Pune man develops contactless litter picking machine

Shelar, hence, developed Jatayu — a machine that offers a fully mechanized solution and completely wipes out human intervention.

Jatayu machine

Abhishek Shelar’s decision to enter the messy world of garbage collection steamed from his desire to do something which will have a very tangible and visible effect on society. Shelar, hence, developed Jatayu — a machine that offers a fully mechanised solution and completely wipes out human intervention.

“Our intervention was aimed at solving this problem — the extent of which is across India and other than manual picking which did not have any other solution. Jatayu- the machine is a result of our two years of research into this,” Shelar, an alumnus of Harvard and IIT Bombay.

Abhishek Shelar

The problem with roadside litter arises from the mixed nature of the garbage- it can range from plastics to vegetable peelings.

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While machines to address roadside litter do exist in the Western World, their efficiency in Indian conditions is less. “Such machines in the USA or Europe address the problem of leaves on roads. But in India they are expected to collect everything from plastics to paper to metal can etc. Also, dust is a very Indian problem and it makes the work more difficult” he said. Jatayu solves this problem by using patented technology over a basic vacuum platform.

The machine is lightweight and can be mounted on a small utility vehicle On average, the machine can collect 2 tonnes of garbage per day. Shelar’s whose journey as an entrepreneur started five years back of which two years had gone in development of the machine.

In the last three years, his company had sold 100 machines across the country with his start-up getting noticed by the PMO and the ministry of urban development. “We have the capacity to produce 100 machines a month and this machine can plug the loopholes in India’s fight against garbage,” he said.

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Parthasarathi Biswas

Partha Sarathi Biwas is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express with 10+ years of experience in reporting on Agriculture, Commodities and Developmental issues. He has been with The Indian Express since 2011 and earlier worked with DNA. Partha's report about Farmers Producer Companies (FPC) as well long pieces on various agricultural issues have been cited by various academic publications including those published by the Government of India. He is often invited as a visiting faculty to various schools of journalism to talk about development journalism and rural reporting. In his spare time Partha trains for marathons and has participated in multiple marathons and half marathons. ... Read More

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