From the farmers who turn barren land into lush forests to those who breed new, sustainable varieties of fruits (with fewer seeds to boot!) - India’s villages are bursting with eco-warriors who are investing in our planet. Join us as we salute them on Earth Day 2022.
It is easy to drive through India’s countryside and dismiss its lack of progress as “backward.”
But many of us are waking up to the fact that a lot of rural India’s old fashioned, even at times ancient, farming practices have sustainability at the heart.
As the world begins to realise that some ancient wisdoms and holistic approaches to living are worth pursuing, we at Village Square want to put the spotlight on our favourite champions who are investing in our planet.
From the seed-saviours carefully collecting and propagating indigenous seeds to the farmers who breed new, sustainable varieties of fruits (like custard apples with fewer seeds!).
From the men who turn barren land into lush forests and orchards to the young woman who teaches water conservation or another who croons for bamboo.
And did we mention the young twitcher who’s helping save birds in the Thar desert or the Srinagar Lake being cleaned by the bare hands of volunteers?
Oh, and let’s not forget about the turtles being released into the wild, complete with GPS tags, in the Sundarbans either. Or the programme to turn a pesky water weed into inexpensive and nutritious cattle feed.
India’s villages are bursting with eco-warriors who are investing in our planet. Village Square showcases them often.
They come from different regions, speak different languages and pray to different gods – but they are united by their quiet determination to invest in the future of our planet – something at the core of World Earth Day.
Read their stories below. And don’t forget to share them too! Let’s celebrate their work.
As with most movements, a tragedy was the catalyst for the first Earth Day, which took place in the United States in 1970. The year before there was a horrible oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.
A blowout on an oil rig six miles off shore caused three million gallons of oil to spew across 35 miles of ocean. Over 3,500 birds, as well as dolphins, seals and sea lions, were killed.
The environmental disaster spurred Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson to organise a series of “teach-ins” across the country. He wanted to raise awareness about the impact 150 years of industrial development was having on the planet.
His idea caught on. Twenty million Americans – 10% of the population back then – took to the streets, parks and auditoriums for the first Earth Day, which today is a global event.
This year’s theme is “Invest in Our Planet” and you can certainly find ideas of earth-champions to support – and invest in – among Village Square’s Environment strand.
India’s “living paddy gene bank”
Like the man dubbed “India’s living paddy gene bank.” Kurichiya tribal farmer Cheruvayal Raman is worried his life’s work – carefully preserving varieties of indegenous rice – will be lost when he dies.
He is not the only seed-saviour.
Profiting from propagating native seeds
When marginalised Odisha farmer Sudam Sahu heard that a seed famine was on the way, he also started conserving native seeds. Now he is the go-to person in his area for farmers wanting to learn how to propagate seeds too.
And then there are the men who have transformed barren land into flourishing forests and orchards.
Transforming barren lands into guava orchards
Satyendar Manjhi, known as the “guava guru,” converted a wasteland in southern Bihar into lush green guava orchards despite his lack of any previous farming experience.
Speaking of little farming experience…
L R Venkatesan was an advocate in the city of Chennai. But he decided to shift to organic farming after he met some malnourished children with spastic cerebral palsy. In seven years, a barren land has become a lush mini-forest.
Ingenious farmers breed new fruit varieties
There are a growing number of ingenious farmers who – without any formal education – have developed new fruit varieties that are not only high-yielding and pest-resistant, but can be grown in a wide variety of environments.
It is not just men who are at the forefront of the fight against climate change and deplenishing resources.
The sight of people wasting water hurts Ramandeep Kaur so deeply that she can’t keep quiet. So it is no wonder the young woman from UP received international recognition for her work as a “water evangelist” – ensuring 22 UP villages get clean, safe water and learn how to conserve water and fight against contamination.
Bamboo as solution for (all of) world’s problems
Naina Febin is another young woman passionate about the environment. For this Keralite bamboo is the answer. She sees it as a potential barrier against increasingly deadly floods. She has not only planted over 2,000 bamboo saplings but – being a singer – croons about the benefits of the bamboo too.
Musa Khan’s passion is for birds. He is not only an avid twitcher in Rajasthan, but he is one of Thar desert’s best birding guides too. He hopes his work will inspire other twitchers to become aware of birds being electrocuted on the growing number of power transmission lines.
Across the country in the Sundarbans endangered northern river terrapins were bred in captivity for years before recently being released into their native habitat. Thanks to India’s first-ever GPS tagging and tracking programme these turtles will also be tracked on their journey into the wild.
Lastly, we want to celebrate those working with their bare hands to clean up a polluted lake in Srinagar. Thanks to their work, decades of garbage is cleared from Lake Khushal Sar, spurring on more restoration of Srinagar’s famous lakes and buoying the revival of lake-based livelihoods.
Rahul Raman is the content manager at Village Square.
Lyndee Prickitt is the director at Village Square.
