Earth Reforesting System

3rd june

I went to whagoli with SW Anadi. 
It was a pleasure to see all the Subabul growing so well, 
The disheartening of no sewage water available
was taken over by the pleasure to see the small sapling, 
turned bigger. 
Yes it was really very sad to see, very little water 
in the waste water tank that we had made 
to purify the waste water and use for plantig tees. 

Anadi as usual, kept his spirits high and smiled as usual, 
it seems disappointment does not touch him. 
HE immidiately turned the focus on HUD high school, 
and said that we shall plant more trees there. 
I was very happy but a bit concerned about the taking care of
them in the summer months 
when the children have gone home on vacation.
Well lets trust Existance and move..
Love

Yes each tree reqires a different kind of 
environmental condition and location, soil and attention. 
TO give them what they want is 
to first Know what exactly one wants?
Big question ???? 
Beacuse the tree cannot speak in our language, 
I say we dont want to understand its language 
the Tree does speak and we dont want to listen.
The tree has been giving unconditional love to us 
in the form of food, shelter, medicine,cosmetics, oxygen, 
timber and never asked for anything in return.

We have been taking, 
our life and our survival is dependend upon trees
but we still do not thank, protect and love the trees around us. 
We are infact cutting them and destroying them, 
Is this the way to say thank you ????

8/6/04

My god, what all can I do ? 
Either I can do or I can write and make reports,
I think I need to do both, 
Create a balance between the doing and writing.
Yes, I think that is the key, I went to vishwakarma vidyalay, 
A school on the other side of the town with 3000students. 
Its a charity institution which is providing 
easy and almost free education to the school children. 

I saw they have a huge land 
where they want to make a playground for the childrens 
and also a small building for more students.
The first thing that struck my mind 
was will the trees that we plant survive there ? 
many thoughts came to my mind, 
Will bufallo eat the tree ? will Goat eat the sapling ? 
will human destroy or steal the sapling? 
yes all these can be very destructive to the sapling 
and need to be protected like a child. 
Will the sapling get enough care and attention ? 
Is the soil good for planting the sapling ? 

Not all tree can survive in all types of soil. 
The science of soil is needed, 
with the support of Agronomy ( the soil science) 
we can answer all the question. 
It is important that the soil and manure 
which is added to the tree have a balanced PH, 
that means the soil should not be either acidic or alkaline, 
that there should be enough organic matter
which gets converted to neutrients for the soil, ie food for the soil.

9/6/04

Mr Bharat, trustee of vishwakarma vidyalay, called up. 
he said that they are all in favour of the plantation to  be done, 
he just want to know how to do and what exactly to do ? 
I had an idea, but want Sw Anadi to decide, 
He is a Seeer, and many times he sees things, which we miss
 ON the 10th we will be visiti on Vishwakarma Vidyalay
 and we will be seeing all what we can possibly do to plant trees
 and educate people and young childrens.

10/6/04

Visit to vishwakarma vidyalay by Sw Anandi, Sw namito,
 Ma Aneesha, Sw Manik, Ma Devi.

We did receive a warm welcome from the school authorities, 
They were pleased to meet anadi anisha, and everybody.
We can plant 20trees in the school premises, and we can start
 any time, and we can plant much more trees in their playground.

6/25/04

Visit to HUD Highschool, by Sw Atul,Anadi and Namito.
Atul was very sad when he called me on the 24th of june, 
he said that the professor of HUD high school was not
 picking up the phone and he was dissapointed and thought
 that the trustee's of HUD only wanted money
 and were not serious about about it,
 but Anadi still wanted to go there to confirm. 

Well depressed but Anadi still optimistic as ever and we decided to go.
Atul was sounding very appologetic and was upset, 
he said that the NGO's in India have unfortunately have a bad name, 
People start NGO's just to cheat othere's. 
Well I dont agree because I myself run an NGO, BWC.
Anadi said that we should anyway go there,
 and we were surprised when we went there
 because we received a warm welcome. 
We had a detail discussion with the school principal
 and agreed to plant 200trees, in this season,
 we see that they survive and then we will plant more in the next season.
The students of HUD highschool will dig the pits for the trees
 by the 10th of july and call us.
 We will then go there and plant trees and take care.

