Greening the wastelands

What do you do when you come across a patch of wasteland Dismissively glance across its uneventful expanse and move on While most would do that, there are a few who decide to set up camp, so to speak, and make sure the land doesn’t go to waste any more. Hailing from varied backgrounds, nationalities and belief systems, several individuals and collectives across the country have come together to take up stretches of arid, unproductive landscape and transformed them into natural havens for biodiversity, wildlife reserves, organic farms and more. In an era where rapid urbanisation and a push for sustainability co-exist in a strange dialectical paradox, we get some real-time perspectives on the ongoing dialogue from people working on the greener side of the ‘development’ fence.

Decoding Development “I am wary of the word ‘development’,” says music composer, conservationist and wildlife activist Abhishek Ray, whose Sitabani Wildlife Reserve in Uttarakhand was founded on a fallow mountain slope that had been ravaged by more than 50 years of slash-and-burn agriculture. “Development as a concept tends to stand for roads and mining for most people, and that actually translates into something like a viral growth happening at the cost of the Earth’s resources,” he says, outlining his own impulse to push against the conventional definitions of two terms, the second one being ‘wildlife’. He opines, “That’s another very carefully hatched term by people who want to put down animals that are untameable. Any form of life that doesn’t directly benefit a human being is ‘wildlife’. And what is wildlife supposed to do Stay in cages or live in designated areas that man has marked out for them. This, really, is man’s warped definition of life on this planet.” Sitabani is home to a fair bit of wildlife, with tigers, leopards and now even the nearly extinct Himalayan Black Bear having found their way to it.

He opines, “That’s another very carefully hatched term by people who want to put down animals that are untameable. Any form of life that doesn’t directly benefit a human being is ‘wildlife’. And what is wildlife supposed to do Stay in cages or live in designated areas that man has marked out for them. This, really, is man’s warped definition of life on this planet.” Sitabani is home to a fair bit of wildlife, with tigers, leopards and now even the nearly extinct Himalayan Black Bear having found their way to it.

Such initiatives of reforestation also go a long way in preserving something every species — homo sapiens included — needs to survive: fresh water. Pamela Malhotra of SAI Sanctuary Trust in Karnataka, that began with 55 acres of wasteland and is now spread across a fertile 300 acres, explains, “The aim is to protect and preserve the last remaining natural wild places on earth, especially equatorial rainforests, thereby safeguarding our vital water resources as well as the planet’s rich biodiversity. This also helps mitigate the disastrous effects of Global Warming while safeguarding the larger natural habitat.”

Going Local Aviram and Yorit Rozin, who are originally from Israel, transformed 70 acres of eroded and arid land on the outskirts of Auroville into what is now known as Sadhana Forest. And an essential part of their success has been the co-operation of locals in the area, who not only understood but also stepped in to lend a helping hand. Aviram says, “My wife and I started 13 years ago by planting trees on barren land belonging to the Auroville Foundation. Our first step was to conserve rainwater and that meant the impact of what we were doing went beyond the land we were working on. The water improved the situation for surrounding villages too and the most beautiful thing that has happened to us through the years is the kind of relationship we have built with the villagers. They understood and respected what we were doing here and that has been the biggest blessing of this project.”

Not everyone has it this easy, however. Convincing the locals to cooperate can sometimes be one of the hardest aspects of such an initiative, a task Pamela and Abhishek took on with fairly distinct approaches and strategies. Abhishek shares, “Villagers who live on the fringes of tiger and leopard domains mostly regard big cats as a nuisance because they take away their cattle. Their key question is: Baagh ko kyun bachayein Why save the tiger or leopard ” The composer explained to them that the big cats keep the monkeys and langurs at bay. “Similarly, nilgais, wild boars, sambhars and other hooved animals develop a more wary behaviour pattern in the presence of predators. Their tendency to attack crops is greatly diminished in such a scenario,” he points out and adds, “Human beings want to protect anything that brings in money or recognition. When locals see people from other countries coming and appreciating the biodiversity they take for granted, they begin to understand it has a certain kind of value. It changes their perspective. An incredibly rare bird can be no different from a crow or a sparrow to a villager, but if someone comes and spends a whole day capturing the bird on camera, he will begin to see it differently. The process takes a long time, but it works. I’ve seen it happen.”

Money and More Having the right concept, the right approach and even the right kind of co-operation can sometimes not be enough, if you hit the most fundamental roadblock — funding. Aviram admits, “Besides natural disasters like cyclones, money is definitely a challenge. We’re not a business — we don’t sell anything and we don’t want to sell anything either. We want to live on economy and kindness. Being supported by the kindness of other people has been what has tided us through without a business model. It’s more beautiful this way.”

Pamela agrees, “Donations from like-minded people who believe in what we are doing really help. We also have a 12-acre coffee plantation and 15 acres of cardamom. We are also involved in organic farming and not attached to any power grid — the sanctuary runs completely on solar and alternative energy sources.”

Software engineer Prakash Kannaiyan from Ambattur, Chennai, who set up an integrated organic farm after being disillusioned with urban lifestyle, affirms that besides funding, garnering government support is a challenging task too, as is convincing agricultural labour to adjust to new farming techniques. “A lack of awareness about organic farming and storage of the produce are big problems. There are days when kilos of tomatoes or other vegetables go to waste because there isn’t adequate storage or transportation available,” he rues.

The Road Ahead Even as several individuals work towards regenerating dying land, all of them agree that their collective effort might be in vain if the rest of humankind doesn’t wake up to ground realities. Abhishek affirms, “Humans have a choice today. Tomorrow, they will not have a choice anymore. We are at the last leg of destruction where we need to stop the insanity that we began a hundred years ago, after the Industrial Revolution. Since then, we have only populated and polluted. That has been our only contribution to the planet. It is important for people to get a more objective view of the planet and what they are doing to it. If they continue to turn a blind eye, this boat will sink. If the movement by people who have realised the mistakes mankind has made takes over and is more powerful than the larger movement of human greed, we might have a chance at a future.”

Verdant ventures Bablu Ganguly and Mary Vattamattam eco-restored and transformed the barren earth that they called ‘Timbaktu’ to a lush green forest in the district of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh.

Veerabhadrappa and his wife Sumangalamma are doing a number of agricultural experiments like water conservation methods, micro irrigation system, promoting vermiculture, etc. in 80 acres of their land located in Chitradurga district of Karnataka state.

Richard Rebello, an ex-lecturer of Commerce, converted 25 acres of barren land near Udupi district in Karnataka, into a lush green farm.

In 1979, Jadav ‘Molai’ Payeng of Assam, then 16, encountered a large number of reptiles that had died after flood washed them onto the treeless sandbar. Deeply touched by this, he started planting trees along the sandbar of the Brahmaputra river turning it into a huge forest reserve, covering an area of 1,360 acres approx.

In a bid to save wildlife and develop a source of livelihood for villagers, 68-year-old Damodar Kashyap, a resident of Bastar’s Bakawand area, planted trees in 600 acres of land and created a ‘mini forest’.

Chami Devi Murmu, fondly called the ‘Lady Tarzan of Jharkhand’, is on a mission to protect the local wildlife by saving the forests threatened by the timber mafia and Naxal insurgency in the area.

Inputs by Aditi Pancholi Shroff, Geetha Jayaraman