This page attempts to documents some of the Initiatives for rural development and environment protection shared by readers and other sources.

The Savant of Chitrakoot

Chitrakoot is famous for its significant role in the exile of Sri Rama. It was in these forests of Chitrakoot that Sri Rama spent a large time of his exile. However in recent years, apart from its religious significance, life for the villagers in this holy place gradually lost relevance with the teachings of Sri Rama. The dense forests disappeared with time, agriculture lost its profitability and governance was limited to tax collections and VIP visits. Poverty grew with increasing unemployment and water shortage ruined agriculture. Bandits controlled the area and spirituality shrunk to religious shrines and temples. By the early seventies, Chitrakoot had become a dry and poverty-struck area with temples and shrines as the only source of income.

It was in 1969 that Nanaji Deshmukh visited Chitrakoot. He was moved to see the pathetic condition of the society in the karmabhoomi of Sri Rama. He sat by the holy river Mandakini, and resolved to change the picture of Chitrakoot. Read how he made Gram Swarajya a reality

• Farmer Beats Drought through Micro-Irrigation: 

  Source New Indian Express

KARIMNAGAR: A small farmer of Eedula Gattipalli in Manakondur mandal is setting an ideal to others by cultivating irrigated dry (ID) crops through micro-irrigation.

The farmer, Madishetti Ravi, cultivated cabbage in his 47 guntas (5,640 yards) of land and he obtained an yield of 16 tonnes despite the drought conditions and power problems. Speaking to this paper, Ravi said that he used go get only 11 tonnes of cabbage before switching to drip irrigation. “But after I began using modern irrigation method as advised by the agriculture officials, my expenditure on power and fertilisers has come down,” he said. “I invested `25,000 in cultivating the crop and after meeting all expenses, there is a profit of `62,000,” he revealed. Knowing about the profits, other farmers in the village are thronging Ravi’s fields to know about the benefits of micro-irrigation. In the wake of the drought conditions, officials had decided to bring 4,000 hectares of land under drip irrigation in the district and 70 per cent of the target has been achieved so far,” said microirrigation project director Sangeeta Laxmi.

“Farmers are cultivating groundnuts, leafy vegetables, cotton, chilli, mango, banana and papaya through drip systems and cutting down expenditure on power and fertilisers.” “To encourage farmers adopt the modern farming techniques, the government is giving 100 per cent subsidy on drip, sprinkler irrigation equipment to SCs and STs, 90 per cent subsidy to small and medium farmers,” Sangeeta Laxmi added and urged farmers interested in adopting the modern irrigation methods to consult the micro-irrigation project office in the district headquarters

A GARDEN FROM SOILED WATER

This took place in a village in Veraval region of Saurashtra. A unique experiment by a teacher of the school for growing trees. Since that it is a water scarce area, it was impossible to get water for trees. The teacher therefore asked the students to bring soiled water left out after washing of utensils at home. Each student would carry a bottle of soiled water from home daily. The students were then asked to water the plants with the soiled water. As days passed, the students and school officials had a lush green garden before themselves! Thus a teacher’ s small initiative created a green island in a dry and barren area, that too with waste water. In the process, he also taught the kids to make friends with Mother Nature.

Source : http://narendramodi.com/post/A-Daughter-A-Tree-and-A-Teacher.aspx#comment