New Delhi entrepreneur wins Earthshot Prize

Vidyut Mohan, a New Delhi-based entrepreneur was one of the five winners of the inaugural 'Earthshot Prize' in London on Sunday. Dubbed as the ‘Eco-Oscars’, it is an environmental award run by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton. 

Mohan was awarded £1 million for his project that works with agricultural waste to reduce air pollution. Mohan’s one-of-a-kind invention was nominated in the “Clean Our Air” category of the awards. Known as ‘Takachar’, it aims to not only lessen the smoke emissions but also combat climate change. Stubble farming is a common and harmful method that is used by farmers in north India to burn the remaining crop residue. This, in turn, causes pollution in the air and makes it extremely hard to breathe in. With the help of a small and portable machine, Mohan provides solution to this problem.

“Takachar has developed a cheap, small-scale, portable technology that attaches to tractors in remote farms. The machine converts crop residue into sellable bio-products like fuel and fertiliser. Takachar reduces smoke emissions by up to 98 per cent which will help improve the air quality that currently reduces the affected population's life expectancy by up to five years,” said the Earthshot Prize's website.

Mohan was not the only Indian in this category. Along with him, a 14-year-old girl from Tamil Nadu named Vinisha Umashankar who created a solar-powered iron cart to reduce the usage of the coal-run irons that contribute to the already toxic air that we breathe. 

The five categories under which the awards were given are 'Clean Our Air', 'Protect and Restore Nature', 'Revive Our Oceans', 'Build A Waste Free World' and 'Fix Our Climate.' Other winners are from Italy, the Bahamas, and Costa Rica. The prize was a unique medal that was made out of recyclable brass by a Dutch artist named Christien Meindertsma. It was sourced from water pipe fittings, household waste and minute metals that were filtered from the waste.