Bengaluru: After his ‘Rally for Rivers’ garnered the support of 162 million people to save rivers across the country, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation will be kicking off another campaign – ‘Cauvery Calling’, which will aim at shifting farmers to agroforestry with the support of the farmer community, administration and people.
Agroforesty is a practice of growing conventional crops with fruits and timber trees in the same farm. Sadhguru claimed that the agroforestry model, which is running in Tamil Nadu involving nearly 70,000 farmers, has helped them increase their income five times. The campaign will involve planting of 242 crore sapling along the length of Cauvery river in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Sadhguru will launch the ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign on September 3 at the origin of river Cauvery, Talacauvery, and go on a two-week bike ride following the river till she meets the sea at Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu. During his ride, Sadhguru will take part in hundreds of events creating awareness about agroforestry and garnering the support of people. On Saturday, Sadhguru told the media, “Cauvery is spread over 83,000 sq. kms As per studies, nearly 87 per cent of the tree cover is taken off in the Cauvery basin affecting the soil health and the groundwater directly impacting the food and water security of millions of people. When we plant trees, we are not only helping improve the revenue of the farmers but also increase the water retention in the Cauvery basin and continuously replenish the soil with the organic matter from animals and trees.”
He said, “Studies have shown that just by planting 10,000 trees, more than 38 million litres of water can be retained in the soil. Imagine the amount of water we will be able to conserve with 242 crore trees!”
He explained that agroforestry will take 10-12 years to revive Cauvery.
