Fwd: Bhausaheb Thorat

 

This year's silver lining

"There will be plenty of trees one day"

 

Bhausaheb Thorat. 85. Sangamner, Maharashtra

 

Some call it reforestation. But Bhausaheb Thorat, a simple farmer from Maharashtra, has turned a tree-planting drive into a social revolution. We examine what motivates this inspirational octogenarian

 

It's a long way from the Alps to the Sahyadri Hills in western Maharashtra's Sangamner tehsil. But that's where the seeds of the Dandakaranya Movement were sown, as a legacy passed from a French naturalist to a simple farmer with a fire in his belly.

 

A little frail today and laid low by a prostate condition, Bhausaheb Thorat's eyes sparkle when he talks about the green revolution he started three years ago in and around his home town in Ahmednagar district, 200 km from Mumbai. That's three years of sowing and planting 125 million seeds and saplings on the hills and plains of Sangamner; saplings that now cover the once-arid region with a rich carpet of green. But this is more than just another mass tree-planting drive. Bhausaheb Thorat has awakened the collective social conscience of an entire tehsil. "It is not the quantum alone," says Bhausaheb, or Dada, as he's fondly called. "It's about collective participation so that every farmer, woman and child is sensitised to the need to plant trees."

 

The Dandakaranya Movement is an inspirational mission that has been cited by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). A feature on Bhausaheb has been uploaded on the UNEP website (www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/CampaignNews/Dandakaranya.asp) as an example of how sheer grit and determination can work magic in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

 

Bhausaheb's face lights up as he peels back the years and returns to where it all began - on the Sayakhindi hill in Sangamner tehsil. It was 23 June 2006, and the hill was swarming with 50,000 men, women and children armed with lunchboxes and farm implements. The volunteers had assembled there, eyes cast heavenwards. Soon, the skies obliged and as a light drizzle descended, the villagers went to work to the sound of temple bells ringing in the distance.

Bhausaheb sowed the first seed and his foot soldiers followed suit. In seven days, they had covered the slopes of Khaneshwar Tambkada, Waryachi Mal, Talyache Ran and Ramgad. The target: 10 million seeds. But on 2 July 2006, the Green Army returned to the barracks after planting - hold your breath - 45 million seeds across 28,000 acre. It was a classic example of how organised people power, when inspired and channelled, can work wonders. Indeed it was a miracle. Because the next year, the volunteers repeated the feat, sowing another 45 million seeds across 21,700 acres. In its third year, the movement targeted 25 million seeds and 450,000 saplings while the 2009 monsoon saw another 10 million seeds and saplings being sowed. That's just over one-tenth of his ultimate target: 1 billion.

 

"Unfortunately, there has been a shortfall of rain and a lot of the seeds will not germinate. But that doesn't matter. We'll do it again the next year, and the next. And one day, Sangamner will be a lush forest," says the gutsy Gandhian, whose movement has thus far covered 170 villages. A dark shadow flits across Bhausaheb's face when he talks about the march of development and how it has left its footprint on global warming and climate change. His answer to that is the hope that his Dandakaranya Movement will spread to the national level.

 

Bhausaheb is clearly no ordinary man - it takes gumption and a special kind of self-belief to turn a storybook into a life's mission. The 85 year-old farmer says his plan to transform barren land into a green landscape took root when he read The Man Who Planted Trees, an allegorical tale by French author Jean Giono about Elzeard Bouffier, a naturalist who dedicated his life to reforesting the Alps between 1910 and 1945. Thorat would like to believe that Bouffier was a real person and not a figment of a novelist's imagination. "And so I set for myself a target of planting 10 million trees in one month," he says with a smile. "I knew I couldn't do it alone. So I decided to rally the residents of Sangamner. That's how I overshot the target four-and-a-half times."

