Sexually abused and their complaints hushed, 50 girls were kept in a pitiable condition in a missionary home in Tamil Nadu.
Thanks to the efforts of an IAS officer, they have finally been rescued.
KS Kandasamy, the district collector of Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, was informed that the Mercy Adaikalapuram Missionary home in his jurisdiction, was violating government regulations. Soon after, he set off for the home to check its functioning, and what he saw there was nothing less than a shock for him.
Firstly, the infrastructure of the home was in a deplorable condition. Then, he noticed that about 50 girls between the ages of 5 to 22 years lived there and yet, were supervised by a male security guard. When Kandasamy discovered that 65-year-old Luban Kumar, the director of the home, also resided in the same building with his family, he got suspicious and initiated an inquiry.
Speaking to the Times of India, the IAS officer said, “The home lacked basic amenities, the girls had no privacy and were supervised by a male security guard.”
One of the things that irked the district collector was that the bathrooms did not have doors. The girls were also made to change in the hall as opposed to in bathrooms or private rooms. Both these factors rang alarm bells in Kandasamy’s head, and he took immediate, strict action.
“Luban Kumar had purposely removed the doors of all the bathroom stalls where the girls bathed,” he told The News Minute, adding that “His room was attached to this bathroom and he would open a window to see the girls showering. In addition to this, he had set up a CCTV camera in the hall where they changed and would watch from his room.”
According to reports, when a girl took the courage to speak up against this abuse to his wife, Mercy, she sent Luban’s brother to beat up the girls till they promised to keep mum.
Upon hearing this, Kandasamy shifted all the girls to a government home. When they were confident about being in a safe place, they opened up the IAS officer. Amongst other things, Luban Kumar would also ask the girls to come to his room at night and made them give him “a massage.”
The collector immediately lodged a complaint against Luban Kumar, Mercy and Luban’s brother, at a police station in Tiruvannamalai, under the Juvenile Justice Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). Subsequently, the missionary home was also sealed.
Just this week, Kandaswamy also saved a 17-year-old P Vidhya from child marriage. The minor had approached the IAS officer with the news that her family was forcing her to get married to a 25-year-old tailor, but she wanted to continue with her studies.
Not only did he stop the wedding from taking place, but also convinced Vidhya’s mother to let her continue her studies and provided Rs 3 lakh for her undergraduate course in nursing.
It is dedicated IAS officers like KS Kandasamy who truly restore our faith in the Indian administration.
You can have all the wires, transformers and light bulbs in the world. But if you are ‘energy poor’, it is all pretty useless.
Welcome to a little-noticed, but crippling, issue plaguing Indian villages, even as tens of thousands of kilometres of wire continues to be faithfully strung from one lone village to another. Rural India has an overwhelmingly intermittent power supply, especially in the late evenings and nights – ironically when it is needed the most.
This leaves the residents with no other option than to fall back to candlelight or kerosene lamps.This ‘darkness’ has a profound economic impact as well. With power supply so confused, it is almost impossible for any industry to settle in this rural hinterlands.
Naturally, these factories and industries must ‘migrate’ to cities, and the rural workforce follows them—sometimes to urban slums—in their hunt for a livelihood.
There are other impacts as well. Just consider the educational deprivation younger generations face, for whom studying after sunset becomes inconvenient.
Courtesy: SVSE.
There is plenty of talk about how this is a serious issue. But actual on-ground solutions are hard to find.
Innovative solutions are the need of the hour that can not only bring uninterrupted electric supply to these villages but also be implemented sustainably. The best solutions leverage advanced technologies. And when it comes to a sustainable energy source, what can better than the Sun!
So, Can we bring these two crucial components under a single umbrella?
Well one organisation, based in Puducherry, is doing it via a search engine! Now that is innovation!
Solar Village Search Engine (SVSE) is an initiative pioneered by Auroville Consulting, a unit of non-profit organisation, Auroville Foundation that focuses on developing sustainable urban and industrial development policies as well as ecologically friendly technologies.
The SVSE works like any other internet search engine. It helps users to search the web using keywords.
What makes this search engine innovative is the claim that the income generated from sponsored advertisements will be used to solarise rural India, starting with Tamil Nadu.
Courtesy: SVSE.
Speaking to The Better India about their work and the impact they intend to make, Martin Scherfler, who is the co-founder of Auroville Consulting, shares, “I feel passionate about how technology can make people’s lives better. Solarising villages is a clear way in which we can help the environment and help people. Using the power of the net seemed an obvious way in which all those who share my passion could contribute to making a greener world—without any additional cost to themselves!”
So what are the goals or changes that the SVSE aims to achieve?
By 2030, the organisation aims to solarise about 100 villages in the state and help contribute to the energy security of more than 20,000 people in its rural side.
Alongside the installation of an aggregated solar energy capacity of about 100 MW, steps in their pipeline include introducing participatory budgeting and planning, facilitating village level sustainable development initiatives and contribute to the democratisation of benefits arising from renewable energy generation at all the participant villages.
What is even better, if their undertaking takes off well, the organisation estimates to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 2.87 million tonnes!
Courtesy: SVSE.
Launched on December 5, the Solar Village Search Engine aims to hit a user base of 1, 00, 000 people for the first three months to ensure continued running.
The first village that will benefit from this initiative is Irumbai, near Auroville, where electrical engineering audits and changes in the use of saving appliances have already ensued.
You can look up Solar Village Search Engine here. If you wish to be part of this green initiative, try switching to SVSE and help fund their mission to bring the solar power to our villages in a ‘search for a brighter tomorrow’.
To know more about the Solar Village initiative, you can look their Facebook, Instagram as well as Twitter handles.
In the early hours of Thursday, India lost KR Jayaraman, one of the country’s foremost traditional seed conservationists, to cancer.
Jayaraman’s lifelong crusade to protect native paddy varieties is so legendary that he came to be widely known as ‘Nel’ Jayaraman—Nel means paddy in Tamil.
A native of Adirangam village in the Tiruvarur district, Jayaraman was a class 8 dropout who began his work as a conservationist in 2004. He was following the footsteps of his mentor, G Nammalvar, who had died promoting the need of preserving native paddy seeds. At that point, he had only managed to collect 15 varieties of seeds.
He then cultivated these in his own village, with the intention of distributing the grains to farmers nearby.
This dream came to fruition when he organised Nel Vizha, a one-of-its-kind paddy seed festival in 2006 and distributed approximately 2 kgs of native seeds to farmers across the state at no charge.
For the next decade, he went on to revive close to 174 indigenous paddy varieties that were thought to be lost forever. Some of which include Mappillai Samba,Rajamannar, Kavuni, Milagu Samba, Gundu Kar, Salem Samba, Sigappu Kuruvikar, Kallimadaiyaan, Samba Mochanam, Vadan Samba, Pichavaari, Navara and Neelan Samba.
While preserving these varieties was one of his primary goals, Jayaraman also worked relentlessly towards popularising them amongst local farmers, besides vociferously advocating organic agricultural practices for increased paddy production.
It is also believed that he personally inducted close to 40,000 farmers into organic farming as well as seed conservation.
Jayaraman took his cause to the literary sphere as well. He authored several books that reiterated the need to protect native paddy varieties, In fact, many of his books—Mamarunthagum Parampariya Nel, Nellathikaram and Nellukiraitha Neer to name a few—are widely renowned.
In recognition of his exemplary efforts, Jayaraman was bestowed with the ‘Best Organic Farmer’ award by the state government, two years in a row (2012 and 2013).
Two years later, he won the ‘Best Genome Saviour’ award instituted by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), which was conferred to him by the President of India.
Officiating as one of the training directors of CREATE, a consumer-based organisation in Tamil Nadu, he had essayed a crucial role in furthering the famous ‘Save our Rice Campaign’ across the state.
Sadly, he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma earlier this year, and despite undergoing intensive treatment at a private hospital in Chennai, he lost the battle and breathed his last today morning.
In recognition of the unparalleled legacy that Nel Jayaraman has left behind, we pay our respects to the selfless conservationist. We also hope that his tireless efforts in reviving lost paddy varieties will inspire farmers and agriculturists, for generations to come.
C Pandian, a farmer from the Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu, walks through his 10-acre land, all covered in grass. This 5-feet-tall Vetiver grass that spans all over his farm will fetch him profits in lakhs.
