Vellore Site Visit Report

8/4/2019 Vellore Site Visit Report

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Vellore Hill Restoration Project

AID Saathi Srinivasan

Site visit Nov 2010 by Neela Yennawar

contact email : [email protected]

AID Penn State University


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Picture 3 - Cartoon map of Vellore hillsto be reforested

Introduction to Vellore hills

Vellore is a bustling town in the district ofVellore in Tamil Nadu state. The Vellore citymunicipal corporation, at 151 sq mi, is the

largest in Tamil Nadu, surpassing Chennai citycorporation, which is 70 sq mi. It is consideredone of the oldest cities in South India and lies onthe banks of the Palar river on the site of VelloreFort. The city lies between Chennai (145 km)and Bangalore (215 km) and the Temple townsof Thiruvannamalai and Tirupati. The city hascolleges, ancient temples and one of the besthospitals in India, the Christian Medical College

& Hospital. Vellore is a major transit pointfor travelers, a hub for medical tourismand is emerging as a tourist hot spot. It isa 5-hour trip by train from Bangalore,made interesting with sale of goodsnacks, fragrant flowers and freshvegetables. I reached Vellore stationaround noon on Nov 15th, checked intoriver view hotel and spent the next two

days with Srinivasan.

Hiking in Vellore Hills

As Srinivasans and I drove out of vellore, the dusty town was replaced by lushgreen fields and scenic hills (Picture 1). Itwas a refreshing change. However therewas a heavy downpour of rain and thevisibility reduced. I was not sure if the hikeup the hills was even going to be possiblewith this thick curtain of water. Neverthelesswe kept driving and met with overall projectcoordinator Mohan and one of the vellore

forest committee presidents. We set off withumbrellas and raincoats in hand (Picture 2)beginning our tour of the five hills in thefocus triangle shown in Picture 3. Luckily thedownpour subsided to a light drizzle andhiking amidst all the lush green fields wasbreathtaking.

Picture 1 - Scenic vellore hills

Picture 2 - Srinivasan in partnership withvellore forest committee president
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palar_Riverhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellore_Forthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellore_Forthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvannamalaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_-_Tirupatihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Medical_College_%26_Hospitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Medical_College_%26_Hospitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Medical_College_%26_Hospitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Medical_College_%26_Hospitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_-_Tirupatihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvannamalaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellore_Forthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellore_Forthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palar_River


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Picture 5 Indian green service hillrestoration all-women team.

Picture 4 Indian green service all-men

team

Meeting Indian Green ServiceTeams

In the forest area, enthusiastic IndianGreen Service (IGS, the NGO started 8months ago by Srinivasan) teammembers (Picture 4,5) walked usthrough dozens of percolation ponds.The IGS has 46 current employees.They are referred to as volunteers. Theywore green forest canopy uniforms, capsand boots. Some of them had rain coats,cell phones (although signal was poor)

and whistles for any emergency.Srinivasan has been recruitingunemployed youngsters, shepherd boysand women from nearby villages. He hasgrouped the employees into seventeams, each team consisting of 7 peopleeither all ladies or all men. Each team

has at least one cell phone and several hand tools for digging. They work from 6:30 AMto 5PM and report to village forest committee presidents regarding the days progress.Two overall team supervisors Mohan and Ramachandran report activities andphotographs to Srinivasan via email or phone. Srinivasan supervises location and

design of the percolation ponds. He is seen giving instructions to IGS men in Picture 6regarding digging for new ponds. In the two days that I visited the hills of Vellore, I got tosee many percolation ponds similar to the one shown in Pictures 7. Each of these smallpercolation ponds take anywhere between 1 to 2 days to manually dig. I met with mostof the IGS work force and visited one of the nearby villages and met with the families ofsome of the workers. The enthusiasm for the VHRP project with the villagers seemsgood.