 

Leadership comes naturally to Bhausaheb. He was a freedom fighter, an able Congress legislator, an active promoter of the cooperative movement, founder of the Sangamner Cooperative Sugar Mill, and former president of the Sangamner District and State Cooperative Bank. Born in Jorve village in Sangamner, Bhausaheb's work took him to the major metros in India and Japan and Switzerland. But he is passionate about home and hearth, turning down several senior political posts to stay in Sangamner and work towards its development. Bhausaheb's health may not always cooperate but his spirit never flags. "This year, owing to my prostate problem and diabetes, I wondered whether I would be able to accomplish our target," he says. "Then I thought about Bouffier who had done it on his own. I am fortunate to have the backing of the entire tehsil. My mind was thus made up. And I am sure that there will be plenty of trees one day."

 

Bhausaheb was always determined that "the revolution" he started would be a mass movement, one that would go beyond the act of sowing seeds. But first he needed the cooperation of various government departments. "As trees would be planted on common land, it was inevitable that the Forest Department, the Social Forestry Department and the Mamledar Office [local civic council] would have to be roped in," he recalls. "But I wanted nothing more than their cooperation. I did not want any government funds as this inevitably gives way to corruption. I wanted this to be a freedom struggle of sorts."

 

But why call it the 'Dandakaranya' movement? "It has its origins in Indian mythology. In the epic Ramayana, the sage Agastya turned the arid Dandakaranya forest into a green haven through a massive tree-planting drive," explains Ulhas Latkar, who has published Dandakaranya: The Story of A Green Movement, originally authored in Marathi by Aruna Antarkar and translated into English by Nandu Dange. Latkar has published the book under his banner Ameya Prakashan.

 

If Bhausaheb's 'Green Revolution' had a storybook beginning, it took a year to actually plan and execute. Our spunky tiller first rallied together a core group of people who were experienced in organising mass movements. The core group decided that the green army would comprise 5,000 volunteers who would rally the villagers in the tehsil. The army was assigned divisions and responsibilities such as digging pits, planting the seeds and covering the pits with earth. Special, lighter implements were made for women. Once the seeds had been collected, Bhausaheb drew up a map of each road and rivulet of the tehsil. He then sent out the volunteers into the villages, where they enlisted support for the movement that would mirror the spirit of the freedom struggle.

 

Roving music squads were also sent out to drum up support. "I didn't want the volunteers to make speeches; no one listens to them. Instead, we wanted folk songs to stir the enthusiasm and participation required for such a project," explains Bhausaheb, adding that the performing squads also entertain villagers as they work on the hills. "We also decided that we should preserve the seeds of every fruit we eat. We were thus able to collect seeds from whole town as well as from faraway places." Soon, much to the amazement of everyone, seeds quite literally started pouring in. "They came from schoolchildren, social and educational organisations, and the Forest, Agriculture, Social Forestation and other government departments," he adds. "The Cooperative Sugar Mill was entrusted with the job of collecting, storing and preserving them scientifically. Soon, we had collected 11,000 kg. Now, seeds are collected round the year."

 

Each participant is expected to contribute at least 5 kg of seeds. Also, it is not mandatory that everyone climbs the hills to sow the seeds or saplings. "One can even plant a seed in one's backyard," says Bhausaheb. "That is how we have sustained the project." Any obstacles the revolution has encountered have come from fickle weather and a moody monsoon. This, in turn, brings down the survival rate of the seeds and saplings to a meagre 10 to 12 per cent. "Considering that rural Maharashtra is reeling under a power crisis, there's no way we can use pumps to channel water supply into areas where seeds have been planted," he rues. The main challenge is sufficient rainfall. "It will take a long time before the green carpet turns into strong trees but I believe this movement will continue on its own steam," says Bhausaheb with firm conviction, adding that it will take at least a decade for his movement to show tangible and visible results. But patience is second nature to the man, who continues to look at the bigger picture. "I will not gauge the success of this project by the number of seeds and saplings planted," he says. "What is important is that people spontaneously join the movement in large numbers."

 

- Huned Contractor

 

Featured in Harmony Magazine
October 2009

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Vikas Thakur
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