Inspired by stories like his, several people are quitting their cushy jobs to return to their villages and take up farming.
And some, like Pandian, are taking an unconventional route in traditional farming to earn huge profits.
Vetiver grass, also known as the “wonder grass” of Tamil Nadu, has seen high demands from various sectors, including the pharma and cosmetic industries.
Traditionally, Vetiver grass is used to make curtains, the demand for which spikes up during summer. The curtains are tied up on windows and are sprayed with cool water. Not only do they keep the room clean, but also have a sweet fragrance that acts as a room freshener.
The grass is also used to make ‘khus’ syrup and juice, and to purify water in water bodies, including artificial lakes and tanks.
But as Harvard scientists and even school children (links above) are developing new, innovative methods to utilise this wonder grass, farmers in Tamil Nadu have started its cultivation for large profit margins.
“Its moisture retention property makes vetiver a natural choice for soil conservation and replenishment of groundwater. It is ideal for dry-land cultivation using organic farming practices,” the farmer says.
He adds, “It is also used in ethanol extraction, as cattle feed and for making handicrafts. Another quality of vetiver is that it is an anti-depressant.”
Ashok Kumar, who works with the India Vetiver Network, told The Hindu, “It is easy to harvest this crop, which fetches very high returns. The vast coastline can be utilised to raise vetiver in a big way.”
Take the case of Pandian, for example. Although the grass naturally grows in coastal areas, its cultivation on inland farms is found to be even more profitable.
According to The Hindu, the grass gives a yield of 2-2.5 tonnes per acre in coastal farms and up to 1.5 lakh tonnes in inland farms! One kilogram of essential oils extracted from this yield will earn the farmer up to Rs 58,000.
Speaking to the publication, Pandian said that one kilogram of vetiver grass gives about 300 gram of oil and it is possible to earn about Rs 1.5 lakh per acre of cultivation. This, he said, is a profit, after excluding all the expenses over ten months.
Even as many take up farming, they find innovative ways to make it profitable–whether it is the cultivation of organic fruits and vegetables or growing non-traditional crops like the wonder grass.
Seemingly small gestures go a long way in changing someone’s life. But for Aarti Madhusudan, a resident of Chennai, such gestures are just a way to improve herself as a person.
Booking a hotel room for her driver on an overnight trip, for instance, wasn’t a noble gesture for her. It was simply an obvious decision.
Aarti was on a trip to Chidambaram, about 200 km from Chennai, with her parents. They had booked a cab from a popular travel aggregator for the overnight journey, and as they left, she started asking “a zillion questions” to Elumalai, her driver for the trip.
“I found out that he works very hard to pay off his loans. Day and night, he accepts cab rides, giving up his sleep so he can secure a better future for his two kids. He even told me that he hardly gets to see his children because he is too busy driving the cab to earn money. He had just returned from a trip to Tirupati that morning, and by evening, he had accepted our ride request,” Aarti told The Better India.
Naturally, Elumalai was tired by the end of the day, when the group reached their hotel after a six-hour drive.
Source: Aarti Madhusudan/ Facebook.
“I wondered if the [travel organisation] made provisions at all for their drivers and realised that they did not. Mostly, they slept in the cars. So I decided that after a long six-hour drive, no one needed the rest as much as Elumalai did, and booked him another room in that same hotel,” writes Aarti.
Asking why we think this is a praise-worthy, uncommon thing, Aarti told TBI that casteism and even untouchability prevails in practices like your domestic help sitting on the floor while talking to you while you sit on the sofa.
“When we don’t stop or question these things, we are perpetuating casteist behaviour, norms,” she says, adding, “Elumalai could not have afforded a hotel room. And his rest, his comfort, was just as important as ours, if not more. So the decision was not too difficult.”
TBI also got in touch with Elumalai, whose contact details Aarti had shared with us.
Courtesy: Elumalai.
He shares, “In my 20 years as a driver, I have met not one customer who was as generous, warm-hearted as them,” he says shyly. He adds, “We were supposed to leave early the next morning. But thinking that I may have still been resting, they went out and returned later in the day, when I took them to the other spots before driving back to Chennai. There can never be another customer as generous and kind-hearted as them.”
Aarti shared her story on her Facebook page so that a few others would be motivated. She maintains that she does such things only for herself, to make herself a better person, but we hope that her post motivates others to contribute to the ripple effect.
Last month, Krithik Ramesh, a 16-year-old boy of Indian origin who currently resides in Denver, decided to visit India. One of the places that he really wanted to visit was the government school at Deviyakuruchi near Attur, where his grandfather had completed his schooling.
However, the sight that awaited Krithik was anything but heartening.
“My image [of the school] was shattered when I stepped [inside]. It was unclean and did not have adequate amenities. [The] schoolteachers there said this was the state of many government schools in India. That’s when I decided to do something,” he said to The Times of India.
Together with his father, M Ramesh Babu and grandfather, V Muthuraman, Krithik decided to start Empowering Rural India Foundation, a non-profit organisation, with the aim of uplifting government schools across the country.
However, despite being immensely motivated, Krithik realised that he did not have enough funds to take his vision forward. His family members suggested that he could look for sponsors, but he had better plans in mind.
About six months ago, the student from Cherry Creek High School had won the first place in an international science fair in Pittsburgh that earned him the prize money of $3,000. Along with this amount, he decided to donate another $3,000 from his savings to equip the government school with essential amenities.
Once he had the funds ready, Krithik approached the school management. Upon enquiring about the needs of the school, he was told that it faced occasional power outages, and the headmaster suggested that installation of solar panels would be of great help.
Krithik happily agreed to the idea. The family approached many solar service providers before finally zeroing in on a company, that two weeks ago, successfully managed to provide the school with the necessary infrastructure. With the installation of solar panels, the school can now easily save up to Rs 15,000 that otherwise was spent on electricity bills once in two months.
Interestingly, the solar panels can produce about 2kW of power, which is more than what the school needs. For this, Krithik has suggested that the school could sell the excess power to the state electricity board.
His father, Ramesh, stated that they intend to put in place sustainable and renewable energy systems that will serve schools across India for a long time and will pave the way for improved academic success through self-sustaining solutions.
“I will participate in more science fairs, will get more money and contribute something to government schools in India,” added Krithik.
Fourteen years ago, the Indian subcontinent was ravaged by a gigantic tsunami that claimed thousands of lives and left behind a massive scale of destruction.
In times like these, it is often the quick actions and disaster management skills of civil servants that help keep up the morale of people who have lost everything—loved ones to entire homes.
One such bureaucrat, whose relentless efforts and commitment would never be forgotten by the affected, is Dr J Radhakrishnan.
So much so that he earned the moniker of “People’s Collector”.
An IAS officer from the 1992 cadre, he held the post of Thanjavur district collector, when the unfortunate calamity struck.
Because the officer had already earned a name for his efficient leadership in heading relief efforts after a fire at a school in Kumbakonam killed 94 students, he was immediately deployed to Nagapattinam on the morning of December 26.
This was one of the coastal towns that witnessed maximum casualties.
Remembering the impact of the tsunami, Radhakrishnan had said to the Business Standard in 2014, “We did not even get time to think; we just stepped into action. Once in Akkaraipettai, assuring those affected was important. We had been with them, worked with them and had to be a part of them. That was the confidence we built in people’s minds.”
According to the local communities, it was Radhakrishnan who went the extra mile to make sure help reached them, while most government vehicles steered right away from their village.
Because of this, the officer is held in high esteem even years after the catastrophe.
“Radhakrishnan ensured we got proper aid. God sent him as an angel to this place,” said Parameshwar, who lost ten relatives to the tsunami.
But one person who’d never forget the benevolence of this extraordinary human being is Meenu.
Radhakrishnan and his wife with Meenu. Source: Facebook.
Among the countless people whom Radhakrishnan and his team had rescued in Nagapattinam, Meenu today, is 16-years-old.
And their bonding is unlike any other.
One could say it was destiny that brought them together when she was found alone under a run-down bridge near Keechankuppam during rescue operations. She was two-years-old.
Over a hundred children were orphaned during the calamity, whose care and responsibility was to be shouldered by the state government.
Interestingly, Meenu was under the care of Radhakrishnan and his wife initially, before she could be rehabilitated along with other affected kids. It was during this time that she became the apple of their eye.
