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1. A farmer doing carpentry work, making a plough, using local wood and local wisdom. Afforestation activities support the use of wood locally. Since improved variety of trees are straight, they are helpful for making farming tools and house construction. | |
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2. A woman prepares food for her family and then joins her husband at the farm for farm work. Still firewood is used for cooking. ICA advises them to use branches of trees and save the trees for other purposes. Next year, ICA is planning to introduce natural energy, bio - gas and solar cooking stoves. | |
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3. This is a rice seedling plot. Women are lifting rice seedlings and taking it to a rice paddy plot for plantation. This work is done in August. Currently, villagers can only cultivate one crop a year. However, once the lift irrigation scheme is completed, they will be able to cultivate a second crop also. | |
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4. Villagers conduct regular meetings to discuss and plan development activities. ICA encourage village leaders to facilitate. This meeting was to talk about afforestation and lift irrigation project, asking for inputs and ideas of villagers and making consensus on the implementation process. ( Mr. D. R. Khanekar from Khamboli is leading. ) | |
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5. Dam construction meeting held at the site. Political leaders, government authorities, local leaders, ICA and villagers were present. A local leader is presenting flowers to a government officer in charge of the dam construction to honor his best service. Farmersf difficulties of delay of dam construction were discussed and consensus was made about future implementation plans. | |
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6. A village women stating her opiion in a monthly meeting. Villagers have become aware of the importance of monthly meetings and these meetings have made a revolution in Khamboli. | |
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7. In May, leadership training program was conducted at EEC for Mulshi project to motivate villagers and provide them skills for effective implementation of development work. 10 to 12 villagers from each village selected by village itself participated in the program. Shakuntala Jadhav of ICA is leading a session on qualities of leadership required for community development. | |
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8. ICA India organized an environmental awareness and health camp in Katarkhadak village. Doctors from governmental hospitals and private hospitals in Pune came to conduct it. Villagers from total project area and schools in villages participated. There were about 18 doctors with different health expertise. About 200 patients were examined and given treatment. | |
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9. An education tour of farmers was taken to g Ralegun shidhi villageh , a world -wide successful model village in community development. This is a comprehensive villagers development project, focused on watershed and afforestation activities. The group is seating in a community center, as a guide of the project is explaining the project activities and facilitating the dialogue of farmers. | |
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10. Women from Khamboli village working at the dam construction site. Dam construction work was done by the state government, which also provided part time employment to villagers. | |
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11. Pitching stones at the main wall of the dam. Experts were hired for this work, which even continued during June, the monsoon period. | |
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12. After the dam work completed in July, the first heavy rains filled the dam with water. Tree plantation was also done at the edge of the dam on community land. | |
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13. Lift irrigation survey was conducted by a technician, ICA and villagers, to understand the land and make careful design of pipeline layout. The group is standing at the highest place of Khamboli village and viewing the land area to be irrigated. | |
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14. Khamboli village and surrounding area to be irrigated by the lift irrigation scheme. The green area is rice paddies and the golden area is wasteland. Agroforestry will be developed on rice paddies and afforestation on wastelands. | |
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15. Villagers are the experts of their community. They are the ones explaining the land and advising the most appropriate places to lay pipelines and water distribution chambers to the technician and ICA staff! | |
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16. To begin any important work, Indians worship a particular God at the place of the project. Distinguished guests are called for leading the worship. On September 16, 2000, Lift Irrigation Ground Breaking Ceremony was held. Some politicians, government authorities, local leaders, ICA staff and villagers were present. The event announced the project, indicated the importance and let the work begin with enthusiasm. | |
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17. Village women honoring the distinguished guests at the event. The women who will honor the guest with precious hands is called gLaxmih. ( The goddess of wealth. ) | |
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18. In commemoration of the event, distinguished guests, Thermax representatives, ICA : India and ICA : Japan staff, villagers gathered for a photo. | |
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19. Measuring and marking of sumpwell done by technician, ICA staff and villagers at the bank of dam. The water will be lifted in the sumpwell by a monoblock pump. | |
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20. Actual measurement of sumpwell. Water capacity is planned to be 100,000 liters. | |
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21. Villagers marking the land with bamboo for pipelines. | |
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22. Actual digging work began on September 29, 2000. Villagers came together
to work. Youth and many women came because their husbands are in Mumbai,
doing other jobs. Villagers decided that every beneficiary should send one
person for this work days called g Shramadan " ( community work ). |
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23. Within big groups, small teams were formed. Women formed discipline of their ways of work. These were enjoyable moments. They laughed, joked, shouted at each other. Time passed very quickly and the work was done, and yet people were fresh, not tired | |
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24. Rocks after blasting. Some of them were so big, villagers had to break them manually. Some of them were not breakable, so the villagers had to push the rocks together. Here team work really worked! This job is usually done by men. | |
