Puttur: Well, Colocasia Esculenta leaves may sound Utopian to many because what most Mangalorean would love to call it is by its popular local name-‘Thevu’/ ‘There’. A most loved Mangalorean delicacy named ‘Patradde’ is made by rolling these leaves. Never would a Mangalorean ever think of a better usage of the leaf. But, thinking out of the box always pays off and for Aneesha Nayak, a high school student from Puttur, Karnataka the humble ‘Thevu’ brought home a bronze medal at the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering and Environment Project (I-SWEEP), Olympiad conducted at Houston in the United States of America from April 26 to May 1.
Aneesha’s project ‘Hydrophobicity of Colocasia Esculenta leaves as a wall protector’ under the ‘Environment-Management and Pollution’ category, guided by her science teacher Sadhana Hebbar of Sudana Residential School bagged the attention at the I-Sweep, Olympiad.
She has proved that mixing of juice extracted from colocasia leaves with colours before painting the walls can protect the walls from fungi. She based her studies on the property of the leave, which does not retain water on it.
Aneesha is an international surfer and had earlier won the second gold grand award at the INSEF national fair held at Rajkot this year.
Her above project had won gold medal at the ‘National Science Fair’ held at Chennai last year. I-SWEEEP is an international science fair competition open to high school students. It is organised by Harmony Public Schools, a K-12 Public Charter School System with the support of the leaders in the industry and higher education institutions.