Later, she was moved to Annai Sathya Illam, a shelter home for orphaned children under the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project. It was established by Radhakrishnan, under the directions of former CM late J Jayalalithaa.
What is endearing about the bond Radhakrishnan shared with Meenu is that despite moving to an orphanage, they kept in touch. The couple always made it a point to visit the little one and spend time with her, as and when they could.
As time passed by, this proved to be difficult for Radhakrishnan because of his professional commitments.
However, Meenu got the surprise visit of a lifetime when Dr Radhakrishnan decided to visit her after more than three years.
Currently holding the post of state Health Secretary, he was visiting Sithathur, when he realised how long it had been since he last met Meenu. He called her school to inform them about his visit.
It was a reminiscing moment for the duo, who had many things to share, including Meenu’s future plans. A rather touching instance had been when Meenu called Radhakrishnan, Appa (father), and the health secretary couldn’t quite hold his emotions together.
Presently, studying in class 11, Meenu was the last of the original 99 children who were rehabilitated after the tsunami at the hostel. While many kids found new homes after their extended family members came for them, no one came for Meenu, who was the youngest of the lot. She plans to pursue commerce after her high school education.
In the southern parts of this country, especially during a festival, it is impossible to miss the huge bamboo frames that dot most roads and streets – depicting gods, animals, birds and even politicians, vibrantly illuminated by ‘serial bulbs’.
The handiwork is always impressive – but have you ever wondered where it came from?
Then this story is perfect for you!
For chances are quite high that these are manufactured by ‘Dhanalakshmi Lighting Works’.
A serial bulb setting business run by the women of Gandhinagar colony in Arasanarkulam village of Tirunelveli district, the story behind how this homegrown venture came to being will remind you of the recent Bollywood film—Sui Dhaaga: Made in India.
In this real-life story, the indomitable spirit part is exemplified by Dhanalakshmi’s founder couple—Ashok and Dhanalakshmi.
Ashok and Dhanalakshmi.
Just like Mauji (convincingly played by Varun Dhawan), Ashok had been working in a small serial bulb factory in Tuticorin, almost a decade ago.
Even though he had learnt quite a handful of skills, the measly salary he was earning there did nothing to meet his household expenses.
So one fine day, he decided to bid goodbye to Tuticorin and came back to his hometown, Arasanarkulam, to start a micro-enterprise of his own.
Ashok was a born artist. Adept in making sketches, he scaled these up into huge bamboo structures, which were then lined with serial lights.
Ashok making the bamboo frames.
And all of this would not have been possible without the unwavering support and motivation of his wife, Dhanalakshmi—after whom the enterprise is named!
Holding hands, they started their ‘baby’ together. Ashok would make the sketches and then mould the bamboo frames, while Dhanalakshmi would help with the light setting.
Soon, three women from their colony joined them, but the business wasn’t very lucrative to begin with, as they didn’t have enough funds for further investments nor would buyers pay in advance.
Five years ago, the couple got aid from the Srinivasan Services Trust, a non-profit organisation that advised them to team up with the women and form a self-help group.
Once ‘Gandhi’, their SHG, was established, the trust helped them receive loans from banks along with vehicular support to move their finished structures.
Some of the employees of Dhanalakshmi Fireworks.
Slowly, their company began to receive orders from across the state, and then from neighbouring states like Kerala and Karnataka.
Dhanalakshmi has a great role in making their venture a known name.
Compared to the introverted Ashok, she was good in communication and would go to nearby markets along with other SHG members to showcase their products.
Her efforts paid rich dividends, as word of mouth started bringing more significant business. Soon, more women began to join their SHG – in hopes of a better livelihood and financial independence.
Today, close 30 women work for them.
But as we all perhaps have guessed, the serial bulb market is dominated by cheap Chinese bulbs.
But that doesn’t faze Ashok. He proudly shows off their ‘Made-in-India’ tag. They do cost a bit more than the imports, “But these would last longer than the ‘use-and-throw’ ones from China,” he adds.
The returns from their venture helped women not just be financially independent, but also to send their children to good schools.
Though Ashok and Dhanalakshmi are unlettered, their daughter is pursuing computer science engineering at a college in Nazareth. With LED light settings in vogue now, the child has also been helping her father use a laptop to come up with better and intricate designs.
Illuminating lives, quite literally, Ashok and Dhanalakshmi have together built this venture through equal participation and belief in one another – a story filmmakers in India should chase after.
For most of us who have lived in the greener parts of India, identifying a few trees and plants might be easy, and yet, when we start to think about it, we hardly know anything about them.
The problem is that when we start growing plants with this inadequate knowledge, they suffer from poor growth, leading us to wonder what went wrong.
Take the example of Tamil Nadu. Farmers and gardening enthusiasts across the state are regularly puzzled with the fact that while some plantations thrive in the state, some wither away.
Well, for such farmers and gardening enthusiasts, Treepedia might be the perfect solution! Developed by IFoS officer Sudha Ramen, this app is a one-stop solution to knowledge about flora.
Courtesy: Sudha Ramen.
Speaking to The Better India, Ramen who is also an engineer, said, “I got this idea when I was undergoing training in the Indian Forest Service training at Dehradun in 2015. I came from an engineering background, and it was during the training that I got to know about various tree species. I realised that a layman or a farmer would never get the chance to know about several tree species around them. So, I wanted to use mobile technology to reach out the farmers and other user groups and to show them the rich diversity of tree species which might interest them.”
Ramen’s childhood home has a lush garden. She grew up studying under the shade of a mango tree and playing around hibiscus plants, and could identify a few plant species. However, the trees that stood tall around her house were familiar only in appearance but remained unnamed.
Sudha started pursuing a course in Biomedical Engineering, but when she moved from Neyveli to Chennai and later to Dehradun, she realised where her heart truly was. “Somewhere along the way I realised that I wanted to become a forest officer,” she explained to The Hindu.
During her training, her performance reflected how she was on the correct track to utilising her engineering background and passion for wildlife.
Courtesy: Sudha Ramen.
“I’m a Biomedical Engineer who had an interest in Environmental Studies, and that is how I got into the Indian Forest Service after cracking the UPSC exams. I got to know the basics of Forestry and Wildlife during my IFoS training at IGNFA, Dehradun, and was awarded the Gold medal during the training,” she informs TBI.
Moving on to Treepedia, she explains that its primary objective is to help farmers with the best-suited plantation techniques and post-plantation care. The app also wants them to know about the plant species that are native to particular areas of Tamil Nadu and guide them into planting more of these, thus decreasing the number of exotic species grown in the state.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, she said, “We want to encourage people and interest groups who are keen on undertaking greening initiatives to plant more native species. During cyclone Vardah, large-scale tree felling was reported due to the high percentage of exotic trees. We want to reverse the trend.”
Although anyone can use the app, farmers, who can benefit massively through the knowledge bank app, are the main target. “This app is meant for farmers—to reduce monocropping and offer them more choices—as well as for interest groups, NGOs and anyone interested in gardening. I wanted to encourage the growth of native trees so that they don’t interfere with the ecosystem of the region,” the IFoS officer told TH.
Speaking to TBI, Ramen explains,
“Beneficiaries can use the various facilities available in this application to zero in on the right tree species which will suit their requirement.
Courtesy: Sudha Ramen.
There are options like ‘Choose by Tree Species,’ ‘Choose by Tree type,’ ‘Choose by Location’ and ‘Tree Finder.’ Post the launch of this app, the forest department staff at subordinate levels use it to identify the tree species as well.”
Additionally, the app is bilingual as many farmers might not be comfortable using the app in English. “So many trees have common names that differ from region to region. Matching the common names with their scientific names was a major task,” she informed TH.
All the hard work that Sudha put in has been worth it because Treepedia, which works smoothly in English and Tamil, is a hit!
“The app has over 10,000 downloads, 240 reviews and a rating of 4.7 stars, which shows how well the users have received this. Inspired by this application, other states like Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh have also come up with similar apps,” says the proud IFoS officer.
Monocropping, focusing on non-native species, and planting crops without proper knowledge of soil and climatic conditions, undoubtedly leads to the poor growth of flora. Treepedia promises to be of help to farmers and gardeners who wish to increase greenery in Tamil Nadu, without doing so at the cost of the environment.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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If you are a tea lover visiting Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, B Manickam’s unique layered tea is a must-have.
