Today had opportunity to sit in Washington DC Dulles airport and write this blog. Twenty years back I came to this same airport for the first time to enter into US for pursuing PhD in Environmental Sciences. Successfully completed that. Went forward and completed additional Masters in Computer Sciences. How have I used my education towards real time projects:
We started a project called EnviroApps Sustainable Land Development Project on Feb, 2007. Slowly, A land used for agriculture using chemical methods were changed to Natural methods. Last year we produced Organic Produce. Hopefully within few more years we will have beautiful environmental project in real world. Flowering plants, bees, trees, ecosystems, natural agriculture and so many other activities associated with environment - all in our EA FARM.
All these ideas came to me because of my great teachers (Drs - Gupta, Sankaran, Vasanth Kumar (Sad that they all passed away), Dr.SS, Dr. RavinderRaju, Dr. Rajkumar, Dr. Pattabhi, Dr. Palanivel, Dr. Rajaguru, Dr.Shanthi, Dr. Kalaiselvi, Dr. Subburam, Dr. LakshmanaPerumalsamy and long list of other teachers and school teachers...) friends (so many - the list will never end) and family (without them I could not have implemented what I had envisioned). Even though I had all the fun in the world during my undergrad degree years, my biology teachers have shaped me towards the environmental field. I had wonderful years during my Master's (MSc - PSG and MPhil - MPhil) - Environmental Sciences. During my PhD in US, I had great opportunity to work on Chesapeake Bay Environment. I thank God for giving all these opportunities and the great project we are currently implementing.
Collecting Sediment Samples
Analyzing Sample
Presenting Scientific Papers
Happy to Save the Bay
Teaching Environmental Science to Grads
Also excited, that I will be writing my EnviroApps 100th blog soon.
Water for the farm.
As water is one of the key elements of farming, and our land has no water resource we were all praying for the help and guidance from heaven. The prayers were always there in the back of my mind even though I was involved in other activities. 14-06-2010 Finding water points at the land.
I spoke to Ravi aka captain on finding the water points at the land. This is an amazing exercise. Few humans are blessed with this power of locating the water points. Their body reacts to the ground water. Different people have different techniques, some use wooden sticks, some use metal rods, while some use water in a plastic pot. The water pot jumps around when they carry it around at the location where there is water beneath. Though Ravi himself has this capability he did not want to try for a huge land, as he has done only for building plots, which is much smaller in size. But he recommended one Mr. Ramasamy, an aged man; I guess he should be in his late 50s or early 60s who was experienced in finding for farms as well.
So, Mahesh, our driver, drove us (Ravi, Ramasamy and me) to the land after lunch.
Ramasamy started immediately as soon as we reached the land. He strode the land with his equipment, an iron rod stitched in a cloth at one end. The cloth is really long which he held on both hands and let the end with the iron piece to hang by almost a foot or slightly more, so it can swing freely. With the apparatus in his hand swinging he walked across the land moving perpendicularly in slow steps. Within 10 minutes he asked us to mark a location on the land, where he said we will get good water. Kathir and Ram, the existing farmhands started to mark the location with a stone, but Ramasamy asked them not to use stone, instead he asked them to mark with a wooden stick and cover it with coconut husks, which they did. I requested Ramasamy to locate few more water points on the land. Ramsamy performed the same act a few more times and pointed three more locations. Of which he said good water should be gotten from the spots he pointed first and third, though he said the other two also has water. Once this was done, we dropped him back at his home and paid him his fees, 1000 rupees only.
I asked him like if he would be able to advise me on the depth at which we will see water and he told me I should get it between 500 – 550 feet.
To be honest, as a man living in this technological world, I found it very hard to convince myself that a man swinging a piece of orange cloth walking around and suddenly pointing a spot and telling me, there is water source beneath the solid earth at around 500 - 550 feet below. But surprisingly I believed and my prayers grew stronger.