2-6th july 2004

Panchgani is so beautiful, naturally so
 is Mahableshwar, more than 4500 feet
 above sea level, mountainous and
 with the second highest rainfall
 in India next to cheerapunji in Assam.
It has been declared as an eco sensitive zone,
 still lot of trees are being cut.
I want to share with you the experience
 of throwing seed balls made by Anadi
 and planting trees in Panchgani,
 slowly, will take me lot of time to type...

Namito's visit to Panchgani with Swami Anadi
 and Aneesha on the 2nd of August.
Beautiful place, has a natural beauty. 
but has been partly deforested due to the greed of man,
 still there is hope because ther are lot of trees left
 and we can work to protect them, and also plant new trees. 

I think the protection of trees and existing forest is very important
 and educating the local people to respect forest
 and to synthesise their existance with trees and forest. 

We can do a lot here, people are still very simple,
 the lifestyle is not that complex,
 some people still use simple and natural ways of farming,
 we will have to protect them from the commercial methods
 of farming and from corporates. 

There are many small villages around panchgani,
 the American strawberry companies are trying to takeover
 and push the locals in growing GM strawberryies,
 indirectly making them slaves,
 as the strawberries seed can just be used ones
 and require lot of chemicals in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. 

Inspite of strawberry being a cash crop
 the companies are the major profit holders
 as they are in control of seeds, fertilizers and pestisides. 

What a way to enslave people ! 
The other local crop being potato and rice is not given
 as much importance as rasberry, strawbery and mulberry
 and other jam producing items. 
I have managed to talk to the head of few schools
 and have submitted a proposal to educate and enlighten
 the young students of panchgani and through them
 the local farmers about the trap that they are falling in
 also researching on various methods through which
 they can be made self reliant and indipendent. 

I think just taking or educating will not help,
 we will have to make our proposal commercially viable for them,
 I tecah them to grow and live natural and simple life
 and buy from them the products which they produce at a fair price. 

I think that there is a big potential as there are lot of natural herbs
 found in and around the forests of panchgani and Mahabaleshwar. 
The villagers can be tought to collect them and to sell it to people
 in different cities along with the discription of its uses
 and also interested people can invest in growing herbs and flowers
 they want with the local farmers. 

A lot of flowers also can grow as per the european climate,
 Avacado which is temperate zone fruit grows here,
 coffee grows and many other things, 
I think the best way to go about it is to pool in some effort
 and start by adapting a village as big as we can.

Lots of love and regards
Sw. Chetan Namito 

Visit to HUD highschool on the 6th of August
The principal of the school is also a nature lover
 and understands the connection between us and the trees.
He has also requested us to conduct
 some educational program in the school.

The school is approx 30kilmeters away from pune and is a dry zone,
 there is very less water, it is on the eastern side
 of the lonikand hill and receives almost no rain,
 the topography of the land is very harsh,
 the top soil has eroded away, there is a drastic slope
 which prevents the perculation of water in the ground
 instead it just washes away everything.

 Also ther is no fence and domesticated animals like cow and buffalo
 graze freely on the land and eat away anybit of grass
 that springs up during mansoon.

Luckily the mansoons in maharashtra are better this year,
 but all the water just washes away
 the little bit of dirt that was accumilated. 

These ground realities makes our task very challenging. 
Firstly to fence the land a lot of effort is needed,
 conventional fence ( barbwire and chainlink) are too expensive,
 we cannot afford them hence I suggested to use Seasal,
 it is a form of succlunt (cactie) which is very hardy,
 requires very less water and has thorns at its end. 

They also help to protect soil errosion and form natural fence.
We plan to grow around 500 seasal on the fence, 250neem tree,
 which are also hardy and which can be used to keep pests away
 and 250 gladiserias, they will help to fix nitrogen in the soil
 and provide precious organic matter. 
I am walking on the land and marking the places for plantation.

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 10th of August.
There is just hard rock everywhere,
 it is really difficult to dig hole in the ground. 
Why is the hole needed ?
The hole is needed to add soft soil
 which helps the roots of the baby tree to grow
 and to add manure which is the food of the plant
 and to help water to retain and perculate into the ground.

But why do we do that ? 
Tree grow naturally on earth.
Yes tree grow naturally on this earth
 but it takes hundreds of years for the topsoil to form
 and hundred of years for a forest to form on its own
 and we are trying to accelerate the growth of trees
 by making the basic requirement easily available to them.