Even if you not that big a fan of tea, you will love this cuppa for its sheer aesthetics and the fact that the brilliant decoction is a brainchild of the humble 57-year-old.
Born in Salem, Manickam’s family shifted to Coimbatore when he was just ten years old. His father was a weaver, and so he never had the opportunity to go to a school.
When he was 16 years old, he ran away from his home, with the aim of making a living for himself.
He had started working in a tea shop before absconding, and he planned on continuing this, but with a twist.
“There have been days when I made up to 1,000 cups of tea a day,” he told the Chennai Memes, adding,
“But people have been drinking the same kind of tea for years. I wanted to give them something different.”
Working in various tea shops in the towns of Tamil Nadu and sleeping in the shops because that was all he could afford, Manickam started utilising his spare time in innovating techniques of tea-making. He was determined to make his customers try a unique taste, something they won’t easily forget.
About 15 years ago, luck finally struck when Manickam invented the layered tea.
Speaking to The Hindu, he says, “I wanted to offer something unique for customers. Tea has given me a life, and I’m happy that I’m able to create something new out of it… I create the layers using decoctions of varying consistencies.”
One of his inventions is the three-layered cup, where he pours hot milk over hot water. The two liquids don’t mix and stay perfectly on top of one another, like oil over milk.
Subsequently, he pours another layer of decoction, with all three floating atop one another perfectly.
Similarly, he also creates tea in four and five layers.
“I can arrange up to five different layers of beverages, inside a single tea glass. The layers are white, pink, deep brown, light brown and transparent and are made of milk, tea decoction, coffee decoction, Boost and water. They don’t mix. This is because I use a different consistency for each layer. The tea is edible and is tasty too. You can drink my three-layered tea after simply mixing the contents with a spoon,” he tells CM.
January 1, 2019, marked a step in the sustainable direction for Tamil Nadu, as a state-wide plastic ban came into effect.
While this ban has certainly struck down heavily on manufacturers and dealers, there is a certain section of vendors who are turning heads with local alternatives.
It is common news that mandarai, banana and betel nut leaves and plates are gaining popularity for food packaging. But a few humble tender coconut sellers from the southern part of the state have found an innovative alternative to replace plastic straws.
The news came to light after Thangam Pandian, a resident of Madurai, an organic farming enthusiast took to social media and shared the picture of a tender coconut seller serving fresh coconut water with a papaya stalk straw at the Maravankulam bus stop.
Speaking to The News Minute, the man shared, “He (the tender coconut seller) had collected them from his own farm, and these are available in plenty in papaya farms usually. This is the stalk that bears the fruit and the leaves. And farmers usually keep trimming the leaves, so there’s plenty of stem available. It is interesting that he has made use of them.”
Thangam adds how the stalk of the papaya that is semi sun-dried (mainly for the papaya milk) becomes quite sturdy and doesn’t bend easily. This property makes it better than conventional plastic straw, as even children can use it easily.
Apart from papaya, he explains how a few other kinds of grass can be used as alternatives to plastic.
“There are very few plants with a hollow stalk like that of papaya. If you take corn stalk, it has a spongy filling inside, which makes it unfit to be used as [a] straw. However, we do have the hardy sugarcane grass known as naanal in Tamil (botanical name: Saccharum arundinaceum), and plain old straw (vaikol in Tamil), can also be used to serve the purpose,” he says.
The report highlights another desi jugaad by a different coconut water seller from the town of Tenkasi in Tirunelveli, who uses bamboo straws.
J Shanmuga Nathan, a resident of Tenkasi, who shared a picture of the tender coconut seller near the Essar Petrol pump between Tenkasi and Idaikal on Twitter, said, “Just right across the other side road, he found plenty of Bamboo stems which he thought he’ll make straws out of. From one bamboo, he can make about 6 to 10 such straws.”
He pointed out how using bamboo adds a unique and refreshing flavour to the tender coconut.
Let’s hope many more take a leaf out of these sellers’ books and find innovative ways to cope with the plastic ban!
If you are looking to eliminate plastic straws from your own life, here are some bamboo alternatives at The Better India Shop.
India is truly unique in its diversity, and its villages exemplify this fact.
It is possibly the only country in this world where you will find a village where no one wears footwear, or one that celebrates the birth of every girl child, and even one that has an unusually high number of twins!
But today, we would like to draw your attention to Madathattuvilai, a quaint little village in the Kanyakumari district that is engaged in a rather heartwarming pursuit.
As many as 229 residents of Madathattuvilai have donated their eyes in last one decade—making the village a trailblazer among cities and towns across the country.
When someone passes away in this village, the first thing that the family of the deceased does is to get in touch with the priest of the local church.
Following this, the youth group of the church reaches out to the family and helps them with the process of eye donation. It even facilitates the speedy retrieval of the organ by a medical team from Tirunelveli.
Interestingly, in the beginning, the villagers were not exactly keen on the idea.
“Most elders did not want to donate eyes as they feared that they would not be able to see God in their afterlife,” said the then youth group president of the church, F X Aruno Xavier to Times of India.
In 2004, in an effort to help the villagers understand its importance, the youth group decided to work on raising awareness about the act.
They were supported by the parish priests of St Sebastian Church, who would extensively talk about the importance of eye donation in their sermons.
These sessions undoubtedly had a profound impact because three years later, in 2007, the first ever eye donation took place in the village. Later, in the same year, close to 1,500 individuals, mostly youngsters, enrolled for eye donation.
The first donation was followed by eight more, and that was just the beginning. Today, every single house in Madathattuvilai has at least one enrolled donor.
By not letting grief cloud their judgement, each resident of the village—from a 14-year-old in 2015 to a 97-year-old lady in 2017—is setting a remarkable example of compassion and bringing light into the lives of the visually impaired.
When most people around him were selling their land to invest in homes and migrate to cities, 63-year-old Senthamil Selvan made a different choice.
The banker with an illustrious 36-year-old career opted for voluntary retirement, sold his home in Katpadi for Rs 40 lakh and bought a three-acre land.
150 km away from Chennai, nestled in the village of Kalampattu, located in Vellore, is Arivu Thottam, the lush green model farm that this retired banker built.
This farm has over 110 coconut trees, 90 mango trees, 25 chiku trees, 33 lemon trees, a banana plantation and a dedicated horticulture space where brinjals, tomatoes, chillies and a variety of greens are grown. It has attracted over 150 farmers, parent groups and 2,000 school and college students.
In an exclusive interview with The Better India, he narrates his six-year journey into converting once barren and uncultivable land into a beautiful farm.
“As a banker, I was given the responsibility of encouraging and issuing farm-loans in two states. It was during these interactions that I realised how dejected most of them felt. Their land was doused with chemicals and on the brink of becoming completely unsuitable for agriculture. Also, the cost of chemical fertilisers and pesticides was leading to mounting debts. In this situation, even if a farmer received a loan, it would be impossible for them to revive the land or repay the amount. This ground reality rattled me to no end.”
Besides, the increasing unawareness among urban folk about the source of their food further pushed Selvan to think of a solution.
“Every single day, you consume food without even questioning where it comes from. Without realising that the chemicals used to grow it are not only depleting the quality of the soil but also posing major health threats for you,” Selvan points out.
Linking these two points, he decided to seek voluntary retirement in 2014.
However, he bought the land two years before his retirement, while still in service. During this time, he juggled work and developing his farm.
“Organic farming is a slow process, but highly effective. At the least, it takes a farm two years to detox and become suitable for the traditional farming process. I used this time to fence the area, dig borewells and grow plants to improve the quality of the soil. These activities did not yield anything. Whatever was grown was ploughed back into the soil, to revive it by giving it the nitrogen and nutrition it needed. This biomass, coupled with cow dung, served as natural manure. The only improvement was that some of the coconut and mango trees that already existed on the land and were wilting away, improved after the use of bio-fertilisers and pesticides,” he says.
Today, after six years of sustained efforts, the farm helps fulfil most of his daily consumption requirements and yields 10,000-15,000 coconuts and four tonnes of mangoes annually.
Lemon harvested year-round also gains close to Rs 30,000. Besides, herbal plants and banana plantations gain additional income.
“While Rs 6 lakh a year may not be a very big amount, the satisfaction of growing chemical-free food and delivering it to my customers is far greater,” says the retired banker.
He was also using drip irrigation to make the entire process water-efficient.
