Cauvery Calling is a movement that has germinated from a seed that was planted by Sadhguru 25 years ago. The movement facilitated the uptake of 1,01,42,331 saplings by 47,022 farmers and the general public for planting on 25,500 acres across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry from April 2022 to March 2023.
Coimbatore: The Cauvery Calling Movement has surpassed its ambitious goal of planting one crore saplings across Tamil Nadu in a year.
The movement facilitated the uptake of 1,01,42,331 saplings by 47,022 farmers and the general public for planting on 25,500 acres across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry from April 2022 to March 2023.
Cauvery Calling is a movement that has germinated from a seed that was planted by Sadhguru 25 years ago. Its approach has been painstakingly developed and refined on the ground for more than two decades starting from 1998. The movement intends to revitalise the Cauvery River and enhance the economy of farmers who rely on it by enabling the planting of 242 crore trees on farmers' lands in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Cauvery Calling has constantly moved forward with rigorous preparation over the years by investing in delivering high-quality saplings, educating farmers about the benefits of tree-based agriculture, and conducting mega-training workshops in model farms to learn directly from farmers. So far, the campaign has resulted in the planting of 8.85 crore trees across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Thamizhmaran, TN Coordinator, Cauvery Calling, describes how such a massive goal was met. "The majority of sapling production takes place in two locations, and the finished products are transported to our distribution centres across the state." One unit is located in the Cuddalore District and is one of Asia's biggest nurseries, capable of producing 85 lakh saplings during a given planting season. The second production unit is located in Thiruvannamalai District and has a capacity of 15 lakh saplings every planting season."
The two production centers provide saplings to 39 distribution centers established across Tamil Nadu. The nurseries provide around 20 species of high- value timber tree species including - Teak, Red Sandalwood, Rosewood, and Mahogany to the farmers at a subsidized cost of Rs 3, he explains further. Looking at the enthusiasm of the farmers, Cauvery Calling has furthered its goal of planting 1.1 crore trees in Tamil Nadu in 2023.
Explaining how the movement aims to achieve the figure, Anand Ethirajalu, Project Lead, Cauvery Calling, says, “In addition to the 2 Isha-owned production nurseries, in order to scale up the movement in the coming years, Cauvery Calling has started farmer-driven nursery production activity as a pilot in 2022. As a result of this pilot, 29 farmers were trained in setting up and running nurseries as a livelihood model. This will not only build the capacity of quality sapling production with farmers but also enhance their incomes.”
To raise awareness, the project's over 120 field executives individually visited over 20,000 farmlands and delivered free consultations to farmers interested in adopting tree-based agriculture. These workers test the soil and water on the farms and recommend trees based on the results. The recommendations are made after taking into account the endemic tree varieties in the region as well as the farmers' income-cycle expectations.
Apart from this, direct meetings with the farmers through Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO), Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK), Agricultural Expos, Gram Panchayat Level meetings, etc played a pivotal role in building awareness on the benefits of tree-based agriculture. Currently, the movement is nurturing around 17,000 farmers through more than 100 WhatsApp groups, resolving their queries using farmers' resource leaders and in-house technical experts.
Over 3200 farmers participated in the four Mega Training Programmes in the Financial Year 2022-23, with more than 70% requesting farm visits by Cauvery Calling team members. Experts from reputable agriculture institutes and scientists from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore; ICAR- Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru; and others participated in these training programmes, sharing practical field insights on tree-based agriculture.
Plantation drives on important days and events like- World Environment Day (June 5 ), Van Mahotsav Week (July 1- July 7), River Revitalisation Day (Sep 3), Gandhi Jayanti (Oct 2) amongst others mobilised popular support in planting the trees. 730 events were conducted during these events that led to the planting of 12.46 lakh saplings. Cauvery Calling also joined the “Pasumai Thondamuthur” (Green Thondamuthur) campaign as a part of rejuvenating the Noyyal river.
We collaborated with the Rotary Club of Thondamuthur to plant one million saplings as part of this programme. In Phase 2 of the initiative, an additional 1 lakh saplings were planted in collaboration with the Coimbatore Builders and Contractors Association.
Cauvery Calling is the world's largest farmer-led ecological movement and a groundbreaking eco-restoration project that has the potential to transform the tropical world. It has been named the Top Innovators in ecological conservation and restoration by Trillion Trees: India Challenge. The Trillion Trees initiative acknowledges Cauvery Calling for its “significant government connections and innovative monitoring techniques” to achieve its goal of enabling the plantation of 242 crore trees in the Cauvery river basin.