RID POVERTY & HUNGER IN 50 INDIAN TRIBAL VILLAGES

Report for the Period November 2015 to March 2016 

This is the time of the year, mid- November to mid –February that the Badaga villages in the Nilgiri Mountains of South India host “Hubbas” – festivals. They celebrate their ‘Hethai’, - grandmother / Tribal ancestress who has seamlessly morphed into the Divine Feminine. The festivities are held in different villages at different times. In India, many of our gods and goddesses are comfortably anthropomorphic as well!

All this translates to staff taking leave and schedules going haywire. Nimmi our Project Director is generally in a tizzy trying to juggle people and timings around.

Changing climate is a reality, not just a buzz-phrase to include

For as long as the older folk in the villages remember, forest fires came and the grass lands underwent burning. Pastoralists point out that fire was an integral part of grassland regeneration. But for the last seventy-eighty years, the fires have been man-made. Over the last quarter of century, there seems to be a periodicity of three years between occurrences. The last one was in 2015 and the next one could be anticipated in 2018. But this year, we again had fires last month--------. This time, it was because some people had burnt forests to stop leopards from coming for their cattle. Because of strong wildlife protection laws, the leopard population has increased. Same stories worldwide, only latitudes and longitudes differ. There are no easy answers.

We at Earth Trust are looking to provide a tentative road map for the next decade which will factor in changing climate patterns combined with dwindling natural resources and political lethargy. Towards this end we have been talking to individuals who are concerned, can think ahead and anticipate. We hope these conversations will lead to many small-scale positive impacts which will cumulatively add up to comprehensive adaption to the effects of climate change. At the end of the day, a farmer wants to be paid, a Tribal person wants the freedom to gather and live as he has always done. Women want the security of a roof and meals for their families. Words like ‘Climate change’- an incontrovertible fact- have no relevance to them in the abstract. However they certainly observe and can relate to changes that are happening around them. It is Earth Trust’s responsibility to help counter worst-case scenarios with appropriate action. The challenge lies in eliciting a ‘what-next’ reaction and not an ‘OMG what shall we do?’ one.

Farming Programme

Changing and unpredictable weather patterns mean that traditional times and rhythms for sowing and harvesting that have been followed for generations do not work anymore. This again is a challenge for our Farming team. They have to constantly re-invent, customize and provide inputs to farmers.

Over these past years the numbers of farmers under the ET umbrella has grown. More and more of them want to be part of ET and Biogain- Biodynamic Organic Growers’ AssociationI In Nilgiris- a co-operative of farmers who follow our protocols for Organic/Natural farming. This is for 3 main reasons:

• The credibility and dependability established by Earth Trust, thanks to Ms Orr, over the last 10 years,
• Public awareness of the ill-effects of consuming chemically grown fruits and vegetables/produce, basically consuming poison, has increased due to efforts by both the medical fraternity and the media.
• Neighbouring states like Kerala have been considering banning vegetables/fruits/produce from the Nilgiris because of very concentrated chemical residues.

To provide assured marketing support for our farmers, Earth Trust opened a new shop on the 4^th of February 2016. (News article at http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/earth-trust-opens-organic-outlet/article8190684.ece). This is a big step forward. Nat and Mo—sounds like a vaudeville act!!—are two very bright sparks volunteering at the shop. They are International high school students at Lawrence School Lovedale, Ooty. Nat is from a farming background in Colorado and Mo is from Thailand. They are learning firsthand about all activities of ET.  Sale of Organic produce from 01.4.2014 to 31.03.2015   was: Rs.15, 86,410.00= 23,752.24 U.S. $.

The Central Government Horticultural Research Station (HRS) in Ooty (also affiliated with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore- the nearest big city in the plains) has approached us to collaborate on a Geographical Indicator Research Programme for ‘Malai Poondu’-hill garlic, specific to the Nilgiris.

On November 30^th, 2015, Earth Trust was invited to participate in a programme conducted by BERAS (http://www.beras.eu/about-us) titled Western Ghats-Nilgiris Biosphere Regional Level Seminar on Ecological Regenerative Agriculture (ERA), Sustainable Food Societies(SFS) and Diet for a Green Planet-“Food from a living soil” We participated as these are all an integral part of the Earth Trust vision.

Health and IGP

November 2015 through March 2016, the Health programmes –primary health care –for women were in full swing in Bembatti and Ithallar villages. Our time-table for our programmes have to accommodate all the Hethai festivals. Earth Trust was invited to the Hethai festival at Bembatti held on the 11^th and 12^th of January. You can see our staff dancing with gay abandon with the locals. Our Health Team and IGP (Income Generation Programme) have started their three-month long training programmes for women in Melkowatty village. Both these programmes run in tandem, 2 days of Health training and 3 days of IGP training. The inauguration was a lively affair. There was an elderly woman in traditional attire in the front row, busily knitting away during all of the ceremonies—perfectly comfortable with herself!! She was a fitting example of IGP – optimal use of time and indirect savings. So much for speeches and lengthy soporific introductions!! All the older people were nostalgic about the taste of the food they ate as children.

Eco-club

Suresh of the Eco club and Nimmi our Project Director organized an awareness event in connection with ‘World Sparrow Day’ at Mountain Home School in Ooty. We had an inter-school competition where the participants had to create out of waste material an object that birds would use. Predictably, there were bird houses and feeders. The first prize was awarded to the entry which did not use any nails. The School Board Examinations for 19^th and 12 standards are held during this time. So we have decided in future to create a Nilgiri Sparrow day that will not clash with exam timings. The usual rounds of visits to 14 Middle level Government schools are ongoing. The Blue Mountain School children were taken to Pillur dam and treated to a ride in a coracle- a country boat that is just a piece of leather over a frame.

Behind all the light-heartedness, the operational activities of Earth Trust continue. It is the end of the financial year for us. We are wrapping up accounts, collecting bills for expenses, hassling our staff for their reports so as to send a consolidated summary to you-Global Giving and to our other potential funders; preparing the schedule of all activities for April 1st 2016 to March 31^st 2017. We have also let 3 of our staff go – lack of sustained funding being the mail reason. There is always another year ahead.