He currently sells his produce through word of mouth within his circles, primarily in Chennai, where his family and friends reside. He plans to expand and formalise the process as he works on creating his own market to push his produce.
“Growing as well as selling organic produce is a challenge. In a market where chemical-laden products are being sold under the organic label, it is difficult for organic farmers to gain profits. Selling their produce to middlemen drastically reduces their margin. And at the same time, the location of the sale is crucial,” he explains.
He illustrates this with an example.
“If I were to sell the mangoes at my own farm, they would sell for Rs 8,000, but when the same mangoes are sold in the city, they earn over Rs 45,000. You can imagine the difference! So it is essential that farmers devise techniques to go out and directly sell their produce in a better way.”
In the last six months, he has opened up his farm as an open resource centre to small farmers, school and college students, and parent groups, for no fee at all.
Students at a visit
“It is an absolute delight to share the rich history of agriculture with these young minds and help farmers adopt techniques that lower the cost of production and improve yield. Parents and kids sit under the trees as I explain to them the different varieties we grow on the farm. I encourage young kids to speak to the plants, touch them, and embrace them for the gift of life.”
The farm conducts several workshops and activities, in addition to taking these groups around villages for an authentic experience of rural life.
A munchkin holding fresh produce
Selvan’s hard work has helped him onboard several retired agriculturists to form a resource team, who have also worked with the state government in the past. From teaching vermiculture to encouraging the popular concept of rooftop gardening, they have been providing him with the required support without charging a penny.
Even if it takes a while, organic farming is the only resource to farmers to make agriculture profitable again, adds Selvan. It may seem like a risky investment at the start, but once your soil is chemical-free, the income and profits are steady, he insists.
And he owes his success to the unwavering support from his wife and children.
“We have a democratic system at home, where we consult all the members before arriving at any decision. My children (both IT engineers) and wife have been very supportive. My wife, Gunasundari, has been helping me with the farm activities throughout.”
He signs off by drawing parallels between his own experience and the burning issues of the current agricultural scene in India.
“As a banker, I was able to bear the losses during the first two years, which was crucial to remove the remnants of chemicals from the soil. But this is not the same with small and marginal farmers in the country. Here’s where the government can play an important role in supporting financially. If policies are set in place, nothing can stop our farmers from moving towards organic farming.”
If this story inspired you, get in touch with Senthamil Selvan at +91 94430 32436. You can check out the Facebook page for Arivu Thottam here.
In recent years, we have read about several instances where wild animals met a brutal end after straying into a human settlement.
A similar incident occurred in October 2017, when a striped hyena strayed into the village of Bijil Kuttai, near Bhavanisagar in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu.
Once the villagers discovered the whereabouts of the animal, they ambushed and mercilessly thrashed it, till they believed it was dead.
However, the hyena was meant to live.
Spotted by the field staff of the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) near Sigil Kuttai almost a week later, the poor animal was unconscious, and the extensive injuries on its body seemed to imply that no intervention could save it from its impending fate.
Nevertheless, the concerned officials decided to alert Dr K Asokan, who was the forest veterinary surgeon at STR. Even though the hyena was in a critical condition, the doctor was not willing to give up on the animal—especially because it is a ‘near-threatened’ species.
Jumping to action, Dr Asokan transported the animal to the STR’s forest veterinary unit (FVU) at Karachikorai that very evening.
Upon close inspection, he found that the hyena had a slew of complications—massive head injury, dislocated shoulder joint, missing canine teeth, damaged cornea, swollen forehead and neck, as well as a maggot infestation in the right ear. In addition to that, both its eyes had corneal ulcers.
The team at STR even conducted an X-ray and MRI scan and found that it had suffered multiple fractures all over its body, including the ribs, the eleventh thoracic vertebra (T11), the inner body as well as the left shoulder.
In addition to all this, it was also discovered that the hyena had Vestibular disease, which made its head tilt and circle in only one direction.
Fortunately, the orthopaedic surgeon found that the shoulder joint dislocation could be treated and conducted reconstructive surgery.
In June 2018, the hyena finally woke up after being in a coma for eight long months.
The complete credit for this near-impossible transformation goes to Dr Asokan and his dedicated team comprising nurse Balamani, livestock inspector Senthil Kumar and his assistant Marimuthu, Ganesh, a biologist, and his assistant Kesavan.
Weighing about 18 kg around the time it was rescued, Asokan shared that the hyena now weighs 42.7 kg.
“We are feeding the animal three litres of milk, 3 kg beef, 3 kg chicken, 10 eggs, bread and multivitamin tonics every day. The hyena might have been attacked when it lost its way and entered the human habitat in search of food and water. If I am right, it’s the first time in the country that an animal is recovering from a coma,” he informed The Times of India.
The 8-year-old hyena is still in a precarious state and Dr Asokan believes that chances of its survival in the wild are quite low. Therefore, the authorities have decided to shelter it at the FVU for the rest of its life.
Dr Asokan adds that striped hyenas are one of the least studied and poorly understood hyena species, and are categorised as “Near Threatened” (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Therefore, he had to go all out to ensure that this one survived. “If I save this male hyena, it could produce at least another five hyenas during its lifetime,” he said.
Although the forest department is funding the rescue and rehabilitative measures, Dr Asokan ends up spending nearly Rs 48,000 every month from his own pocket to buy medicines and food for the animal. Other officials at STR also pitch in at times.
In these times of general apathy against wild animals and the rising cases of abuse and torture, the persistent efforts of Dr Asokan and every official at STR who helped bring back the hyena to life deserve the highest praise possible.
We salute their perseverance and hope that these efforts lead to greater awareness about wildlife conservation.
Did you know that Tamil Nadu has the third worst rate of female suicide in the world?
Shocking isn’t it?
Not for the people of this small village, where suicide was a common affair. The issue was so huge that between 1995 and 2011, the village could attribute 83 of its 92 deaths to suicides!
In Needamangalam, Tiruvarur district, suicide had taken the form of an epidemic. It was viewed as a “go-to solution” for all kinds of problems in the community—from an altercation with a neighbour to a domestic dispute.
The gravity of the issue was recognised by the teacher of a school in the village, Anand Thiyagarajan.
He noticed the perpetually low parent turnout at the Parent Teacher Meetings in the school. On inquiry, he discovered that a majority of the students had lost one or both parents to suicide.
“I had lost my own parents at an early age and could relate to the students. This motivated me to take action to change the situation. I mobilised my students, and embarked on a project to bring down the suicide rate,” he said.
His attempt to counsel community members in 2011 had received a lukewarm response. Subsequently, he made a second attempt to tackle the issue involving the school students.
Despite suicides devastating a number of families, students found a disturbing lack of awareness in the community and among themselves, because conversations around the issue had never been initiated. A fundamental change in the attitudes towards the value of life required a significant shift in mindset and posed an enormous challenge for the students as well as the teacher.
The change process was initiated with an impactful outreach effort where students put up a play at the school’s Annual Day function.
The play depicted a typical series of events from a trivial domestic altercation leading to a suicide, eventually showing how the lives of orphaned children panned out, with some having to turn to beg to make a living.
The play garnered a tremendously positive response. It drove the point home strongly, with members of the audience admitting, “Nobody was even using the word ‘suicide’.”
The play was followed by a series of awareness rallies and street plays that used relevant and contextual elements such as the depiction of Gods and the stories of courage and faith.
To reinforce the impact of the awareness efforts, Thiyagarajan decided to employ a village youth club called the Diamond Boys, that was was formed by a not-for-profit organisation, the Diamond Charitable Trust. The group provided door-to-door counselling across 380 households, and to this day, the youth club enacts the annual day play on every street, once in two months, to reinforce the message of a suicide-free community.
A multi-pronged approach was employed to reduce the incidence of suicides in the village.
The result?
At the end of 2013, the village recorded zero suicides. Not just that, the school also received tremendous media coverage as well as appreciation from national and international quarters, leading to a surge in the self-confidence of its residents.
More importantly, academic performances of students improved tremendously, owing to better familial situations.
Thiyagarajan taught the students another crucial lesson—that of compassion and empathy for those who had lost dear ones to suicide. Thus, his students were able to overcome resentment towards those who might have attempted or committed suicide.
The children also got the opportunity to travel to Ahmedabad to be felicitated by Design for Change, an organisation running a global movement to empower children with critical 21st-century skills. The opportunity for the children to travel outside of their village was a cause for the entire community to celebrate.
