INDIA PROJECTS
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<- Arunachala slide show
* Project Overview
John Button's story
Journal of Visit - John Seed (2005)
MOREAcademy of Development Sciences
CONSERVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS 2/05
A PRIMITIVE FOREST TRIBE FROM MAHARASHTRA view a film about the Katkari
Please help fund ADS Organic Agriculture Project
Report September 2002
* Journal of Visit - John Seed
* Current Project Proposals
* Womens' Health, Traditional Medicines Proposal - 2/01
THE NARMADA RIVER CAMPAIGN
Project Arunachala in Tamil Nadu, South India, has been supported by RIC for the past decade. This afforestation and environmental regeneration project was initiated in 1988 by the initiative of Apeetha Arunagiri, an Australian woman who had been living for many years at the foot of the sacred but barren mountain of Arunachala.
Ms. Arunagiri contacted RIC with an outline of the situation, and a plea for support to the Annamalai Reforestation Society (ARS) which she established to regenerate the mountain to its former forested . In spite of the fact that the district is far from rainforest, being classified as semi-arid, the plea was so convincing that the decision to work with the project was taken.
After all, if there is no forest to provide for the needs of the population elsewhere, then the rainforests have no chance of survival. All is connected. After initial visits from a couple of RIC activists, John Button remained with the project for eight years to help co-ordinate the establishment of Project Arunachala.
While the longterm aim is to reforest Arunachala, if the surrounding area is not abundant enough to support the people, then all resources from the mountain would rapidly be exploited. So, apart from planting and seeding the barren slopes of Arunachala, the project has focussed on environmental education, establishment of nurseries, skills training and credit schemes in villages, the refurbishment of traditional gardens in the main temple.
This temple garden is now the largest in all of India. Also on temple lands, the Project has regenerated wastelands into productive food, fodder and timber forest. This demonstration has used techniques replicable by anyone, individual or community, regardless of wealth, and stands as a shining example of the potential for the regeneration into productivity of thousands of hectares of land now lying barren through inappropriate landuse.
Similarly, as a result of a donation of land by a visitor who was impressed by the achievements of the project, the ARS has developed a Permaculture Demonstration Farm and Educational Centre. This too, represents a dramatic example of the potential for transforming wasteland into productive farmland, and perfect situation for running courses and workshops to teach the principles that have made the transformation possible.
The practical proof of the success of Project Arunachala is that local volunteers have taken on the running of the ARS totally, and have secured adequate funding to maintain the main activities of the project from diverse local sources and from visitors to the sacred mountain. The RIC remains committed to sourcing support for the ARS where possible, and maintains a close relationship with the ongoing expansion of Project Arunachala.
ARUNACHALA - JOHN SEED'S VISIT (1996)
In 1996, Eshana and I visited two projects in India which RIC Projects has supported over the years. The first was the reforestation of Arunachala.
According to Hindu legend, there was once a meeting of the trinity of Gods at which Brahma and Vishnu complained to Shiva that the intensity of his manifestation (as a brilliant column of light stretching from infinity to infinity) was dazzling them, could He kindly moderate his appearance? He consented and henceforth materialized as Mount Arunachala, located near Tiruvanamalai, between Madras and Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, India.
Eight years ago, the Rainforest Information Centre received a letter from Apeetha Anuragiri, a nun at the Ramana Ashram located at the foot of the mountain. She wrote to us of the degradation of the sacred mountain. At the turn of the century when the great saint Ramana Maharshi had found enlightenment at Arunachala/Shiva, the mountain had been clothed in a great jungle and even tigers might be found walking on His flanks. Now, nought remained but thorns and goats. Each year, the monsoons trenched His sides with deeper erosion scars, couldn't someone do something?
Well, I had been deeply moved by Ramana Maharshi's teachings since reading his booklet "Who Am I?" in London in 1971, and was grateful for the opportunity to get involved. An Australian friend, John Button, a permaculture technician and tree planter and a devotee of Ramana's went over and for the last 6 years he has lived there and nurtured the formation and work of A.R.S. - the Annamalai Reforestation Society (1)
I was able to find funding for the project via the Australian government aid agency, AusAID, the Threshold Foundation and others.
In September this year, Eshana and I spent a week at Arunachala. We were so excited to see the barren mountainside coming to life. Because of the importance of this place to Hindu pilgrims, one of the largest temples in India is found at the foot of the mountain, parts of it dating from the 9th century. The temple is surrounded by two huge outer walls with a space about 50 metres wide between them. Six years ago, this space had been a stinking wasteland of rubble and garbage. Now, ARS has a vast tree nursery there employing some dozen people and growing hundreds of thousands of native trees annually for the mountain plantings and also for the government forestry department and for neighboring villagers. They also grow endless flowers for the Temple's pujas which ensures the cooperation and goodwill of the temple authorities.
On the mountain itself, as the monsoon was over, the main ARS activity while we were there was guarding the plantings, making sure that fires, goats and firewood collectors are kept away from the young trees. Once the rains begin, hundreds of people are employed planting trees and protecting them with rock fences where necessary and earth bunds to slow the passage of water and direct it to where it is needed.
We lived there with John Button (2) at the site of ARS's model permaculture project, miraculously turning 12 acres of desert into lush productivity. It was amazing to see this bouquet of green suddenly sprouting from the rocky desert. Many trainings and demonstrations in permaculture are held there and surrounding villagers are taught how sustainable land-use patterns can provide food, fuel, fodder, herbs and medicines in the process of the restoration of even severely degraded land.
In June 1996, Anja Light (3) who had been managing RIC Projects during my sabbatical, was able to get a grant of about $15,000 from AusAID to match a similar amount that RIC had raised privately in Australia for the work of ARS. This is to fund maintenance and protection of the plantings and the permaculture farm, for the running of courses and night school classes on sustainable agricultural methods, for printing educational materials and to initiate the development of a medicinal plants project on 25 acres of degraded land. What an honor to be associated with such exciting and important work.
(1) Annamalai Reforestation Society, MIG 95, Thamarai Nagar, Tamil Nadhu Housing Board Colony, Thandrampath Road, Tiruvannamalai. Tamil Nadu, 606603 INDIA tel/fax 91 4175 23645 or email
(2). John Button is a teacher of permaculture and tree-grower who lives more than half of each year in southern India as an RIC volunteer. It was he who initiated the reforestation of Arunacha la and has worked alongside other Australian volunteers and the Anamalai Reforestation Society
(3). Anja Light has worked as a volunteer for RIC for over 10 years, working in Sarawak on behalf of the Penan, conducting roadshows in Japan and elsewhere. For two years she directed RIC's 3rd World conservation project work and has now handed it to John Seed during her rainforest roadshow of Japan.