Here's how Kalaburagi youth are battling scorching heat

With the mercury soaring in the region, a group of locals, consisting of doctors, engineers, students, and government employees, among others, are planting saplings across the district to help lower the temperature in the region.

The youngsters have flagged off a mission named "10k warriors" to make the district greener and are reaching out to volunteers to participate in increasing the green cover in the district.

Speaking to ANI, Dr. Naganth Yadgir, a member of the environmental group, said, "We have been planting saplings for the past three years. When we were young, the temperature here was around 34-35 degrees and now we are seeing temperatures up to 47 degrees Celcius."

As per Yadgir, the group began the plantation drive in 2017 and managed to plant 1000 saplings that year. In the subsequent year, he said 1400 saplings were planted by the youth.

The group's new mission has been advertised on social media to gather volunteers and make this mission a fruitful one.

"I came to know about this plantation drive through Facebook live which requested volunteers to join. Seeing this as a noble cause I joined the effort," said Avinash, a resident of Bengaluru who is participating in the plantation drive.

The group aspires that through this initiative, there will be an increase in rains and groundwater level and a decrease in the heat within two years. It also believes that this initiative is a long term solution for the recent water crisis and the deficiency in rainfall across Karnataka.