“I remember my village being lush and green during my childhood. There were more than 10 streams that had water all through the year,” recalls Ramkumar G, about Madvarayapuram in the foothills of the Western Ghats where the river Noyyal originates. “Farming is its primary occupation, with paddy, pulses, turmeric, sugarcane, brinjal and tomato being cultivated there. But, Noyyal is drying up; borewells reaching a depth of 850 ft are being dug to find water for irrigation, and trees are making way for tall buildings,” says Ramkumar who adds that bird life has been hit too. The outcome was the NGO Siruvani Vizhuthugal, that is striving to get the village back to what it was.
“Initially, we started a WhatsApp group with 150 youngsters from our village to discuss nature, ecology and conservation. A pipeline project for rainwater harvesting was being misused as a sewage channel by residents and apartments in the area. The drain water entered Sadivayal Chinnar and Masaorambu, the tributaries of Noyyal polluting them. We could no longer go for a swim or drink water from the river. Illegal sand mining on the river bed was another grave issue. This was the starting point for our NGO that was registered last year,” he explains. The NGO began replanting native tree saplings in the village and alerted authorities whenever trucks with sand were spotted in the vicinity.
Siruvani Vizhuthugal divided the village into 13 zones and assigned a co-ordinator for each zone. “Six are tribal settlements. The co-ordinators keep a check on activities there and report to us.” As their first project, they identified a government school in the panchayat and planted neem, pungan, poo arasu, and vaagai there. “It’s a canopy of trees now,” says a pleased Ramkumar. Nearly 3000 trees have been planted as part of the NGO’s greening efforts. “Sundays are kept aside for nature. We spend time with the trees, removing weeds, and watering them. We are happy that the afforestation drive is bringing a number of resident and migratory birds to the village.”
- Post Ganesh Chaturthi, 50 volunteers undertook the task of fishing out Plaster of Paris remnants of the idols from the Sadivayal Chinnar. They worked for 13 hours trying to remove nearly 200 of them from the water bodies.
- Chemicals and artificial dyes used in colouring these idols contaminate the water and harm to the animals in the forest nearby that come here to quench their thirst.
The Siruvani Vizhuthugal are also cleaning-up water bodies. “We have collected truck loads of plastic waste. We send the waste to the landfill. We renovated 10 public toilets and assigned one each to three families in the village. The families maintain them now. We do conduct periodic checks. We constantly have conversations with people about Nature and caring for the environment.”
Anand T, one of the volunteers of the NGO was working in Chennai but when he came home here and saw the work the NGO was doing, he quit his job and joined them. “It is very fulfilling.”
The elders in the village are pleased with their work. “They bring us snacks and tea,” smiles Ramkumar. “We plan to tie up with Anna University to teach the tribal people scientific methods of epiculture. We are also researching on sustainable ways of waste management.”