After this plantation seed balls will work very well
 and the small baby tree which come will get nourishment till they grow
 and will get protection from humans and animals due to the seasal fence. 
let us accept the fact that man being the most dominant specie
 of this plannet is goin to use the earth for its own purpose
 of growing food for himself and his pet as well as farm animals,
 that means very less space for trees, and
 as the population of man is increasing
 and more and more farm land is getting barren
 due to the use of commercial methods of farming and
 space for living (houses) and road more and more trees will be cut. 

This act of destroying nature will eventually destroy humanity, 
we can see that (I hope)
and I hope more and more people understand that. 
Then the only solution is intelligent synthesis
 between mans requirements and nature,  

The best solution would be that man uses nature for its need only
 but the fact is that man is exploiting nature more for its GREED.  
I have experimented with a system where
 intelligent eco planning can be done
 where both man and nature can co-exist by supporting each other. 
We have to respect nature for our very own existence...

Visit to HUD highschool on the 12th of August.
I have marked the areas where we can dig pits for seasal,
 I want to give top priority to this plant,
 not many people respect this plant,
 I think it is going to save us all,
 as protection for forest area,
 to prevent erosion of soil and to prevent ground water loss,
 also organic fibre can be harnessed from this plant,
 it also has medicinal uses,
 in India it is used to prevent hair loss,
 prevent kidney and liver diseases, to soothe irritated eyes
 and is also used as a disinfictant and for cleaning blood. 
It is also used to soothe internal wounds.

Visit to HUD highschool on the 16th of August.
The cows not listening ! 
And the owner of  the cow is insisting
 that the cows be allowed to graze on the land. 
They dont want to understant that
 the cows and buffalo uproot the grass from the ground,
 expose the earth to the sunlight,
 which kills the microbes by drying the moisture
 and then the wind and the rain take away the topsoil,
 so the cows, buffalo,sheeps and their owner
 are eventually responsible for the loss of surface moisture and topsoil.

If we allow grazing on a land then we alllow the land to become barren.
But in the forest also there are deer and sambhar and other animals,
 yes but they dont uproot the grass the way
 the cow, buffalo and sheep do. 
Also the nearby farmers set fire to their leftover crop
 to replant which also burns other grass and helps destruction of land.

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 19th of August.
Few sisal have been planted on the lefthand side of the school fence,
 exactly on the path of the cows entering into the school compound.
I want to see whether the cows change their way or ???
The cows have uprooted the sisal, tramped a few. 
It seems they know that it will cause an obstruction of
 they just walked over it. 

We will have to use some protection to the small sisal. 
Because wagholi is on the way, I visit sanskrutik darshan trust, 
Ayurvedic college, we did the water harvesting,
 the convectional waste water treatment plant. 
The water harvesting system did work well,
 this year all their borewells were filled. 
Mrs Sadananda deshmukh was very happy.  
But they want to do farming ! 
I want to explain them that farming will be good in future only
 if they allow us to plant more trees. 
What is stopping them and us from planting trees there? 
I think they have other priorities in their mind,
 Because what is stopping us ?
 well we need a letter from them that they will not cut the trees
 and will infact protect them,
 and also we requested them to give us a copy of
 their development plan or atleast demark the area on the ground
 where they are going to build buildings. 
The reason is that we do not have to cut move or shift trees.  
I hope that they do give us a letter.

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 23th of August.
I am worried ! is it only my duty to care for nature ? 
Why dont people understand their responsibility also ? 
I think many of us to care and understand while most dont ! 
I am worried that how will the trees survive in the hot summers ?
 there is not enough water even now !
 what will happen in the 4 hot summer months,
 where the climate is dry hot and very unfriendly. 
The trees will need water for their survival,
 how do we solve this practical problem ? let me think !

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 26th of August.
I wish we could find a source of an eliment, an organic compound
 which could absorb atmospheric oxygen and convert into water. 
It has to be an unstable atom of H2,
 absorb atmospheric oxygen and turn into h2o. 
Water is the life source, without water nothing can live or grow. 
I am still researching on an economical way
 to provide water to the plants. Any Suggestion ???
Well we are mixing moisture retainers into the tree pits,
 they can be of various organic origin,
 by mixing moisture retainers into the tree pits. 
The everyday requirement of water will be reduced
 to every second day and microoganisms also can survive,
 which actuly convert organic matter into plant food.

