience and I must say that I do not regret going with them .. A very well organized and down to earth group. The team was led by Rajesh !!
22nd June 2013: As per the plan we started our journey early morning by 7 am. Most of them started from Cubbon Park and few off us joined mid way on airport road.
We had breakfast at some hotel near Puttanahalli Bus depot and then continued cycling towards MVIT cross. Though there was a direct road, the organizers chose this route since it was perfect for cycling.  We had a pit stop somewhere near MVIT cross and this is where we started out photography :D !! Quite fortunate to have Anil K Mohanty as our photographer !!



Saturday, June 15, 2013

BASC campaign for forest protection because, without healthy, thriving forests, planet Earth cannot sustain life. Forests also regulate water flow and rainfall so we depend on them to grow our crops and food. Forest regeneration is the act of renewing tree cover by human assistance. The need for an effective and low cost forest and biodiversity restoration and rehabilitation methods is now highlighted in the face of climate change and the global phenomenon of rapid loss of forests and biodiversity.


As you all know in Sep 2012 we planted 1100+ saplings in Kollegala area under BASC's social activity "Forest Regeneration Program" (FRP). Plants are healthy and growing fast, but unfortunately around 200+ plants are removed by elephant herd :( So last Saturday (15th June 2013) we took up planting again as monsoon rain started in the area. We completed planting 200 neem saplings with help of local workers, Forest watchers and BASC team (me, Rajesh, Girish & Anitha).

   I thank Srinivas of SM Transport for arranging Tata 407 for free of cost and also I thank Ganesh Madyastha of Himalaya Health Care for providing 200 neem plants again for free of cost.

FRP activity so far:
FRP Phase-1: Digging pits on 19th May 2012
FRP Phase-2: Planting & watering on 1st & 2nd Sep 2012
FRP Phase-3: Watering on 18th Nov 2012
FRP Phase-4: Watering on 3rd Feb 2013
FRP Phase-5: Watering on 9th March 2013
FRP Phase-6: Watering on 13th Apr 2013
FRP Phase-7: Planting on 15th June 2013


Expenses of FRP so far:
FRP1 → Rs.7650
FRP2  → Rs.15100
FRP3 → Rs.3500
FRP4 → Rs.3500
FRP5 → Rs.1000
FRP6 → Rs.5500
FRP7 → Rs.2800
Contribution → Rs.27000
BASC Fund used → Rs.12050


For more info about FRP:


Visit our Group @ CLICK HERE
Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE
Event organized by: Ambareesh Karanth
Written by: Ambareesh Karanth
Image Gallery: Rajesh P Nayak

Monday, June 10, 2013

Trekking in monsoon is always difficult and challenging one. Leeches, Heavy rain, Extreme wind on top of the Hill, Misty weather & lots more that will give you a special experience. I wanted to experience it so as soon as I saw the event registration page in BASC website I registered for the event. Here is  my experience of this trek with BASC.

2-ed

7th June 2013:

Our event organizer Niranjan along with 20 members of BASC started from “Shantala silk house (Majestic)" around 10:50 PM on a mini bus. I joined them at R.V.College of Engg and we started off towards our destination, Bhagamandala.

We knew that it would rain heavily as it being peak of a monsoon season and the place which we decided to trek is famous for its heavy rains. We were well prepared to face the challenges during the trek. I had done enough preparations as per my capabilities and kept my luggage as minimal as possible so that trekking goes smooth.

8th June 2013

We reached Bhagamandala around 5:30 AM in the morning. We freshened up while it was too early for the city to wake up and so had to wait for another hour & half for hotels to open. Our breakfast was Idly & vada at Kaveri darshini hotel in front of Sri Bhagandeshwara temple where we also packed Pulav for lunch.

1Forest office opens at 9:00 AM so we got into introducing ourselves to the rest of the group & this way we could also kill some time. Meanwhile all of us geared up to face leech bites. By the time we said Hello to each other, our guide Jayaprakash joined us. After all the formalities of forest department, we started in the same bus towards Talacauvery which was our starting point of the trek. It was now around 9:30 AM.

Main intention of this trek was to enjoy every bit of monsoon rather than breath-taking views. It was mist everywhere and we couldn’t see anything at all. It was raining heavily and to add to the trouble there were leeches in plenty 3-edwaiting to suck our blood. We started trekking to Nishani betta around 10:00 AM and it was joy of walk. Forest is full of leeches and trying to escape leech bite is always the most funniest part of a monsoon trek. Blood donation was happening in full swing!!! Everyone was donating blood.

On the way we found a stream. It was also noon by this time and a perfect spot for lunch. We had half an hour time to relish our lunch. It was around 1:45PM we started our trekking again. The factor which troubled most of us specially girls were the leech bite than the rain. It was 4:00 PM when we reached flag point which is the Nishani betta summit.

4-edExtreme wind pushing us and heavy rain on top of the hill made weather more pleasant. I felt it is one of best moments of my life :) Loved the weather!!! that's why I always tell “Trekking is an experience" and one should be ready to face any challenges during the trek.

We relaxed for half an hour and started to descend towards camping site around 4:30 PM. Reached camping site around 5:30 PM which was at a small distance of 2 kms. It was raining badly and once reaching camping site all of had a proud feeling of achieving something BIG in our lives.

1-ed

We relaxed at camping site while few played Mafia games. Niranjan, Ram and Govind were busy preparing dinner for us. They prepared Tomato rice for dinner. Around 8:30 PM it was time for dinner and we surrendered to sleep by 9:30 PM. It was a big group and the space was small to accommodate all of us but we managed to find some place to stretch.

Our second day plan was to trek till kerala border via Kurudi which was 22 kms from the campsite. Jayaprakash, our guide suggested us to drop the day’s plan and return back to Bangalore as there were heavy rains which would make the rivers crossing difficult and the danger from leeches always persisted.

9th June 2013:

All of us woke up around 6:00 AM and few o6-edf them slept till 8:00 AM. After freshening up, everyone shared whatever they brought for breakfast. Niranjan & team prepared yummy Maggie for all of us..:). After breakfast at around 9:30AM, we started towards the main road to catch mini bus. It was jeep trail and 6 kms of walk took us to main road. Endless photography all the way while we reached the main road. Around 11:30 AM, we started back to Bangalore. On the way we stopped for lunch at Hotel Neel sagar, Madikeri. Around 2:30 PM we started from Madikeri and reached Bangalore around 9:00 PM.

I want to thank Niranjan Kumar for organizing the event and also appreciate his efforts to accommodate us on this trek in spite of the extreme weather conditions. Hats off to him...:).

Keep exploring and enjoy the mother nature!

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Gautham Baliga
Date: June 8th & 9th

Composed by: Sana & Vinay

Event organized by: Niranjan

Image Gallery: Niranjan

The Crew: Niranjan, Girish NL, Deepak HK, Ramkumar U.N, Govind, Pradeep GK, Sunil Kumar O.G, Surendra, Anshul , Chaurasia, Samarth, Gurva Reddy, Shivakumar S, Supraja M, Vishwanath, Krutika, P.Padmavathi, T.G.Shilpa, Gautham Baliga, Navneet, Vijay, Darpan, Pallavi H.G.