Green energy takes toll on green cover

A forest generated by residents in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district is being destroyed to set up windmills

Published on:

03 Oct 2011, 1:16 pm

For two decades people from eight villages in Kalpavalli region in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district laboured hard to turn a vast expanse of wasteland into a forest. But the effort seems to have gone waste as the green cover is being ruthlessly destroyed to set up wind farms. Enercon Wind Farms (Madhya Pradesh) Pvt Ltd, a group company of Enercon (India) Ltd, a subsidiary of the German company Enercon GmbH, is setting up a 20 MW wind energy project in the area.

Over 20 years ago, Kalpavalli region used to resemble a desert. Hilly terrains, dried streams and tanks and hard surface bereft of top soil marked the landscape. Then came the turnaround. A voluntary organisation and village residents brought to life a thriving wilderness on 2,833 hectares (ha) of land in Kalpavalli, marked as revenue wasteland. At present Kalpavalli has 264 floral species and 105 fauna species. Wild boars, black bucks, foxes and porcupines can be found in the forests. Kalpavalli also provides livelihood to about 400 families (see 'People earn a living from forests').

People earn a living from forests

240 families earns Rs 18,000 each in four months by making and selling brooms which are made from grass

160 families selling date palm fruits earn Rs 16,000 each in three months

Kalpavalli provides around 4,000 cart loads of fodder grass every year. About 40,000 sheep graze here

Windmill intervention

Agro-forest nurtured for 20 years

The wasteland regenetation project in Kalpavalli began with an experiment on a 13 ha plot of barren land that Mary and Bablu bought along with their friend John D’Souza in C K Palli. They named the place Timbaktu.

“For us, it has never been an experiment. It was our life and breath,” recalls Bablu. The idea was to create an agro-forest habitat in a desert-like region. Over the decades, Anantapur has been experiencing desertification due to soil erosion, sand-casting, mono-cropping, use of synthetic chemicals, deforestation and excess use of ground water. “We wanted to find solutions to the degradation of environment and lives of people living around,” says Mary. So the couple settled down in C K Palli to understand the geology and topography of the area.

In the process they came to know that Anantapur had a rich tradition of rain water harvesting—tanks and kuntas—and irrigation systems. It had a rich biodiversity and forest cover. The system was lost due to lack of ownership, destruction of the forests, wrong agricultural practices and a growing dependence on the government as the provider of all facilities. The Timbaktu team directed their efforts towards collecting locally available seeds, harvesting water, conserving soil and planting indigenous varieties of trees. Then they protected the land from cattle.

The outcome was beyond their imagination. Within two years the soil sprang to life. Then slowly a forest emerged with 400 varieties of trees, shrubs and creepers.

“Villages in Anantapur have thousands of acres (one acre equals 0.4 ha) of revenue wasteland. We decided to extend the Timbaktu experiment to this land,” says Mary. The initiative was started on 50 ha of wasteland in Mushtikovila village in C K Palli mandal. The concept was to promote eco-restoration through natural regeneration. “It took over a year to convince the villagers the need for water harvesting and soil conservation in revenue wasteland in their village,” recalls Gopal K, a resident of Mustikovila and a Timbaktu team member.

The villagers were mobilised. A Vana Samrakshana Samithy (forest protection committee) was formed, fire-break lines were made, seeds were collected and stored, rock-fill dams, farm ponds and mud bunds were made to recharge groundwater and to prevent soil erosion. The shepherds were made a part of the process and grazing was controlled. The local bodha grass seeds were propagated and the hay from this used as fodder.

Over the next seven years, seven more villages joined in and over 2,800 ha of contiguous revenue wasteland was protected and regenerated into a forest. In 15 years, hills turned green, valleys became dense and about 250 water bodies and streams have regained life. The Kogira stream became perennial. Mushtikovila tank, which is spread over 162 ha and was the main source of irrigation in the area, once again had water. “We even started cultivating 162 ha of paddy fields,” says Boddemgari Siddappa, former sarpanch of the village.

“ The focus was on joint community ownership of forest and forest produce,” says Bablu. During 2008-2011, Rs 3.5 crore has been spent in Kalpavalli under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and Rs 4.12 crore under Food for Work programme.