Towards a green Lanka with Thuru app
On a green path: Hasanka
A passion for protecting the country’s environmental heritage that grew while working as a volunteer in rural areas, including a residential project at an Ayurvedic garden in Haldummulla in Badulla led Hasanka Padukka on a green career path.
“I found some rare plants while I was volunteering in this ayurvedic garden, and this was one reason why I became determined to protect rare plant species in Sri Lanka, through Thuru,” he said.
Hasanka is the Chief Operating Officer and a co-founder of Thuru, Sri Lanka’s first app especially designed for tree planting. And how did it all come about? Hasanka said he first made plans for Thuru with his then boss Heminda Jayaweera, while they were on a trip together. Soon afterwards, along with their colleagues and co-founders Tharindu Kodikara and Sangeeth Harshendra, they decided to take the leap and launched Thuru in 2016.
The Thuru app has a variety of packages for users including the delivery of potted plants and features for regular monitoring and taking care of the plants once they are planted. Since last year, Thuru has delivered more than 20,000 plants to more than 4000 houses in the Colombo and Gampaha districts. The team also runs nurseries where plants are grown under suitable conditions before being delivered to customers.
Thuru users have the option of taking pictures of the trees they have planted and sharing them with other users. They can also share a geotag location, and details about the variety of tree for other users to see. The app has features such as a points system, leaderboards and medals to encourage users to plant more trees.
“Every time you plant a tree, you get points. The more points you get, the higher you climb on a leaderboard. This encourages people to compete with their friends and plant as many trees as possible. Right now, Thuru is a well-developed ecosystem with an online store, a volunteer network, and drones capable of seed dropping. It has also been recognised internationally as well as locally,” Hasanka said.
When they started out, their small but capable team had a few more than ten people, each with their own area of expertise, from partnerships to web development, which they were responsible for.
Since then the business has grown to include a few more permanent team members and impact interns as well. Sajith Gajanayake is the Head of Silviculture, and he provides expertise and knowledge about plants and cultivation. The team has also worked with advisors or consultants, such as Bhathiya Sumithraarachchi, the former Director of the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, and Anura Sathurusinghe, the former Conservator General at the Department of Forestry.
As of now Thuru has been downloaded 20,000 times from Google Play Store, even in other Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines.
A student of Prince of Wales College in Moratuwa and Rajarata University alumnus, Hasanka gained admission to the university after winning the bronze Duke of Edinburgh award that year. He says the award helped him improve his leadership skills and become an entrepreneur and importantly, influenced his attitude toward issues in the community and the environment. Winning the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award in 2012, he represented Sri Lanka at the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Gold Event in South Korea in 2014.
Thuru’s latest initiative is its seedpod project, which it runs in collaboration with SLINTEC. Here seeds are carefully stored in biodegradable and eco-friendly packaging until they are placed in soil and water to start germinating.
These seed pods can be gifted, in person or through the gifting feature on the Thuru app, and have even been given as wedding gifts. Customers can choose seed pods of rare tree species and everyday household plants like chilies and beans.
“Our goal is to plant two million trees in Sri Lanka. But it is not possible to achieve this target within the Colombo district alone, so we want to expand our operations by opening physical stores in other districts,” Hasanka says, envisaging a greener Lanka with the efforts of people all over the country.