Pune Designer Turns River Weed Into Stylish Shoes

Laxmi Behere wades into Pune's Mutha River to collect what most people consider garbage. The thick mats of water hyacinth choking the waterway are her raw material for a surprising product: comfortable, stylish shoes.

Water hyacinth is an aquatic nightmare. The invasive weed blocks sunlight from reaching fish and plants below, breeds mosquitoes, and destroys water quality in rivers and lakes across India.

But Behere, an industrial designer who studied at Srishti Manipal Institute, discovered something remarkable about the plant. "When I was experimenting with water hyacinth, braiding it, breaking it down, making pulp, I realised its qualities," she says.

Her startup, Witch Craft Innovations LLP, now transforms the notorious weed into lampshades, table mats, and footwear. The material has natural elasticity that allows for tight braids and intricate molds. As products age, they develop a natural shine.

Behere's lightbulb moment came during a college project in Guwahati, Assam. She was challenged to help local artisans earn more than 500 rupees a day working with water hyacinth. After designing a cutting tool to speed up processing, she researched market potential.

Footwear stood out. "We could directly challenge the fast fashion market," she says.

Back in Pune, she found abundant raw material clogging local waterbodies. She joined Jeevitnadi, a river rights group, and began harvesting hyacinth herself. Locals sometimes spot her drying the plants on riversides before taking them to her Bibvewadi workshop.

The Ripple Effect

Witch Craft Innovations runs entirely on woman power. Many team members come from domestic work where their skills went undervalued.

"In the studio, they become creators, artisans and makers," Behere says. The startup's name celebrates this empowerment, reclaiming the word "witch" to honor wise women with healing powers.

The footwear launched this year and is already attracting custom orders. A Nidhi EIR fellowship and CSR grant funding through Pune's Venture Center helped Behere purchase looms and machinery to scale production.

Her studio and store on Prabhat Road operates by appointment. The goal now is to increase sales enough to harvest more hyacinth, build larger storage facilities, and establish a craft cluster around Pune.

"Water hyacinth has zero value in the water, but immense value outside it," Behere explains. If more entrepreneurs explored its potential, she believes, the environmental problem could vanish while creating jobs.

One woman's vision is proving that the biggest problems sometimes contain their own solutions.