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this dry and dusty piece of 500 acres of
land on the outskirts of jaipur once
hardly had 30 trees on it
and today
this is what it looks like
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the story is about breathing life into
the barren land
going back to the old wisdom
bringing communities together and
carving out a new way of living
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this is the story of
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dhun foggy the seal is 36 kilometers
away from jaipur in rajasthan
villages in foghi used to practice
traditional agriculture but in 1981 the
area saw huge flooding
is
the unscientific ways of farming and
irrigation that followed the land slowly
turned dry and dusty
when i saw this land for the first time
i just the sheer size of it
27 kilometers from jaipur
uh less than 30 trees on 500 acres of
land and as many of the real estate
pundits say it's land with absolutely
very low potential
but he wasn't ready to give up on the
land he was deeply influenced by the
communities living around jaisalmer and
their knowledge of climate resilient
practices like water harvesting
he put this into practice
i have lived in jesuit for a very long
time
what most of the world writes off as a
desert
many people have called it their home
for
millennials
and the only reason why they have been
able to
turn the meager offerings that nature
has to offer into an extraordinary
wealth of culture
is because
the first thing that they are excellent
with is how to tap water so my
inspiration was that
we thought the first thing that we can
do which is the lowest hanging fruit is
to capture the water that falls here and
it for the water rainfall here is three
to four times than the rainfall of jesus
so we built this water body
drawing inspiration from the traditional
practices of water conservation water
harvesting in the desert ecologies of
rajasthan
manwandra and his team started by
studying the history topography and
traditional water harvesting systems of
the place
and with the help of local knowledge and
resources he began the daunting task of
digging the first pawn on community land
first and foremost is
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you access the vast pool of wisdom that
has been generated by the living
experiences of of the people who have
inhabited this region and synthesize it
with technologies that are available to
us but to bring the community together
for digging a pond that will hold 140
million litres of water was a challenge
in itself to put it in context 140
million litres of water is enough to
meet the drinking needs of 50 000 people
for two whole months in india so natural
drainage is to be marked out catchments
to be detailed studied and see how
catchments can be further strengthened
in order to bring
the water to the egg then digging of the
lake then the embankment in on which we
are standing just now strengthening of
this embankment
okay
in terms of grasses trees
all of that yeah
and
from where the water will come if it has
to overflow from where will the overflow
go and go where
after three months of back-breaking work
the team finally achieved their target
the first pond which is now known as
galanya talab was a major milestone in
transforming the land
with this pond in place the land slowly
transformed in color
greenery began to appear which gave the
villagers a new hope to look forward
foreign
foreign
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the pond gave him a new sense of purpose
seeing what water can bring to the land
changed him completely he began to see
the possibilities of creating an
ecosystem in his land
the next step for him was to dig more
water bodies throughout his land to
harvest rain water and to ensure that
water became a perennial feature of the
area
we went into
building swales
on that same natural drainage
yeah we came to a point where
legs
were made
on that same natural drainage we did
made bandies
combined
made bandies are which catch water
hold it
and make it percolate
these made bandies started
to
be the ones which would
build moisture retention in soil
and their hard work and vision finally
started showing results
within the next two years the land
started to rejuvenate itself
more and more trees started to grow
the ponds teamed with life and
biodiversity
the land where only crows were visible
started to attract hundreds of birds and
animals
species
rainy seasons
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and today this area has recorded more
than 120 species of birds 70 species of
native trees and many species of animals
this land has indeed been brought back
to life water is the source of of life
in very uh in ways that you can't even
imagine it starts propping up
is
as soon as there is water
but this is just the beginning
manvinder now aspires to create a
community that lives close to nature
a space that is away from the chaotic
and unsustainable life of the city
a place that is truly in tune with its
natural environment
he has named his project
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