Digging begins

One day we went mapping the village for the number of trees that can be planted. Along the open beach, a pitch of 1o feet and three rows with 10' apart was decided. Along the village streets, on the side where the power lines don't run, a pitch of 15' was decided.

It always makes sense to walk around the village, consult people and decide on exact locations before assuming the numbers that can be planted. We began enthusiastically with a target of 3,000 and even 5,000. But when we actually stepped through the village and began to did, reality rapidly caught up.

For example, they wanted to leave clear spaces near the temple as, when their festival palanquin does its rounds, may of these trees would obtrude and may have to be cut. The cremation ground is variously ear-marked for caste groups and that for some was rather small; so we omitted that space. Many houses had compound walls fronting on the road leaving living little marginal land for planting. Then there was a goof up on the beach. A bunch of over-eager boys used a 15' pitch instead of the 10'. So in the end about all we could squeeze was space for 1003.

Digging began in early August. Everyone jumped in enthusiastically . A swarm of children followed the diggers. Housewives opened their gates and asked for pits to be dug in their yards. On the first day we dug almost 150 pits. The next day as the fishermen had to attend to their vocation, they hired a team to dig the rest. Digging went on for three days and we were done.

pongamia in delhi

The july 18 outlook issue carries an article entitled: India in 2020: a
wish list. One of the item is bio diesel and a prominetly displayed box
carries the following words:

Biofuel plant farming, harvesting and extraction will provide large
employment opportunities. Biodiesel plants can be grown in 11 million
hectares and yield a revenue of about Rs 20,000 crore a year.

DV's nainar kuppam project seems almost prophetic and I hope it takes
off as none of us realise that trees follow nature and that in spite of
all our knowledge and technologies, they take their own time to grow,
and need to be cared for.

In Delhi there is an abundance of pongamia trees ladden with plump
seeds that are waiting to be plucked and converted into liquid gold,
but everyone drives past in their cars grumbling about the ever rising
price of fuel!

Last year we did collect some and we have over 400 litres of SVO
sitting in our back yard and many sacks of seeds that are waiting to be
milled. Some was turned into soaps but paucity of funds and sustainable
markets compelled us to stop.

An attempt to spread the biodiesel message in Bihar where trees are a
plenty failed as we did not follow the Bihar unwritten code of conduct.

Yet the trees are there and some are being felled because no one knows
their value or is it simply because we will only act when reality hits
us in the face.

Biodiesel and gniF

GoodNewsIndia Foundation [gniF] grew out of my experience with
publishing goodnewsindia.com since June,2000. The interest in Pongamia
grew out of a conviction that it's the nearest thing to a panacea for
most of India's ills.

You can read more about it at the gni site:
One of the earliest reports
A update in 2003

Since Dec,04 my work with fishermen in tsunami relief has suggested
that use of pongamia oil as the fuel for their fishing engines will
lead to long-term sustainability.

To demonstrate the project, gniF has chosen to fund a 1000+ trees
plantation of pongamia in the village of Nainar Kuppam, a fishing
hamlet of the Uthandi panchayat on the East Coast Road, outside
Chennai.

The pilot project offers a good opportunity to marshall and present all information about this approach to biofuels in India.

A biodiesel FAQ

Pages from the FAQ

Awareness about the potential that pongamia biodiesel holds for fishermen, was planned to be raised through five means:
1- An easy to read FAQ in Tamil
2- Contact meetings at the villages
3- A street play
4- Demo of a fishing engine running on pogamia oil
5- Bringing the Biodiesel Champion, Prof. Udipi Shrinivasa over for the villagers to meet and ask their questions

By May25, the FAQ was ready. It was a collaborative effort. I wrote the text in English, Kuha translated it into Tamil, Supraja came up with some nice drawings, Bhakta, a fishermen who owns a press, produced 600 copies and gniF funded it.

Copies were distributed among three villages, where ECCO [East Coast Citizen's Organisation] had distributed new fibreglass boats. These three villages -Karikkattu Kuppam, Reddi Kuppam and Nainar Kuppam- has varying levels of response to the biodiesel idea.

The first had been traumatised by the tsunami, deserted its 200 year old habitat and fishermen were camping in make-shift huts; they were in no state of mind to do anything -yet- about planting pongamia trees. The second village, is close to a bustling market town with far too many commercial distractions.

Nainar Kuppam, the last village, somehow had the mind, time and space to respond favourably to gniF's overtures. It is tucked away from the highway, was little affected by the tsunami and has a vast beach.

On May 26, at a contact meeting by the pretty temple, the advantages of pongamia were explained: how it needs little water, is not browsed by cattle, yields from its fifth year up to the 80th.,is an ever-green, shady tree, protects the coast against erosion and so on. They were also explained the depletion of petroleum reserves and how a five year head start now, will ensure energy security for the village, and open up profitable businesses in nurseries, soap making, oil cake sales.


The meeting broke up enthusiastically with the villagers swearing to care for the plants.