Picture 6 - Srinivasan planning thelocation and design of the percolationponds based on the surroundinglandscape


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Current Status

The status of the project can be summarized as follows

Made ~550 percolation ponds will continue digging till Feb 2011Planted ~7000 palm seeds and preparing ground for tree planting. Other fruitsapling planting to be done by NSS students before next rainy season after June2011

Srinivasan is monitoring day-to-day activities sometimes remotely as he travelsfor the zero waste management projects in Bihar, Gujarat, Tripura, Himachal

Pradesh and even Rashtrapathi BhavanGets daily cell phone reports via team leaders - before and after pictures possible

Mohan and Ramachandran, overall supervisors, trained for VHRP and beingtrained to help with documentation

Small private land donated to IGF Srinivasan plans to build a futureenvironment resource center and showcase VHRP model

Hindu news paper accolades VHRP projecto http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/04/stories/2011010450590300.htm

Picture 7 Team spirit eases digging with hand tools and working in isolated forestareas. Many of the percolation ponds had retained the rain water enabling a slowflow to the ground water table.
http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/04/stories/2011010450590300.htmhttp://www.hindu.com/2011/01/04/stories/2011010450590300.htmhttp://www.hindu.com/2011/01/04/stories/2011010450590300.htm


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Table of percolation ponds versus hill range

Name of the Hill Range No.ofVolunteers

Duration No. of Ponds

Paliedayanpattai (Ladies Batch) 7 1st, June to 8th Dec 83 Nos

Kalamburan Kottai (Gents Batch) 4 1st, June to 8th Dec 91 Nos

VandiKal (Gents Batch) 7 20th, Aug to 8th Dec 81 Nos

Palamathi Hill Range -KarunkaliKuppam.Gents Batch Unmarried

7 1st, June to 8th Dec 81 Nos

Karunkali Kuppam (Gents BatchMarried)

7 1st, June to 8th Dec 128Nos

Karunkali Kuppam (Ladies Batch -Married & Unmarried mixed)

7 24th,Sept to 8thDec 76 Nos

Selamanatham Hill Range 7 5th , Dec to 8th Dec 15 Nos

Over all Project in charges 2 ---

TOTAL 46 +2

555 Nos


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Table of wells being monitored. Well water increases seen up to ~15 feet

Name of the Hill Range Supported

by

Well

Under

Monitoring

Paliedayanpattai (Ladies Batch) Vellore Forest Division 10 wells

Kalamburan Kottai (Gents Batch) AID, Austin. (Hill FORT) 25 wells

VandiKal (Gents Batch) AID, Buffalo.

(Trucking Ending spot)

43 wells

Palamathi Hill Range -KarunkaliKuppam.Gents Batch Unmarried

AID, Portland. (Murugan Temple

& Site Seeing)

--

Karunkali Kuppam

(Gents Batch Married)

AID, Boston. (Forest Bungalow) 15 wells

Karunkali Kuppam (Ladies Batch -

Married & Unmarried mixed)

--- --

Selamanatham Hill Range AID, Penn state. (Resource centre

& Camping Spot)

--

Over all Project in charges --- --

TOTAL 93 wells


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Partnering with vellore forest department, local politian Mr.Ramachandran, farmers and villagers (see Pictures 8) - easier said thandone

Pictures 8 Clockwise from top left - local farmer talks about well water increase

and agrees to monitor against cattle grazing in forest, farmer's well, Velloreforest committee president, in dialogue with politician.


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Current problems -o Cattle, mainly goats and cows, grazing on fresh shoots forests

hesitation in village to give up names of cattle owners

o Logging for firewood shepherds cut branches of trees, angry

when caught

o Forest fires set by miscreants in order to get quick growth grass forcattle - After Feb teams guarding against forest fires, logging andgrazing

Specific requests from Srinivasan for AID chapters

Used Binoculars

Used digital cameras for documentation

Used clothes for families

Help with publicizing VHRP model with friends and IT sectors so that it can be

taken to a national level similar to ZWM

Certificate of recognitionfrom AID for conscientious partners including IAS

officers, forest officers, village panchayat presidents who support solid and liquid

waste management in rural areas - shield and prize Rs 5000 conditions apply -


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6 months in project, documentation including amount recovered, collector should

send award, Jan 26 and aug 15, dc will give AID award keep india clean award

Conclusion

The VHRP site visit was a heart warming experience. I feel very positive that this hasprogressed well so far and believe the VHRP model is a success story in the making

that AIDers can feel proud about. The goals for the future are realistic. The welcome

smiles from children of IGS workers in Picture 9 says it all. Srinivasan is getting

attention at the national level with the zero waste management project with it being

incorporated in Bihar, Gujarat, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh. The VHRP project will be

the next feather in his cap and hopefully will be adopted in various parts of the world.

Picture 9 - Smiles on children's faces in a nearby village aswe visit.

Documents

Vellore Site Visit Report