As the ward councillor, Sivakumar said, “When we all went to bring them back, there were crackers, it was like a festival for us. Even the houses where the children don’t go to school…everyone was very happy.”
There is no limit to the distance that a teacher’s influence can travel. The good influence of Thiyagarajan helped improve the conditions of an entire community.
The students submitted this project as part of the ‘I CAN Awards’ organised by Design for Change and sponsored by Parle-G.
Since 2009, the awards programme has attracted 14,000 stories of change from school children all over India who have followed the Feel-Imagine-Do-Share (FIDS) model of design-thinking to create social change in their communities.
Want your kids to drive social change? Help them join one of the largest movements in the world that’s led by children. Take up the ‘I CAN’ School Challenge in your classroom. Find out more online.
With over 10 lakh applicants each year, and only 1,000 selections – the UPSC exams can seem like an insurmountable hurdle. But it can be crossed! In ‘UPSC Simplified’, The Better India catches up with toppers to uncover the dos and don’ts for India’s toughest exam. Follow the series for all the tips you need!
K Vijaykarthikeyan is a doctor by qualification, who chose to appear for the UPSC examination in 2011 and went on to ace it. Currently posted as Commissioner, Coimbatore Municipal Corporation, he is the youngest bureaucrat to hold this position.
In this exclusive interview, we find out what strategy he used while preparing for the examination and why it is important to remember negative marking.
Dr Vijaykarthikeyan
UPSC examinations = Cricket match
Dr Vijaykarthikeyan has an interesting analogy in which he compares the UPSC examination to various formats of cricket.
a) Prelims and Test Series
“The prelims is very much like batting in a test match, where a batsman doesn’t hit all the deliveries, but only that are good and leaves the others so that he can continue batting for long without the fear of getting out.”
Dr Vijaykarthikeyan suggests aspirants must only attempt the questions that they are sure about. They must remember that negative marking exists, and accordingly, be careful while attempting the questions, he says.
b) Mains and One Day match
“In the limited time that you are given, you will have to score as many runs as possible. In this format, there is not much time for you to adjust and get used to the pitch. You need to start batting from the word ‘go’. Similarly, while attempting the mains, you will have to write many words as well as many verbose essays. In this situation, be ready to go from the start.”
To do this, he urges aspirants to practice writing and attempting papers from the previous year to get the hang of completing the paper within the stipulated time.
c) Interview and 20/20 match
“In a 20/20 match, there are limited overs and the aim is to score as many runs as you can. The interview stage is very similar; you have to impress the interviewers in the short time you have with them. So give it your best.”
Explaining this, he says it is imperative for the aspirant to be well versed with topics that might be discussed during the interview. Be honest, he insists.
Negative marking can wreck havoc
Narrating an incident, Dr Vijaykarthikeyan says, “While preparation and aptitude are all important, remember to think clearly before attempting the paper. A friend and I, with similar aptitude and preparation level, sat to attempt the paper. Out of a total 150 questions, I was sure of about 64 at the first look. I took a chance on another 40 and ended up attempting a total of 104 out of 150 questions. However, in taking the risk, I got 30 questions wrong and ended up with a score of 64, because of all the negative marking.”
He goes on to say, “My friend, who also knew a similar amount of answers ended up attempting all 150 questions. While he got about 70 right answers, the negative marking, unfortunately, got him a negative score.”
The moral of the story, therefore, is to be more than a 100 per cent sure of the questions you attempt.
With these pointers, we wish you all the best for your examination!
In the second part of this article, Dr Vijaykarthikeyan will discuss coaching centres, online and offline study material, and how aspirants can structure their study time.
“All the alterations I have made in my course of life have been affected by momentous occasions, and they have been made after such a deep deliberation that I have hardly had to regret them.”
-Mahatma Gandhi.
Nearly 88 years ago, Winston Churchill was overwhelmed to see Mahatma Gandhi’s attire. In a moment of anger, he called Gandhi, a ‘half-naked seditious fakir’!
“It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, an Inner Temple lawyer, now become a seditious fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.”
His humble clothing was in non-violent defiance of the British Rule–a message that he wore on himself for the rest of his life. Yet, the choice of clothing has a deeper story set in the ancient city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
It was only ten years before this encounter that Gandhi came closer to becoming a “fakir” as he shed the physical remnants of colonialism off his body–his hat and shirt.
‘Fakir’ is a term derived from the Arabic word ‘faqr’ which means poverty and depicts a person who has renounced his worldly possessions for a humble, spiritual life. Mahatma Gandhi’s life also took such a turn during his South India tour in September 1921.
While crusading for the civil disobedience movement by boycotting British goods and promoting Khadi, he was suddenly hit with a practical reality when someone asked- “If the labourers burn their foreign clothing, where are they to get khadi from?”
The plea of the poor had then overpowered him. He wrote in the weekly publication, Navajivan, on October 2, 1921.
He wrote, “On the way (from Madras – now Chennai – to Madurai by train) I saw in our compartment crowds that were wholly unconcerned with what had happened. Almost without exception, they were bedecked in foreign fineries. I entered into conversation with some of them and pleaded for Khadi. They shook their heads as they said, ‘We are too poor to buy Khadi and it is so dear.’ I realised the substratum of truth behind the remark. I had my vest, cap and full dhoti on. When these uttered only partial truth, the millions of compulsorily naked men, save for their langoti four inches wide and nearly as many feet long, gave through their limbs the naked truth. What effective answer could I give them, if it was not to divest myself of every inch of clothing I decently could and thus to a still greater extent bring myself in line with ill-clad masses? And this I did the very next morning after the Madura meeting.”
This doubt, finally translated into concrete action, after a few days when he reached Madurai to stay at Sri Ramji Kalyanji’s residence on 175-A, West Masi Street.
He arrived in silence, with a cloud of doubt about his head, the silent indication of the storm of revolution awaiting the nation.
On September 22, 1921, he had abandoned his usual attire of a shirt and hat, donning just a simple white loincloth.
Explaining the situation, Director of the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, A Annamalai, explained to The New Indian Express, “There were two issues worrying Gandhiji. He had been struck by the poverty he had seen around him as far back as during the Champaran satyagraha days. But this visit to South India made it all the more starker to him. The sight of poor peasants working in the fields in their loin clothes and their struggle for food and livelihood troubled him.”
This building where Gandhi decided to embrace loincloth, is soon to become a heritage site.
“The production of khadi was at the beginning stage, and the Mahatma wanted to set an example and reduce the need for producing more khadi by making people go in for more simpler clothing. On September 22, he made his decision and decided to abandon wearing the shirt and cap forever,” Annamalai added.
This act, not only highlighted and strengthened the fight to boycott British goods but also created the everlasting symbol of a common man and his spiritual strength, reaching out to the hearts of fellow Indians.
“I do not want either my co-workers or readers to adopt the loincloth. But I do wish that they should thoroughly realise the meaning of the boycott of foreign cloth and put forth their best effort to get it boycotted, and to get khadi manufactured. I do wish that they may understand that swadeshi means everything,” Gandhi wrote in clarification, in Navajivan.
“The adoption of a dhoti and a shawl in the place of an elaborate Gujarati attire is a symbolic external manifestation of an internal revolution. The dress of liberty turned into the Mahatma’s identity,” M P Gurusamy, secretary, Gandhi Museum told The Hindu.
From a simple piece of cloth to a mass movement, he directed the nation to a path of freedom, not just from the British, but from its innermost evils that separated its people from one another.
Much like the khadi cloth weaved into existence with numerous strands of thread, his journey embraced the nation into unison!
To give him his due, it wasn’t really Chinnathambi’s intention to become an internet rage. The poor 25-year-old was only trying to maneuver his portly frame through the narrow alleyways of a village near Pollachi, Tamil Nadu. But all it took was a man with a smartphone to make a video of Chinnathambi’s sojourn with the song ‘Marana Mass’ as the background music and voila! – A tusker dancing to the tune of Thalaivar’s latest song was trending across media platforms.
Chinnathambi, named by the villagers of Pollachi, is a wild male elephant who not only has his own fan following, but also a group of devoted protectors bent on saving him from becoming a Kumki—a trained captive elephant used to trap wild elephants.
This is a tusker’s story that involves a Public Interest Litigation, a campaign and persistent protests from villagers leading to the state government dropping their plans to domesticate an adult elephant. It is a tale fit for a movie on its own.