19-06-2010
Now, that the points were ready, the next step was to arrange for digging bore well. I went to find an auspicious time to dig the bore from our family astrologer, Mr. Dhandapani. After checking our horoscopes told me to dig the well on Monday morning before the sunrise. Hindu Almanac contains days that are good for activities like digging well according to celestial stars for each day. Now the date and time, 21-06-2010 before sunrise and latest by 7AM was fixed.
Ravi spoke to the local Agent for the bore well diggers. Later I met him and arranged for the diggers to be ready at 4.30 am on 21-06-2010. He said they will be ready even the night before. But since nobody will be at the farm, it was decided that they will wait at Vadakipalayam pirivu, on the way to the land and I will meet them at 4.00 am and we will proceed to the farm. But while they were waiting, a gas carrier overturned on the road at Vadakipalayam pirivu and the roads were blocked and all the vehicles were evacuated from the surrounding places by Police in fear of the truck catching fire. Luckily nothing of that sort happened. So, the bore well trucks moved some more interior and waited at Vadakipalayam. So, I asked Mahesh to be ready at 4.00 am on 21-06-2010. I also asked Mahesh to buy the pooja items required to offer prayers before starting to dig. 21-06-2010
I woke up at 3.30 am and got ready. Then we left home at 4.00 am. We were stopped by police at Vadakipalayam pirivu as they haven't yet cleared the gas truck. So we had to detour back to Pollachi and took another route via Vadugapalyam, Ponnavaram to reach Vadakipalayam. Then we woke the diggers and they trailed our car. Once they reached they (there were some 15 workers in the team) sprung to action immediately. I showed the point (the one Mr. Ramasamy spotted first). They positioned the truck carrying the driller such a way that the spot was in the exact center of the drilling bit. After they setup, I prayed sincerely to all Gods and ancestors requesting for water. The drilling started around 6 am.
The team of diggers was working so efficiently. I felt sorry for them as they did not have protective gear to protect them from dust that was being sucked out of the earth through the drilled hole. They also had a cook travelling with them, who setup makeshift kitchen and prepared some tea and breakfast for them. They also took bath using water from the next farm. Mahesh gathered from them that they only bathed once in a month.
I was so exited with the whole process I didn't feel hungry. Then I realized suddenly the time was 9.00 am and so I asked Mahesh to go back to Pollachi to have his breakfast and buy something for me to eat as well. I also asked the person who currently takes care of the land to eat with me. We decided to have him continue his work at the farm. Talking to him I realized that he has a passion for the farm activities and we need people with such passion and commitment.
At this time, the bore was like 190 feet deep. We were seeing different colors of fine powdery earth being sucked out. It must be that as the bore goes deeper it should be going through a different type of rocks beneath the earth. By around 11.30 there was some thick water mixed with the powdered earth came out. But the driller continued to drill. According to them, it was already 480 feet deep. The Manager asked me if we can continue to drill until 800 feet. I was wondering how will I decide, because nobody can predict the depth were we can get water. Later I found that even those water points identified using the satellite imaging techniques have failed. So now I was left with no other options except seek the guidance of the Almighty and the ancestors. I told him that the diviner has told that we would get water around 500 - 550 feet. so I told him to continue digging and we will decide when we cross the 550 feet mark. I was contemplating 700 feet in my mind. The manager left as he received another call from the agent that there was another bore to be dug the same day later.
So at around noon suddenly there was water spurting out when the drill rod was pushed down by the compressor.
I knew the prayers have been answered (Video above). What a feeling, cannot be explained but only experienced. I thanked all Gods.
So we requested the driller to continue to dig as far as possible. But once the water pressure was high, the drill bit moved very slowly and it was finding very difficult to continue to penetrate the rocks below. So he said that it will be the last rod that he can dig. We agreed and totally the bore well had consumed 30 drill rods, which was 560 feet deep. Also on top they inserted a 47 feet PVC pipe so that there will not be any slippage of loose soil on top. The diggers said our water outcome was very good and said it was like 3-4 inches of water. All those gathered were very happy. Now we will be able to save the rare coconut trees (nattu maram) that are currently present and needs water as quickly as possible. Also we used the first water (Kudam) to do the abhisekam to the Amman in the temple near the farm.
