The 112 ft Adiyogi Statue outside Bangalore city has fast become a massive tourist attraction for city dwellers and local rural folk alike. Families, friends, college students, working professionals, yoga groups, pilgrims and many others can be seen enjoying the scenic beauty and serenity.
Amidst the hubbub of photography, instagram reel-making, rituals and devotional ambiance, one might miss out on the silent work going on behind the scenes towards building a powerful ecosystem for farmers in the region.
Isha Outreach is the group behind Sadhguru’s ecological initiatives like Save Soil which is considered to be the world’s largest people driven ecological movement reaching over 4 billion worldwide. In Chikkaballapur, about 60 kms from Bangalore city, a yoga center called “Sadhguru Sannidhi Bengaluru” is coming up around the monumental Adiyogi statue. Amidst the hustle and bustle of setting up a new yoga center, the Isha Outreach team is working quietly towards holistic development of the rural community and striding towards ecological well-being of the region.
“Green Chikkaballapur” Movement
Two years back, Isha Outreach launched the Hasiru Chikkaballapur or Green Chikkaballapur movement with the distribution of 10,000 fruit saplings in 22 surrounding villages. Three months later, they conducted a survey to find out that a whopping 77% of the saplings were thriving. Since then, their activities have only touched more people, villages and tracts of soil.
From sponsoring a government watershed survey to conducting rural sports activities, Isha Outreach follows a multi-pronged approach to bring about social transformation for the rural community.
High-quality Saplings for 3 INR Only!
About 50 nurseries have been set up across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states as part of the Cauvery Calling project. One such nursery has come up at the Adiyogi in Chikkaballapur as well. Visitors are greeted by timber saplings like mahogany, teak, yellow teak, sandal, red sandal and many more in this nursery as they enter the Yoga arch, about 4 kms from the Adiyogi statue.
High-quality timber, fruit-bearing, flowering and medicinal saplings are all available here to suit the farmer’s varying needs.
For farmers, these saplings cost only 3 INR. Non-farmers can also pick them up for other purposes like building compounds, city gardens and so on, but it costs them 7 INR per sapling.
A few years back, inspired by Sadhguru’s Save Soil campaign, Suresh Reddy, a techie from Bangalore started agroforestry on his barren village land in Chikkaballapur district. He says, “
“Earlier, I had no one to ask who could tell me which tree to grow on my land. So, I took help from Cauvery Calling team and went ahead to plant trees as per their guidance on my village land. We learnt a lot in the next 2 years. Once Veeresh anna (Isha Outreach team member) came here, it really helped us. I paid 22 INR for each sapling when I first bought them from an outside nursery near Peresandra. Now, Isha Nursery is here at Sannidhi and the same sapling is only 3 INR. It is like no cost at all. And these are completely organic and very strong. Whichever saplings from here that we planted, most of them have survived. This is priceless support that Sadhguru has offered us.”
A Knowledge Base for Tree-based Agriculture
One of the major focus areas for Isha Outreach has been tree-based agriculture. Tree-based agriculture has been found to not only provide immense ecological benefits of increased tree cover, groundwater sequestration and improved soil quality but it does so while improving farmer income. It is a rare solution that supports the economic as well as ecological goals of today’s farmers in this climate crisis.
One of the major challenges of tree-based agriculture is that farmers don’t have ancestral knowledge. There is no one to guide them about the right tree types for their farm based on soil, weather, water and other conditions. Best practices and tree care is also new. A lot of farmers learn hard lessons through trial and error. Moreover, the learning happens over a few years, so more than the lost money and effort it is a big loss of time.
The Isha Outreach team bridges this gap by providing free guidance and advice to farmers. They also go on field visits to the local farms to provide in-depth personalized consultation. This makes a huge difference to the farmers. Depending on the tree canopy, water needs, soil type and many other factors the Isha Outreach experts suggest the right trees for different places on the farm.
Large number of farmers have taken saplings from this Adiyogi nursery, and the team has gone on numerous farm visits for personalized consultations. Close to a lakh timber saplings have been taken from the nursery so far suggesting a significant impact in tree cover of the region.
The farmers are excited about the prospects of the trees planted on their farms and there is now a budding whatsapp community for these farmers of Chikkaballapur district.
Not Only Farmers, Also Village Development
Along with farmer related interventions, the villages are also seeing the impact of the Isha Outreach activities. 27 villages around the center get a visit from a mobile health clinic on wheels every week. Nowadays, the villagers expect them at their allotted day and time and are waiting for the doctor with their list of ailments and updates.
Unsurprisingly, for some of the local villagers, this clinic access has changed their life. A teary-eyed 90 year old Akkayamma from Kanajenahalli shares,
“I am a breast cancer survivor. I had lost hope to live because of
the pain with which I had to live everyday. I would walk with my back bent. One
day, this van came and the doctor gave me some injection and tablets. Slowly, I gained
strength and see I walk like this (straight back) now. I can make my own ‘mudde’ (a traditional food) now. I am very grateful that they take care of me & many others like me.”
Other village initiatives include support for men and women to participate in the annual rural olympics i.e. Isha Gramotsavam tournament. Volleyball for men and throwball for women. In these villages, we can see young boys playing frequently, however, the games area is considered off-limits for women. Thus, for the women of these villages, Gramotsavam tournaments are their first exposure to a world beyond their family, house and farm.
This is only the beginning of Isha’s rural rejuvenation initiatives in this area. Over time, we should see other Isha projects taking root here including Isha Vidhya schools which provide subsidized, high quality education for lower economic groups, farmer education events, FPOs and lots more.
Cattle Inspiration: Native Indian Bulls
Sadhguru has started “Isha Gaushala”, a project to preserve native Indian cattle breeds. The Isha Gaushala in Chikkaballapur has 9 species currently including Gir, Rathee, Kankrej, Ongole, Deoni and more.
Visitors to the Adiyogi can see and interact with these native Indian bulls during weekends and events. Vermicompost and bushuposhana (traditional method to create fertilizers) are ongoing activities at this gaushala. These organic fertilizers are used to develop the garden space around Adiyogi. They also make natural pesticides and cattle medicine like panchagavya, agni astram, dashaparni kashaya and more.
This is another activity area that can help farmers of the region in future by providing them with knowledge and inspiration regarding native cattle breeds.
Watershed Survey for the Area
While we come across positive rural stories about successful water initiatives like check dams, stone bunds and soak pits – there is a lot of preparation and back work needed to make this happen. Usually, one of the first requirements is to conduct a watershed survey of the area.
The government usually conducts these surveys; however, the data is often outdated by the time someone starts taking action based on the survey results. The Isha Outreach team has sponsored a fresh watershed survey of the area by the government. Once the survey results are available, further plans towards water rejuvenation of the area will be undertaken.
With these projects, slowly but surely, a strong ecosystem of holistic development and growth is shaping up for the villagers and farmers in the region around Adiyogi Bangalore.
One of the major consequences of these activities will be empowerment of the small, independent farmers towards better farming practices and tree-based agriculture. This inturn will lead to better tree cover, soil quality and groundwater sequestration. Nurturing the farmer and healing the Earth!
–Priyanka Dalal