How It All Began:
Chinnathambi had been wreaking havoc in the villages around the Thadagam region of Coimbatore for quite some time over the past year.
Upon receiving complaints from villagers, the forest department captured him, fitted him with a radio collar and released him in the Valparai forest range on January 26, 2019.
That forest range is more than a 100 kilometres from Thadagam, where Chinnathambi was initially captured. One can imagine the trauma of being captured, forced into a lorry, and being driven for some 100 kilometres – a journey that easily takes some four hours – before being abandoned in a strange forest, cut off from everyone and everything you know.
Elephants are intensely social animals, who have as close a bond with surroundings as most human beings. So it is really not that surprising that Chinnathambi decided to make his way back to familiar surroundings.
All of this perhaps would have gone unnoticed, if not for yet another negative impact humans had on Chinnathambi. A blockage – in the form of human settlements and roads – in our protagonist’s migratory path forced him to enter human habitation some 50 kilometres from the forest range he was dropped off in.
Side note:For all the forced migrations imposed on him, it took him only a few days to wander nearly a 100 kilometres back.
Once deviated from his forest path, Chinnathambi’s love for jackfruits, a common crop in Tamil Nadu, found him strolling down the village near Pollachi where the video was made, accidentally trampling crops along the way.
A roaming adult tusker could have scared villagers – who had no means to control him. But the villagers were neither angered nor did they wish to drive the jumbo away. On the contrary, Chinnathambi found a fan-following in the rural areas around Coimbatore.
While the forest department was scratching their heads thinking of ways to stop the elephant from causing further damage to human property, residents in the area had already started an online ‘fan club’ of Chinnathambi.
T Hari Prasad, who started the fan page, told the Times of India, “The elephant should be united with its family and the forest department should take [the] necessary steps to bring back the elephant. People blocked the migratory path of the elephant and it was therefore forced to enter villages and agricultural fields. So, we cannot blame the elephant.”
The mature, ‘Man-With-Wild’ approach that villagers like Hari Prasad have taken should be highly appreciated.
Photo credits: Abraham Raj.
Elephants are known to be wise, friendly mammals unless they are provoked or feel vulnerable. Chinnathambi has been moved, forcibly, from his surroundings. As social beings, this tends to make jumbos anxious. And you definitely do NOT want an anxious elephant around you.
So it cannot be easy defending the wild ‘beast’ that has damaged crops and homes that serve as a livelihood and dwellings for villagers.
There have been some conflicting views on sending Chinnathambi back, on account of his damaging crops and trees in the village. But a majority of the villagers are firm on their stance that the wild belongs only in the wild.
For his part, Chinnathambi has honoured the faith shown in him by the villagers so far. Reports state that he has damaged a few houses and of course, crops, but he has caused no injury to humans.
An Elephant on Safari. Now What?
Forest Minister Dindugal Sreenivasan and his team were of the firm belief that they have no option but to capture the tusker and train him to be a Kumki. But that did not go down well with the villagers and animal activists in Tamil Nadu. They immediately took to social media to protest against this decision and started the #SaveChinnathambi campaign.
Chinnathambi getting captured. Photo credits: Abraham Raj.
The Better India spoke to Nivedhita Jayaraj, who, through her Facebook page—Chinnathambi the Elephant—reached out and gathered public support. “Chinnathambi was a great source of support to save the natural resources in Annaikatti ghats,” she says.
“He is a very intelligent, wild being who is native to Annaikatti and Thadagam areas. The native tribals from that region believe that this elephant family is the only safeguard of natural resources. They also observed that Chinnathambi is a very calm elephant.
He never troubled anyone and even after all the troubles and physical assaults he went through, he was very quiet and patient. All he is doing is finding a way to reunite with his family, who, reports say, are also looking for him!” she added.
The view of the villagers was simple – a wild elephant belongs in a forest, no matter how many times it strays into human territory.
Secondly and more importantly, training him to trap other wild elephants would mean starvation, beatings, and torture. And the tribals were not having that on their watch.
As it is, they claim that Chinnathambi’s tusks were “broken” when the forest department pushed him into a lorry while transporting him to Valparai. They were not ready to let the elephant be tortured further.
While the villagers were doing their bit to protect the jumbo, animal activists like Arun Prasanna filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), requesting Chinnathambi not be domesticated.
The tusker’s family, who villagers say, is looking for him. Photo credits: Abraham Raj.
Online campaigns like #SaveChinnathambi, the PIL and on ground protests in front of the Coimbatore Collectorate office put enough pressure on the government to reverse their decision.
“Following this, the forest department expressed their apologies for capturing Chinnathambi in a way it that hurt him physically,” Niveditha told TBI, adding, “The judge has asked the state government and forest department to give answers about the situation with Chinnathambi, requesting them to take expert advice in capturing Chinnathambi and sending him back to forest.”
And this time, instead of pushing the elephant forcefully into a lorry, the forest department is making use of two Kumki elephants at their disposal, whom, Niveditha says, Chinnathambi has befriended already. The trio is now reportedly heading back to Chinnathambi’s familiar haunts – and keeping clear of human settlements.
This crusade – by tribals, activists, and villagers – for Chinnathambi’s right to live and die a natural death in the wild is a classic tale of the symbiotic relationship between the forest and us – and is surely an example of compassion we should all take seriously.
(Edited By Saiqua Sultan & Vinayak Hegde)
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When Dr Mari Raj was studying for his post-graduate degree in Ahmedabad, he faced severe caste discrimination.
He was compelled to serve tea to certain students and teachers, made to stand outside hospital wards during demonstrations and denied fair opportunities to perform surgical procedures—a necessity when one is studying to become a surgeon.
Recalling those times opens up old wounds.
“I hate to say it, but at one time I even contemplated suicide because of all the harassment. I filed an atrocity case against seven doctors and nine students in college, but nothing happened. All of them were given bail. When I came back, I was denied duty for 18 days, and the university even rejected my hall ticket. It was only thanks to the Gujarat High Court that the hall ticket was delivered,” says Dr Mari, in a conversation with The Better India.
Today, Dr Mari is the General Secretary of the of the newly-formed and Tamil Nadu-based Democratic Doctors’ Association (DDA), which will serve the interest of medical students and doctors from the state.
What started as an initiative by few doctors to bring significant changes to the existing medical system has turned into a collective with over 100 members which will possibly cross 500 in the next six months.
In his conversation with TBI, Dr Mari spoke at length about the issues that the collective hopes to address.
One of the major concerns is the discrimination and harassment that medical students from the state, particularly from low-caste and low-income families, face in institutions not just across Tamil Nadu, but also around the country.
“There have been many cases where students have died under mysterious circumstances, but the authorities did not conduct a thorough investigation. While these cases are often termed as suicides, the truth does not come out. Did they commit suicide because of harassment, discrimination or was it a case of foul play? The collective will look to push for answers,” says Dr Mari.
The NEET exam is another student-related issue that the collective wants to approach.
Dr Mari believes that the exam leaves poorer students from Tamil Nadu at a terrible disadvantage since they do not have access to coaching centres or opportunities to study from other preparatory materials.
“I come from a small village in the Tirunelveli district, so I know what it’s like for students from these parts. Yes, medical seats are filling up all over, but primarily for students from metros. Previously, you would find students from all over, but now mostly students from metro cities with high-income backgrounds make it,” he says.
“The NEET system is indirectly pushing students from small towns and villages to study an additional year after Class 12 to prepare for the exam. This increases pressure on students and, in turn, on their families. The government does not offer NEET coaching centres, and private players enter the market charging as much as Rs 1 lakh per year. How can low-income families afford it?” he asks.
In addition to the above matters, the collective also plans to address policies introduced by the government that it believes are doctor-unfriendly.
“The government has turned the doctor-patient relationship into one between customer and service giver and isn’t doing enough to protect its doctors. As a consequence, litigation costs are high. Without any real protective measures, doctors are now afraid to treat a patient if it involves a complicated surgery where the chance of risk is high. If something goes wrong, families take them to court, and in some cases, even assault them,” says Dr Mari.
In response, the association will look to establish a team in every district of the state, which will investigate any such instance of violence or other medical-related concerns under their remit.
The legislation which replaced the Medical Council of India with the National Medical Commission and the Clinical Establishment Act (CEA) is also a worry.
