K Ashwin Kumar joined Biome as an intern through Wipro’s earthian program in 2013. He took up a project to do a survey of groundwater samples across Mulbagal District. Since the area is known to have high fluoride levels in groundwater, Ashwin wanted to check the fluoride levels in the drinking water borewells in the district. He tested 270 groundwater samples from villages in Mulbagal district. He also created a spatial map of the villages. 

During the survey, he also interacted with the local school children, and taught them to test water samples for fluoride. Many of them suffered from dental fluorosis due to high levels of fluoride in the water. Some of these children wrote a letter to ‘concerned authorities’ to take action to address this problem.