In the last two years, Cauvery Calling volunteers have enabled 5,100 farmers in Puducherry and Villupuram, Cuddalore and Thiruvannamalai districts to plant 17 lakh saplings on their lands, said field coordinator of the Cauvery Calling Movement, Shri. Tamilmaran at a press conference at the Fine Arts Foundation in Puducherry, today.
Shri. Tamilmaran said that in Villupuram district, 1,700 farmers have planted 6.33 lakh saplings while 1,600 farmers in Thiruvannamalai district are cultivating 5.29 lakh saplings and about 1,500 farmers in Cuddalore district are cultivating 4 lakh saplings. In Puducherry, 284 farmers have planted 1.16 lakh saplings.
He also revealed that Isha volunteers have enabled farmers and the general public to plant 29.45 lakh saplings by promoting the tree-based farming model between 2013 and 2022 in these regions.
A total of 2.1 crore saplings have been planted so far in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karnataka and 1.25 lakh farmers have adopted the tree-based farming model, promoted by Cauvery Calling.
A farmer from Mullanchavady, Cuddalore district, Shri. Rangarajan said, “I have been cultivating paddy, sugarcane and banana on 10 acres. I came to know about tree farming while attending an agricultural field training conducted by Isha in Erode. After that I planted about 4,000 timber trees along the ridges and planted bananas in between. Banana trees are planted around to prevent them from collapsing and being damaged during storms. Banana yields have also increased. ”
A farmer from Tindivanam area, Shri. Purushothaman said, “My land is irrigated land. Agriculture can be done only when it rains. I have been cultivating crops like groundnut and black gram. I planted 1,200 teak and mahogany saplings on one third of my land after learning about the Cauvery Calling. We are confident that these will provide good returns in the future.”
Speaking about the objective of the Cauvery Calling Movement, Shri. Tamilmaran said, the Movement aims to revitalize the Cauvery River and the soil in the river basin and improve the farmers’ economy along with the environment. A total of 242 crore trees will be planted in private farmlands in the Cauvery river basin over the next 12 years to achieve these objectives, he said. Since the inception of the movement, there has been a great increase in the interest of farmers in planting trees and raising awareness about tree-based farming.
Cauvery Calling is an on-ground demonstration of the river revitalization model proposed by the Rally for Rivers (RfR) campaign that was launched by Sadhguru Vasudev in 2017. The RfR campaign was successful in creating awareness among the people on the state of India’s dying rivers. The central government has recommended to all states to adopt the RfR draft policy to revitalize rivers in their state. Subsequently, six states – Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka – are implementing the recommendations on their own.
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