Now that the key element, Water, is ready I foresee a lot of activities lined up for the next few weeks, which I feel I will be able to achieve with the guidance from Above.
KC
Phase I: Land :The proposed land is in Puravipalayam a well-known place near Pollachi, situated in the foothills of Western Ghats of South India bordering the neighbor state Kerala. EnviroApps Inc (EA) will utilize this land for the Bio-model prototype project. The land has been used primarily for agricultural purpose. Pesticides and Insecticides have been consistently used in this land. Geographical Information System (GIS) will be used after purchasing the land to digitalize the land for this study with the help of local GIS engineers. Fencing will be done using recycled materials along with plants, which help in the hydrological cycle. Local resources from schools, colleges will be given an opportunity to plant these saplings to create an environmental awareness in the area. The future necessity in one of the most populated countries like India is sustainable growth. These students will be taught on the principles of sustainable development and environmental cleanliness, which they would spread to the society and build the future India with environmental awareness. A temple is adjacent to this land, which can be accessed for praying and meditation. Land treatment: Chemical levels will be measured in the soil simultaneously during fencing. EnviroApps Inc. Land TreatmentTM will be given. Chemical levels will be measured after each treatment. When the level comes to the normal limits, further models of the projects will be carried out. During this process, local resources will be used (such as University, College level Biology, Computer and Environmental Sciences students). Phase II: Rain Water Harvesting, Water Systems & Water Treatment Plants: Rainwater harvesting will be done using recycling model with focus on ground water replenishment, hydrological cycle using plants and trees. We already have implemented rainwater harvest projects in Indian villages, successfully. Water treatment will have Primary (Physical), Secondary (Biological) and Tertiary Treatments (Experienced Civil, Structural, Environmental & Electrical engineers will be used as resources).
Plant, Dairy Products & Green House Development: Medicinal plants will be planted during this phase in the low cost green houses. Cattle will be grown primarily for the dairy products (strictly not for meat). EnviroApps Inc will focus on Environmental Health issues also. Diabetes and Cholesterol issues are the major problem in India. Quality dairy products such as Milk and organic nutritional products will be produced (Food and Nutrition degree students will be utilized in this project). Phase III: Eco Tour: Eco Tour will be one of our products that will create Environmental Awareness. People with biology
knowledge will be used as Eco-tour guides. We are situated in the foothills of naturally diversified Anamalai hills. The Indira Gandhi Wildlife sanctuary has a wide range of rich fauna and flora. Several activities such as Elephant ride, boating, trekking, bird and animal watching will be part of the Eco-tour along with natural farm visit. Small but comfortable vehicles with expert drivers will be used for traveling. Currently EA Eco-tour consists of five vehicles and will be increased as the business grows. These vehicles will be used for creating environmental awareness also. Green Colony & Resorts: After achieving success in the Phase I and Phase II, EA will begin constructing the Green Colony (where all aged people including old can live in Nature) and Resorts. Four building blocks of each will be initially built with a swimming pool. Recycled materials will be used as much as possible for the construction. Energy will be generated from natural resources such as wind, solar, and bio-energy. Sustainable Research Institute: Even though Sustainable Research Institute is mentioned as the last phase of this project, the research will be starting from Phase I of the project. Each and every aspect of the project will be documented and the outcome of the project will be published in International refereed journals. This institute will focus on sustainable development with great emphasis on Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Biological Sciences and Information Technology. Equal opportunity will be given in this institute. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle concepts will be followed in every aspects of the project. This Sustainable Bio-Model Land development project will be the pilot model that will be implemented in various parts of the world according to the prevailing conditions.
