I spent my entire youth visiting villages - both close to
the city and remote ones - to mobilize people around protection of natural
resources. The books in my Sociology
Master Degree classes had not satisfied my urge to learn the society. My real
learning started in these villages, when I discovered wonderful traditional
knowledge systems to manage water resources, forests and agriculture. I never stopped and with meager resources
kept motivating more and more people to revive their traditional systems of
rain water harvesting that had been decaying owing to lack of support and
encouragement.
People had lost hopes in their own sustainable systems. But when they got a single ray of hope they
regrouped and got energized again. We
succeeded in reviving hundreds of ponds, tanks and structures of other sizes,
relevant to the local ecological setups, with complete people's participation. Even we succeeded in bringing back renewed life
to some rivulets. They owned the process and we achieved what some outsiders
had then said was an impossible task. We
almost drought proofed several perennially drought prone villages. The financial support that we had raised from
various sources were limited. But we
were able to retain people at their villages and work on their own fields; and
benefit out of the farming that were now more diverse and natural than
before.
I kept on working silently and as a crazy passionate fellow
in villages for long and it is only in the year 2006-07 that people started to
know my works from a release in which we claimed 'Odisha to turn a desert in
150 years.' Before that also I had
raised some very vital issues and, as I always claim, was perhaps the first man
in the state to have brought ‘climate change’ to the mainstream of
discussion. When I talked about drought
in the forests, early flowering of various forests and horticultural plants,
changed behaviour of various species and most importantly the coastal erosion
in Bay of Bengal way back in early 90s, people had not taken me so seriously
back then.
The note on Odisha’s desertification also fell into deaf
ears of the government but by then the media had started to know me. I must say, it is due to support from the
friends in media this issue caught attention of many. At that time, even though internet was just peaking
up, thousands of internet news sites all across the globe carried our
study. The local and national media took
it up very seriously and as a result people from across the globe started to
know me. Back home, some in the
government and some even in the civil society (mostly the ones based out of
Bhubaneswar) termed me a ‘crazy’ fellow, yet again.
Thankfully, I got more support than opposition on the ‘desertification’
issue. It was a cautionary note to the government and public based on research
done out of government's own statistics.
Then a number of television pogrammes covered our interventions. The ETV profiled me as 'Jala Purusha' and
devoted two episodes on our efforts in a special programme. The NDTV profiled me as 'Water Man of Odisha'
and 'Climate Crusader' and eventually in 2010 conferred me with the first
'Green Hero' award that was given away by the then President of India. The Hindustan Times profiled me as “Odisha’s
Conservation Master.”
Later, Universities and Civil Societies from abroad started
inviting me to speak on ‘climate change, water harvesting and related issues’
and the journey has been busy yet interesting.
In the mean while I have received several awards and recognition and
have also refused many more because of some 'conflict of interest' and
'ethical' issues.
Then came a phase in life where the recognition of my
efforts at the grassroots led people at various corner to expect a larger role
from me. I too thought it was time to be
a 'watch dog' and sometimes a 'barking dog' to defend our precious and fast
extincting water resources including Rivers and Water Bodies. This has led me to be involved more in
research and advocacy efforts. This also
means I have got less time to go back to villages. I have however tried not to miss even a
single opportunity of going back to villages to encourage them in their efforts
as well as learn from them. And each
time I go to the villages, I have something new to learn from them.
Wonderful are our villagers.
They already practice a 'low carbon lifestyle' to achieve which
countries are spending billions in debates and negotiations. Climate change impacts are real and our
villagers have the solutions. However,
we have decided not to learn from them.
Today, when I got a chance to revisit Kharamal village in
the foothills of Gandhamardan ranges, I was so happy to see a happy Sitaram
Majhi, a man from the Gond tribe. He has
grown from where we had stopped our intervention and now is a successful water
harvester and champion farmer. We worked
with him from 2005 to 2009 and then some govt. programmes too helped him to
continue and expand. Before 2005, he used
to migrate out to other states to work in brick kilns. Now he earns 1500 to 2000 rupees each week
from selling vegetables alone in the local market. From one water harvesting structure, he has
now grown to own two.
I am so happy and deciding to go back to my grassroots works
again, even while continuing my current networking, research and advocacy
efforts. Hope to get more companions this time. Back in the early 90s, when I
started these efforts, I had more challenges then company. I always have had
the blessing of having very good friends in life who have helped me all along.
My family members have also cooperated a lot. I am ever indebted and obliged to
all of you who have been part of this journey and have always encouraged and
supported me. Hope our journey will see more support now as more people know me
and the benefits of our actions are visible.
Hope is my only asset, water my destination. Are you with
me?
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