Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
as it entails transportation costs and risk of damage to the saplings. Greenhands carried
out a loading technique through which 8-10 layers of saplings were transported, with a
maximum capacity of 10,000 to 12,000 saplings. An additional 10% sapling was carried as
a buffer in each truck, in order to account for any damage to the sapling or any possible
replanting need. The transportation was done a minimum of 10 days prior to the planting
day, in order to account for a seasoning period.
Planting times varied. For jack fruit, there was the necessity for the planting to occur
within two days from the time of seed collection while it was two months for oil seeds.
In order to ensure the healthy existence of the seed, especially for those with a short
time span, they were soaked in hot/ cold water, or were soaked in panchakviam 7 . Some of
the seeds were taken through anaerobic pre-germination before they were sowed in the
motherbed 8 . Development of the sapling included processes like Preparation and cleaning
of the land, Motherbed settlement, Creation of Mist Chambers 9 , Germination of seeds,
Preparation of planting pockets, Transplantation of germinated seeds, Nurturing in shade
for two weeks with daily watering, Exposure to sunlight to stimulate growth with alternate
day watering, Rearranging to curb root growth, Weeding (3 weeks after transportation
and once during next 2 months), Transportation and Planting. “Growing a sapling is like
growing a child. Experiencing everything as one is Spirituality,” voiced Swami.
SAPLING DISTRIBUTION AND PLANTING
“Of all economic activity that happens in a nation, agriculture is the most fundamental and also
of paramount importance. A nation that neglects its farmers is bound to dislocate its basic life
sustaining infrastructure.” 10 ~ Sadhguru
The mission of Greenhands is to inspire people and enable them to plant trees.
Greenhands distributes saplings to third parties, who do the planting. In this model,
plantation is done throughout the year. The responsibility of nurturing and monitoring the
saplings that were planted were given to individuals/ groups who took the onus of planting
the saplings. Awareness generation was the key in the success of this model. “Individuals
and concerned groups had been approaching Greenhands as the preferred destination for
saplings,” said Anand. Through this model, 1,434,382 saplings were nurtured.
The other model followed by Greenhands was the Agroforestry model. These were funded
projects. Explaining the Agroforestry model, Ethirajulu said, “Soil is the basic entity that
we have to protect. It takes thousands of years to create top soil. Trees play a major role
in the creation of top soil; Plant trees to protect top soil. That was the origin of Project
7 An organic manure made up of cow dung, cow urine, sugar, milk and tender coconut.
8 The place where seeds are grown. The motherbed is made out of a mixture of river sand, red soil and cow dung.
9 Chambers with temperature and humidity control facilities
10 From the website of Project Greenhands
Annexures
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