We had the Block Development Officer of Mahabaleshwar area asking Grampari to host a planning meeting for Gram Panchayat members. Participants from the villages of Godavali, Taighat and Dandeghar gathered to discuss the village development activities for the upcoming year and ways in which they could utilise the Maharashtra Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MREGS). Plans included the digging of farm ponds for rainwater storage to tree planting to gutter construction and village clean up. The main concern that emerged from this meeting was the readiness and availability of villagers to work under the scheme.  MREGS offers Rs. 127 for each day of work (upto 100 days a year) and this is often considered too little to attract workers; a worker can earn Rs. 300 per day at a strawberry farm in Mahabaleshwar.

A new project has started in Taighat to repair and renovate an existing water tank. The Grampari team is providing technical help for the construction of a sand dam, working with village residents to come up with the best design and mobilize to find funds. The water that this sand dam will collect will provide water for hundreds of newly planted trees and hopefully can be directed to supply drinking water.

Design for repairing of Storage tank and construction of Sand dam for spring protection in Taighat (Design By Dr. Jared Buono)

The village ladies contributed by clearing weeds along the channel where the sand dam is to be constructed, a clear signal of their enthusiasm and willingness to move the project forward.

In this same area, Grampari team members dug staggered contour trenches on the forest land above Taighat village.  The plan is to demonstrate this practice which increases the water table and protects the soil on the slope from washing away during heavy rains.  The trenches are located near the Panchgani Bhoomi Center – this is a new initiative by the residents of Panchgani to start an information and knowledge centre for ecology and nature for tourists visiting Panchgani.  It hopes to both educate as well as raise the awareness of our collective responsibility in protecting the serenity of this environment.

Newly dug staggered contour trenches for demonstration purpose on the forest land above Taighat village.

Many tourists visiting Panchgani (up to 1 million per year!) create a lot of waste which is usually dumped along drainage lines which in turn end up polluting spring water. The springs that provide water to Taighat and also nearby villages of Dandeghar were analyzed for faecal contamination by our water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) team members.  This was done using H₂S test bottles that test for faecal coliform.  Unfortunately most of the spring sources that were examined are not fit for drinking purposes.  Human waste and animal excrement mixing with the base flow make a strong case to construct spring boxes that will protect the spring, ensuring that no villagers practice open defecation and also keep animal grazing restricted to specific areas.

It’s not fit for drinking and here is the proof! (They turn black when it is contaminated)

The Grampari team also attended a Gram Sabha in Pachputewadi to introduce our community coordinator, Swati Kadam, to the community. Swati is now living in Pachputewadi and working to mobilize the community on issues that they identify as well as acting as a liaison between the villagers and the team based in Panchgani.

Demonstration of use of H2S bottle during the Gram Sabha meeting in Pachputewadi.

Swati and other Grampari team members organized a late evening ladies’ meeting for the village of Pachputewadi, to help village ladies in decision-making and encourage them to actively take part in Gram Sabha meetings by putting forward their needs during the Gram Sabha, they were helped to enlist and discuss their problems in the more comfortable setting of the ladies’ meeting. The ladies chose to give priority to fixing leaks in the pipes that provide drinking water to the households. The ladies have agreed to meet on the 3rd Sunday of every month to continue addressing their concerns.  This is a big step forward as gender inclusion in decision making processes is a key in our approach and to a sustainable development.

A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was carried out on 30/11/2011 in the village of Abehpuri, which included Pachputewadi and Wadachiwadi hamlets. Village ladies and farmers came together for this PRA program organized by the agricultural department for village mapping and watershed mapping. The purpose of this program was to engage people to plan for their water needs in the coming 5 years. Strategies like constructing check dams, earthen dams, and making contour trenches along the ridge area were discussed as feasible options to implement watershed activities in the village.

Village mapping and watershed mapping during the PRA programme organized by the agriculture department.

Village people discussing about the village and watershed mapping during the PRA meeting.

All of this basically means that there is much happening and we’re extremely busy – we love it!  The quote by Albert Einstein is especially apt right now:   “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” 

We updated our septic system at Grampari during the summer!  And we’re excited to tell you about it!  It’s funny how much thought we typically put into what goes into us (clean water and tasty foods) and how little we put into what goes out of us and where it goes!  So here’s a brief overview of our new and improved septic system which allows for as well as some info on how they work. A septic system is an on site sewage treatment plant (to treat black water which is toilet waste) and consists of a septic tank and a drainfield.

This effluent is often left to drain into gutters or empty fields. This practice, though common is incorrect and dangerous, and can lead to the contamination of drinking water wells or future crops. The effluent needs to be further treated and this is done by routing it to a leachfield or drainfield from the final chamber of the septic tank. The leachfield slowly releases the effluent into the soil which acts as a filter to remove the harmful bacteria.

In Grampari, the old septic tank was undersized and the effluent  improperly treated.  To accommodate our 6 toilet bathroom that tends to 50 users during workshops, we needed to build a larger tank and find a way to properly treat the effluent, especially since our organic garden is located near the septic tank.

The new septic tank of Grampari

So on July 7th (World Septic Tank Day….ok, there isn’t such a day…YET), a local contractor expanded the old septic tank and made it much larger. We also installed a proper soak pit (a pit style type of drainfield) to allow for safe disposal of the effluent.  We separated our black water from our gray water (this is the non-toilet water from sinks and showers).

