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Village Woman Teaches Eco-Friendly Ways to Combat Climate Change

“Heavy rains in Jodhpur,” the headlines said while the TV reporter went on about how the localities of Jodhpur were experiencing flooding & disruption of public life! This was so unusual for a city in Rajasthan, to receive unprecedented rains, that too in such high amounts!! The moral of the story: Climate Change is affecting us far more than we are prepared for!

The cloudbursts in Leh, the flash floods in Nashik & the heavy downpour in Chennai last year, all point out the aberrations of nature! Of course, there is no denying the fact that we & our earlier generations are the sole reason for this upheaval. So the question really is – what can we do now to prevent & mellow down the effects of Climate Change?

The answer which most of us know is simple; donating our sweat to restoring the nature back to its original form & environmental conservation!

And this is precisely what one inspiring woman from the small district of Darbhanga has been able to achieve. Sheela Devi, a resident of Godiyari village has witnessed the impact of adverse weather & floods due to climate change affecting her crops.

In her small attempt to bring about a positive change, Sheela Devi set out to adopt Eco-friendly practices to restore the nature’s imbalance. While providing leadership to a small self-help group, Ahilya Mahila Mandal, Sheela Devi sensitized the farming community about the benefits of adopting sustainable agricultural practices to tackle climate change and the importance of conservation of the environment by refraining from the use of chemical fertilizers.

Life changed for Sheela Devi when she received training at the Kanchan Seva Ashram at Lucknow & learnt how to make a Bio-compost called Kanchan Amrit. Soon she started manufacturing & testing the Bio-compost in her own farmlands. The results were highly desirable & her yields had improved without the use of chemical fertilizers. This made Sheela Devi advocate the use of Kanchan Amrit to the nearby farming community.

Identifying the benefits of eco-friendly bio compost on her own lands, Sheela Devi started manufacturing & selling the compost to nearby villages. She also conducted training for more than 1000 women from nearby villages to make them financially independent while working for environmental conservation approaches. The Swayam Shiksha Prayog had paid off.

Today, she has a team of 10 trained women in her village panchayat who manufacture & sell Kanchan Amrit at an affordable rate of Rs 30 per litre to nearby villages. This has not only helped Sheela Devi in a substantial increase in her monthly income but also has motivated the village to work on adopting eco-friendly measures to counter climate change.

We too can learn from Sheela Devi’s initiatives & do our own bit to counter climate change by donating our sweat towards environmental conservation of cities. Here are few tricks of the trade:

  1. Plant at least one fruit tree per family member this monsoon season.
  2. Plant small flowering shrubs (potted plants) like the rose, hibiscus in your galleries & terraces, also build bird baths & houses.
  3. Use electricity to the minimum & make sure your vehicles are in best shape to avoid unnecessary pollution.
  4. Avoid using plastics as much as possible & dispose of them wisely.
  5. Donate your sweat to keep the local water bodies clean & garbage free.

Lastly, let us all understand & accept this about environment conservation volunteering, that “We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change & the last generation that can do something about it!”