As per Dr Mari, most doctors do not quite understand the ramifications that these pieces of legislation can have on the profession, and the politics that goes behind them. He wants to ensure that this changes in the future.
In a conversation with The News Minute, Dr Raj Vardhanan, a surgical oncologist and advisor to the DDA, had said, “While the government claims that the CEA will allow the treatment cost to be better regulated and monitored so that all people have better access to healthcare, some private hospitals allege that the government is attempting to infiltrate the healthcare system and that such an act would not benefit the medical personnel.”
Finally, the collective will also address caste discrimination in the state medical profession, particularly in the context of promotion for Dalit doctors that are often delayed even in instances when they become consultants.
“Another key agenda in this regard will be to conduct medical camps in remote villages, where we will not only treat the poor but challenge superstitions, inculcate rational thinking and promote the message of revolutionary thinkers like Gautama Buddha and Dr BR Ambedkar,” says Dr Mari.
Membership to the DDA isn’t restricted by caste, gender or whether the doctor works in a government or private hospital.
“This is an association for doctors who believe in progressive and rational thinking, and depending on the issue we are ready to work with other doctors’ associations as well,” he says.
While speaking to Dr Mari, one cannot help but notice the determination and sense of conviction in the tone of his voice.
How that translates into action is something that remains to be seen.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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Jayan is an organic farmer in the Attapadi village of Kerala. You can see him toiling away in his field, using natural fertilisers and pesticides to nurture his crops. His green, chemical-free field is his pride and joy.
And it was this prized possession that made him decide to shift from the concrete, non-eco-friendly home to a mud house designed by Biju Bhaskar, the founder of Thannal Hand Sculpted Homes.
If you feel that clay or mud houses are viable in rural environments only, then Devan Priya—an architect based in Kudangalur, Kerala—will make you think otherwise.
Chemical free, sustainable living is the way of the future and why should your home not be a part of the same? Whether you wish to build a “natural” house in the middle of a bustling city or as a way of getting closer to nature in a remote area, Thannal will help you build sustainable mud houses with your hands.
Here, we bring to you the advantages, challenges, and features of mud houses as we speak to Thannal’s founders and team members who have been their passionate advocates and builders.
Speaking to TBI, Biju Bhaskar, one of the co-founders of the organisation says, “Mud buildings are very much similar to the human body. Mud walls, being porous, can breathe, like our skin. This helps in maintaining comfortable indoor temperature, irrespective of extreme weather conditions outside. So one can save a lot of money spent on ACs and other mechanical means to keep the space comfortable.”
Matkas are a classic example of how cool (literally) mud is. Of course, you won’t be able to adjust the indoor temperature of your house like you would with an AC, but the clay house will keep the structure naturally cool in summers. You are free to install fans or heaters inside to maintain the temperature that suits you.
“Another major advantage is that the material is re-usable and if you break it down, mud can easily go back to nature. So if your son needs to build a house, he can re-use the entire material and not really look for anything new. This way we can reduce the dependency on nature for construction,” the founder says.
Yet another advantage of these houses, Biju says, is that they utilize the locally available resources and labour.
The proportion of how much lime, clay, cow dung, among others, you use in the mud to construct the house may vary. But as the raw materials are local, they naturally complement the climate, weather conditions of the area and the needs of the residents.
A 500 sq feet house for a family will take between two to five months to build and not be a big burden on your purse.
“Depending on the availability of materials available locally, we have been able to attain a construction cost of Rs 800 to Rs. 1000/- per sq ft. It is very affordable as compared to conventional building costs or so-called “sustainable architecture,” which is even more expensive than the conventional architecture (Rs.2500/- to Rs. 3000/- per sq ft.)
This is achieved due to the main material required—Mud—which can be sourced from either the site itself or from nearby areas. Lime is the major binding material and is required in less quantities than cement. We neither use cement in our buildings nor mix it with mud. We do not use materials like sand or steel in our construction and likewise, materials which are on high demand by the construction industry. This also helps us keep our material costs down. We refrain from using plastic wastes in our buildings as we believe the aura and positive energy in making a space more habitable are derived from natural materials only,” says Thannal’s website.
Where do I get all this mud from?
Courtesy: Thannal.
When it comes to mud houses, there are four major types of construction practices.
· Cob is the simplest and the oldest technique where a mixture of soil, clay, cow dung, hay, cow urine, and lime is used for construction.
· Adobe goes a step forward and sun-dries clay to form bricks.
· The Wattle and Daub method uses bamboo for construction
· Finally, the rammed earth technique uses two wooden planks tied on either sides of what will be your wall and mud is filled in between.
The technique that best suits you depends on the climatic conditions of the location and the size and type of architecture you want. It is best to consult with experts like Thennul (link to contact below) to know what would best suit you.
“In a rural scenario, it is not at all difficult to procure materials. If you have a plot, you can dig a pond for water conservation and use the same mud for making the house. In [an] urban scenario, if you look at any construction site, for example, shopping malls or any big houses, tonnes of mud will be used for raising up the building to the road level.
They use mud, which is like ‘gold’ for making houses, under the building and use concrete to make the spaces which are used by humans.
Courtesy: Thannal.
So such contractors can be contacted for mud in urban scenarios,” says Sindhu Bhaskar, Thannal’s co-founder and Biju’s wife, giving a general idea about where one can obtain the primary materials
In the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh, the duo further inform, every district has at least one lime kiln. “We can get both stone lime and shell lime, as per proximity to the sea. You require only 25-30 bags of Lime for a 500 sq ft home, whereas you need a truckload of cement for the same,” she says.
The challenges that you will encounter
The interiors of an Earthbag studio. Courtesy: Thannal.
Mud houses were common in the yesteryears and you can still see a few in remote villages across India. However, concrete has taken over most parts of the world and so, one cannot guarantee that building a mud house for yourself will be a smooth process.
Firstly, you might need to take a personal interest in gathering the materials. The people at Thannal believe in their own special form of barter system—where they offer you services in exchange for “creating learning opportunities” about which you can read more, here.
Although conventional construction plans require personal supervision as far as the requisition of materials is concerned, for a mud house—you will have to go the extra mile in search for supplies.
On the brighter side, you learn the art of constructing an eco-friendly home and the satisfaction of building your home with your own hands! Thannal, especially, makes sure that you do.
Secondly, since mud is naturally cool, the architecture might not be suitable for cold regions unless you make specific arrangements to keep the indoors warm through naturally insulating roofs and floors.
Areas that receive heavy monsoon showers might face severe problems since mud, as we know, disintegrates in a deluge. However, this can be solved with a high foundation of stones, leak-proof roof projecting on all sides and advanced waterproof plasters of Lime.
Thirdly, if gaps are left in between roof and walls, you might invite insects and tiny reptiles as your house is essentially made of natural resources. However, eco-friendly repellents and techniques, using plant derivatives should do the trick for you and keep them away.
The brains behind Thannal
Courtesy: Thannal.
Biju comes from a traditional farming family. He was pursuing a degree in architecture when, interestingly, he dropped out of the conventional course and began travelling to different parts of India to learn about natural living and eco-architecture.
Trained in wood sculpting at Khajuraho, the entrepreneur completed his architecture degree in 2009 and started Thannal Hand Sculpted Homes in 2011, along with his wife, Sindhu.
The Bhaskars, and their children Adhya Vriksha and Bodhi Vriksha, live in a mud house at the foothills of Arunachala, Tamil Nadu, and promote this kind of living to everyone.
“We have used a different technique with mud, using Earth-Bags. Earth-bag is a technique used by the armed forces in making stronger outposts in less time. It is also used in creating bunds and terraces to reduce soil erosion. This can also demonstrate to the locals a new technique, as Cob and Wattle and Daub are already familiar to them. Earth is filled in jute bags and used as building blocks. It was done in forty-five days, involving six farmers and two shepherds. Natural material used were mud, lime, different plant and animal derivatives as admixtures. It’s an example of top to bottom use of Natural Material,” they say.
Thannal, too, is based in Tamil Nadu, but like in the case of Jayan the farmer, they are not restricted to the State.
Whether you wish to build a farmhouse in a village or go eco-friendly in a concrete jungle, a mud house is worth being considered as a sustainable, practical and cost-effective option.
You can contact the Thannal experts here to know more about how they can help you, where you can find the materials or information about how you can join them as a volunteer.
(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)
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