Our ongoing quest to secure vermicompost for the Organic Vegetable Garden (OVG) at Grampari started seeing results! A student in one of Grampari’s sewing classes, Aparna, invited us to her village, Rajapuri, to see her family’s vermicompost set-up. Five team members and the sewing class girls from Rajapuri hopped in the Bolero for an impromptu field trip.

Toilet biogas set-up

From the family compound is a lovely view of the valley. Potatoes have just been harvested from field below the house; wheat is sown there now. It was inspiring to see the family’s efficient use of resources. They have a bio-gas setup that is fed by a toilet; they also have cow dung slurry tanks. Every surface, including vertical, such as retaining walls, has planted or volunteer vegetables. Pumpkins grow up banks, tomatoes pop up in every nook and cranny. Different kinds of beans show delicate pea flowers and pods waiting to swell. Big patches of chillies have ash spread amongst them; more chillies than you would imagine one family could use. Guava trees overhang some fields, which are just starting to be prepared for strawberries.

Jared inspects a sample

Aparna showed us three different vermicompost setups. The first two can be watered from the irrigation system to maintain proper moisture; the third is dependent on the monsoon. They are composed of layers of cow dung and green material, with wood ash on top. Aparna’s mother dug into the piles and showed us the finished product, some of the finest vermicompost we’ve ever seen (nearly pure worm castings), and the work in progress, writhing with huge worms! The heap had great biodiversity: beetles, termites, a variety of worms: fantasic! She sells it to the strawberry farmers in the village.

Huge wriggling worms!

We invited her to hold a workshop at Grampari on vermicompost. The team came back excited and energized by a beautiful afternoon in the village and a great learning experience!

Executive Summary: The last 5 months have seen a lot of changes at Grampari.  We spent a good deal of time recruiting and training our new team who will help us carry our vision forward. We’ve also improved and expanded our infrastructure. In the communities we have made strides with community mobilization in Pachputewadi and Abhepuri. The ladies group from Godavalli and Dandeghar villages is growing and showing really rapid success. In Taighat we have been hard at work guiding the community to restore their watershed. And on campus, ever more students are attending our burgeoning livelihoods programme. Click on the photo below for a more detailed overview with photos!

We recently purchased a 9 seater Mahindra Bolero with a substantial discount due to the charitable registration of ‘Friends of MRA’ . The vehicle is registered and insured and we’ve taken it for several village visits and even to Baramati so far. We did try to find a second hand vehicle to reduce our energy footprint but there just wasn’t one to be found that met our criteria.

We also purchased a second hand 125 CC Hero Honda motorcycle as well. And of course, we have a helmet policy in place.

Earlier this year, after drinking in monsoon rains, the weeds in this area had taken over the field and were choking the trees.

With help from our team members, AP staff, interns and even programme participants, we were able to pull or cut all the weeds during a few sessions of shramadan. Coordinating large groups with sharp tools in tall grasses that hid ticks and snakes was quite an adventure! After putting the weeds in our compost pit where they will eventually decompose and be provide nutrients for the trees, we were able to pick two large baskets of lemons from our eight trees.

Once we had weeded and harvested, we needed mulch for areas around the lemon trees. Mulch is a protective cover that is placed on soil to reduce evaporation, supress weed growth and provide nutrients. Our newest intern, Rachel Jacobson, a landscape architect from California, suggested we shred newspaper and use this as mulch and we loved this cheap way to reuse old newspapers!

After all the weeding, shredding, picking and mulching, the lemons were used to make lots of nimbu pani at the Asia Plateau Kitchen and everyone agreed that they tasted just a little bit sweeter than market lemons….

Check out their work stabilizing a bank, filling up the compost pits, building a seed bed and making room for our citrus trees to breathe – each slide shows the BEFORE and AFTER results of their hard work!

The ladies leave Grampari and make their way to Panchgani town

The ladies reach Panchgani town centre!

Close ups of the rally participants and their posters!

“I look around me and cannot help but smile. 

Kalpana beats on a drum and jostles the others to make sure that she is near the front.  Trupti is a tiny wisp of a girl but has been shouting slogans in a voice triple her size steadily for the last hour.  Usha, unminding of her fancy red and green salwar kameez with glittery beadwork that catches the sun, picks up trash along the side of the road as we march towards the town square.  Jayashree walks slowly but determinedly, her voice loud and clear when she shouts.  And Jared silently brings up the rear, making sure that none of us are run over by traffic and drawing curious stares in the process.

This is the scene at Grampari’s first ever ladies protest to join Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption efforts.

The ladies first broached the subject at their monthly ladies meeting at Grampari.  They recounted instances when corruption has affected their lives and lauded Hazare’s fast given that he is almost 75 years old.

“Yes, but what shall WE do?  How shall we go from talking about this to action?”  The question was posed by Mangal – who works at Grampari taking care of the premises.  A few minutes of silence followed and then several voices came together and proclaimed “A march!  Let’s protest to show our solidarity!”

We talk about womens’ empowerment but it’s not always clear what this actually looks like.  To be clear, empowerment is 30 women of different castes coming together to protest through the town of Panchgani.  The women were not shy either – while my chants became softer and slightly embarrassed sounding the closer I came to town, the womens’ became louder and more determined.  Carrying trash bags so that we could pick up trash along the way (we’re all about multi-tasking at Grampari!), I start to drift towards the back.  Mangal gives me a look that implies I am being too hesitant and I realize that if they can find the courage to shout loudly, then so can I.

We talk a lot about helping village women find their voice – sometimes though, they help us find ours.”