Forty seven-year-old Godasu Narasimha maybe a simple man. But what he did for his community was indeed a noble act.
The Telangana native, despite his moderate education, developed a hyacinth remover, saving his entire community from incurring huge losses.
The community of fisherfolk in Muktapur village in Yadadri district was reeling under severe financial crisis as the hyacinth growing on the lake surface used up all the oxygen and prevented sunlight, killing all the fish.
To clear up the water, the village fishing society would spend lakhs of rupees every year and employ fishermen to toil and remove the weed. Apart from the money, this work also used up 3 months and a man power of 50.
In a bid to relieve his community from the acute crisis, Narasimha in 2012 created a hyacinth remover, which cut down the labour cost, man power and time. However, creating this machine was no easy feat.
When he proposed the idea and sought funds for the same, the community members rejected it downright and undermined his capability. Determined to build the equipment, he then decided to borrow money from friends and take loans.
His efforts bore fruit and the community went from shelling out 1.5 lakhs to weed out hyacinths that grew back in 6 months, to spending Rs 8000 every two months including labor cost and fuel.
“I aspired to become a mechanical engineer, but my financial position never allowed me to,” the man who never studied 10th grade revealed to TNM.
However, he never gave up his dreams and continues to buy and read books on engineering and programming.
“I love exploring things and innovating things and I am educating myself for it.”
Today, Godasu Narasimha is a recipient of several awards on innovation and was even felicitated by then President Pranab Mukherjee.
His efforts were recognised by the Andhra government, who requested him to clean a portion of Srisailam dam which is entirely covered by weeds.
Narasimha continues to build customised machines with the latest tech, including GPS, to clean the lakes. He is even working on a remote-controlled weed remover.
He sincerely hopes that , one day, the government would recognise his hard work and innovations and invest in them.