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 30th of August.
50% of the sesal have been planted, neem plantation is going on.
The children and the teacher all are participating
 in the plantation drive, with their heart and soul.
The cows are just not listening nor are their owners,
 I hope they dont eat our plants.

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 3rd september.
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 6th september
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 10th september
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 13th september
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 17th september
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 20th september
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 24th september

Visit to Panchgani on the 26th of september

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 28th september
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 30th september
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 1st October
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 4th October
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 7th October
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 11th October
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 14th October
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 18October

Visit to Panchgani on the 22nd of october

Dear Anadi

I think it is very important to understand that 
why there are so less trees in India and why are they reduceing ?

1. 60% of the Indian population is very very poor, 
They cannot think beyound their day to day requirements 
such as food water and shelter. 
Thier battle for survival takes them to the very end of their life.

So you see that the people cannot think of trees! 
In fact they cut tree and utilize them fo firewood and 
fodder for their animals. 

This is also the story of the farmers in India. 
They have very less land and a lot of prople to feed 
from the small piece of land. 
Why has this happened ? 

Due to exploitation by the rich class and the English, 
Due to illeteracy and due to social beliefs and population Explosion. 
It is said that the population of India will surpass
 the population of China by the 2020, 
While India is 4times smaller than china. 
Less land and more stomach to feed and
 exploitation by the rich fetilizer companies
 has made them aproot trees for farming. 

So you see, protection is also needed.
Tree has many enemies. They are as follows : 

1 Man who cuts the tree for its uses and for fire

2 Various kinds of pests like termites, borers, flies etc

95% of the Indian population around us uses insectiside and pesticide,
Many pest attack our trees because we do not use
 chemical insecticide and pesticides.
We use only organic pest repellent like neem, ginger lemon etc.
Which disentigrate very easily and are biodegradable hence
 have to be aded again and again.

3 Animals cow buffalo goat sheep etc

They are allowed to graze freely on anybody's land
 as there are no fences and is almost impossible to control.

4 Nature topography and existing environmental conditions

As we all know, we are planting trees in desert ! 
Its important to know and understand what Desert really is.
Desert can be cold or hot in short the places
 which are unsuitable and unfavourable for the growth of
 plants, trees due to harsh climatic conditions and lack of water
 is called desert. 
The harsh climatic conditions can be too hot
 as in our case, too  much of wind, no soil etc

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 28th October
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 04th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 07th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 10th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 14th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 17th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 20th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 24th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 27th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 30th November
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 04th December
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 08th December
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 14th December
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 17th December
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 20th December
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 24th December
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 28th December
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 03th January
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 06th January
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 10th January
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 14th January
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 17th January 2005

We had approached Attharveda Ayurvedic College in the summer of 2003
 for the reforestation project, we were faced with an uphill task
 of reforesting the 100acre desert in Wagholi, as there was almost
 no water, the trust had dug 3wells and 3borewells but still
 had to buy water in the summers by paying Rs 400/ 10,000 liters
 almost every 2days to fulfill their basic requirements,
is this kind of situation which is really extreme,
 hard rock, erosion of top soil, no water and moisture,
 HOW WILL WE DO ANY PLANTATION ? 

I could not sleep for many days, as this was a big challange for me,
 A real desert and a real practical problem, no water and no plantation
 is possible without moisture, the temperatute rose to as much as
 45degrees and the hot wind blew across in the form of mini cyclones.

On the 4th day after visiting for the first time
 my heart suggested me to ask mother nature for the solution, so I
 went to the land and spent a few hours just wandering around the place. 

I noticed that the rain water had cut through the hard rock
 at many places and formed a kind of Nallah, storm water drain,
 which got filled with various kind of derbis and waste materials,
 and also I reallised that the wells and the borewells were dug in
 and around a particular storm water drain, I inquired with the people
 there who said that there were ocassionally 2heavy showers during
 the southwestsoons and the returning northeast mansoons
 which were quite heavy, An idea poured into me existantially,
 I immidiatelly took the decision of digging into the nallah beds
 as deep as I could and form natural viers to hold water
 in the nallah and help it perculate,

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 26th January
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 05th Feb
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 14th Feb
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 22th Feb
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 28th Feb

Dear Anadhi

I am happy and I want to share some good news with you !