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25. As the sumpwell deepened, the hard rocks also became stronger, but villagers kept digging with all their might. | |
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26. Sumpwell construction utilizing local tools. From their rich experience, villagers know exactly how to handle rocks. | |
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27. Completion of sumpwell. The size is 40 feet x 30 feet x 10 feet, the maximum storage of water is 100,000 liters. | |
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28. Simultaneously, the pipeline trench digging began. Pipelines above road are 654 m, below road are 1,490 m. Again, villagers formed teams and divided the work load. | |
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29. Technicians and villagers fitting the pipelines. | |
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30. Completed pipeline. This scheme changed the attitudes of people, since it deals with their immediate need and long range future. Planning and implementation were done by the people, and they feel so great that they had made decisions on their own. | |
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31. The afforestation nursery at Environmental Education Center is managed by 2 families. A wife of a caretaker is filling the plastic bags with soil and organic fertilizer. This season, 50,000 seedlings were raised. | |
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32. Grown plants are kept in a shed of nursery and watered regularly. Watering is usually done early morning and evening. Multi-purpose trees such as Acacia, Eucalyptus, Teak, fruit trees such as Mango, Awla, Tamarind, Medicinal plants are grown. | |
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33. Two caretakers, Mr. Vitthal Viranak and Mr. Baban Takalkar grafting mango plants at the nursery. Improved variety mangoes are grafted to local mangoes. | |
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34. Before tree plantation, a team of villagers prepared plots. On re - plantation land, pits were dug. On new plantation land, contours were marked on sloping waste land. Tree planting especially on contours will stop soil erosion and conserve water. | |
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35. Contours were measured by tube level and dug accordingly so that the water is stored and access of water is gone out through a particular place. | |
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36. Mr. Shankar Jadhav, ICA India director, giving training to local supervisor and a youth who is interested in tree planting. He is explaining the method of plantation, where to plant trees and why. | |
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37. Women carrying eucalyptus seedlings on their heads from nursery to afforestation plots for plantation. It was raining but they said it is the best time to plant trees, and continued to work. | |
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38. Villagers planting trees on soil heap so that the seedlings have enough soil and the ditch just beneath contains sufficient water. The contours are also dug one after another and below each other so that the overflow of water flows into the below contour. | |
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39. Women make a good team and train their daughters also. They are also very careful in their work. They remove the plastic bags and collect them to burn. | |
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40. Villagers planting trees on edges of a rice paddy. This year, 18,446 trees were re - planted and 21,600 trees were newly planted in Khamboli, Katarkhadak and Andhale village. | |
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41. Families come together to help each other. Villagers have a tradition to complete work as a team one by one. | |
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42. Villagers form discipline, a system to work in a row, so that work is distributed appropriately and done effectively. | |
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43. An individual farmers plot. This farmer has selected a lot of eucalyptus trees. But next year, he will be encouraged to add other species also. | |
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44. A plot of an individual farmer after 2 months of plantation period. The survival rate is almost 100 % right now. The trees are growing fast also. Ms. Fumiko Nakashima, ICA Japan staff, and Mr. Mukesh Taksande, ICA India staff, are visiting the plots to monitor the progress. | |
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45. Aloevera, a medicinal plant, is planted at the community plot of Khamboli
village. An introduction of medicinal plantation. |
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46. Villagers actively participated in weeding of afforestation plots. This work is done so that trees are protected from pests and diseases. | |
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47. Weeding work is done twice a year, once at the end of August to beginning of September and second at the end of November to beginning of December. | |
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48. Second weeding was done in November. When the grass is dried, it is used for feed of dairy animals. | |
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49. A women working in her vegetable garden. Every family has their home vegetable garden growing necessary spices and vegetables. In June, ICA India provided improved variety of vegetable seeds (chilli, lady fingers, legumes, bitter gord, papaya, drumsticks etc.) to improve food accessibility within the community. | |
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50. ICA India initiated a womenfs meeting separately to hear their problems and plan what they want to do. Some of the activities they have started are a saving group and a tailoring class. | |
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51. A six month tailoring class began in Khamboli, and 32 young women are taking the training. This is in partnership with local bank, ICA and the village. | |
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52.gGourih - Village festival. Worshiping Goddess for well-being and progress of family. A 3 day program, the house is cleaned, painted and decorated. During the period, a very happy and meditative environment is maintained in the house and village. Families visit each other and special food is prepared and shared. Women are especially honored during this festival. | |
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53.gPolah - Bull festival. Once a year animals who work in the farm with farmers are worshipped and honored for their service. Bulls are given a bath, special food is provided, even a share of human food is given to them. Villagers come together as one community with decorated bulls, and a procession is taken through the village. This has a value that the service is honored no matter whether it is a human being, animal or machinery. | |
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54.gDiwalih - One of the biggest Hindi festivals. | |
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