You remember Atharved Ayurved College ? 
Well the same place where we did water harvesting and tree plantation. 
Well this season their 3wells and 3 borewell have 25% more water. 

I was exited like a child to know that the effort we put in terms of
 money time and energy has not gone waste. 
I had received a call from Mrs Deshmukh who is one of the trustees
 and wife of Dr Sadananda, with a request to do more harvesting of water.

I told her that Earth Reforesting System would like to plant more trees
 and carry the water harvesting also, but we are not going to do
 water harvesting if they do not let us plant trees.  

We had requested them to give us a letter promising us that
 they will not cut the trees which we plant,
 but they have not given us any letter till date.

Then during my last visit to Atharveda Ayurved Colege
 I met Mr Pandurang M Shedge, the old man who is staying there
 along with his wife for the last 21 years.
He was very happy to see me and asked me that why we do not come there
 more often, I told him about the letter, he said he will speak to Mrs
 Deshmukh, and he also revealed some interesting facts such as follows.

According to Mr Pandurang there are in all 3wells
 which are 25 to 40 feets deep and
 3borewells which are 200 to 225 feet in depth in the college area
 and they had more water this time, almost 25% more.

He said that last year that is in the summer of 2004 they had stared
 to buy water already in the first week of february, but this year
 its march and still the wells and borewells have more than enough water
 and they also are using the water for agriculture. 
They have stared farming on their land.

You remember what we did ? 
We just let the rain water perculate in the ground, the perculated water
 found its way to the wells and the borewells. 

Easy is right and right is easy, It was so simple. 
But its a pity that we could not plant more trees, because we had done
 the water harvesting with the intention of planting more trees. 

What is stopping us ? Just a letter of commitment from the trustees
 that they will not cut the trees.
They are doing agriculture with the additional water, I wish
 they understand that how important it is to plant trees for our survival.

I visited Itarsi, it is a town in Madhya Pradesh that is in central India.
 There I came across a forest by the name of Tava, the total forest area
 is reseved by the goverment and is othing less than 5000 Acres, but
 people are being less and less sensitive and more and more greedy,
 
I think that besides planting trees protection of the existing trees
 is also very important. 

The goverment is doing its bit to protect the forest area but
 if we can also help by making a report and generate some funds
 for the protection of the forest then it will help. 

Please let me know what you feel, Accordingly I will take action.

Dear Anadi,

The forest official in MP to whom I had spoken, 
 Need an offical Written request to process
 and think about giving us the responsibility of 50 Acres of land. 
A visit there will be very good.

Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 06th March 2005
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 15th March 2005
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 24th March 2005 
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 02th April    2005
Visit to HUD highschool and Wagholi on the 08th April

Dear Anadi,

During my return from Delhi, 
I happened to stop at Madhya Pradesh and carry forward my discussions
 with the forest officials of MP forest area,
 they have agreed to give us 50Acres of land
 if we wish to do plantations there,

They have agreed to give us in writing about the land, 
I have taken some pictures of the forest area, which I can show you,
 please let me know.

Also the osho commune resort has agreed
 to give the left over vegetable waste to us . 
If you remember we had discussed with you,
 Earlier they wanted money for it now
 they are ready to give it free,
 The waste causes pollution and is a big problem.

The waste can be converted into compost with some effort,
 the cost can be of transportation and labour
 and converting about 1000kg of waste everyday. 
If you are Interested please let me know.

Dear Anadi,

Yes this is a good time to plant trees....
HUD highschool has finally given us a letter that we have planted 1000trees 
in their premisis and they promise not to damage or cut it, But the 
responsibility of takeing care of the trees shall be ours ! Unfortunately 
they have given the letter in Marathi (local languag), I have requested the 
principal to give a letter in English. Also If you wish we can plant more 
trees there.

20 Octover 2005

Dear Anadi,

Please find attached the letter given by HUD Highschool.

Also the problem is that the students are there for only 220 Days out of 365 
days thats why we will have to  maintain and take care of trees on regular 
basis.

click to open big photo of 749 kb

click to open big photo of 244 kb
We did some tree plantation at a factory in chakan, 50km from pune