TIST
November, 2005
TIST India Wishes you all a Happy Deepavali
CHEZHUMAI ©
Visit of TIST Staff from USA
During September and October 2005, Mr.Ramesh Narasimhan, Project Manager for TIST India, USA visited the TIST villages in Tamil Nadu. He visited villages like Chittoor, Kandoor, Bethel Nagar, Aandiseruvallur, Kattiampandal, Ulundhai & Mel Kodungallur. He interacted with the members of the Small Groups and noted their happiness and concern with the TIST program. The Small Groups of Molachur, Vedal and Mel Kodungallur Group Centers joined together in meetings and presented their views, abilities and capabilities with regard to TIST program.
Mr. Ramesh also visited the various tree groves where the Small Groups have planted trees. Mr.Ramesh is now back in USA with all the materials collected from us and having seen firsthand the progress of TIST India and the hard work of the small groups he holds a very positive view about the program and has reported the same to other TIST staff in America and England.
The Views of Mr.Ramesh Narasimhan on the TIST India Project
Hello! First of all let me wish you all a very happy Deepavali. During late September and early October I had visited various TIST villages in Tamil Nadu. The TIST program began more than 3 years ago and I have heard about the tremendous progress made by the TIST Small Groups in India through reports sent by Prabakar and Joseph. I have also seen many pictures of the trees and the Small Groups. This time I got a chance to come and see the progress in person and I was very excited about it. What I saw impressed me very much in how well the Small Groups in Tamil Nadu are actively participating in the program and how well they are improving their surroundings and livelihoods through participation in TIST. I saw that the Small Groups were identifying, sharing and following various TIST best practices to effectively reforest their areas and improve their lives.
the Small Groups. This time I got a chance to come and see the progress in person and I was very excited about it. What I saw impressed me very much in how well the Small Groups in Tamil Nadu are actively participating in the program and how well they are improving their surroundings and livelihoods through participation in TIST. I saw that the Small Groups were identifying, sharing and following various TIST best practices to effectively reforest their areas and improve their lives.
Why some Villages unanimously go in for single kind of Species?
The prime factor for the growth of every species of trees depends upon soil condition, water availability and climatic condition. Secondary is, how the owners takes care of their groves. Since three years, there are several members who are growing single kind of species like Casuarina or Eucalyptus in thousands. In fact, all the Small Groups in certain villages unanimously decide to plant one single kind of species like Casuarina or Eucalyptus. For instance, the Small Groups of Vandhavasi & Mel Kodungalur center have gone for Casuarina and the Small Groups of Molachur center have gone for Eucalyptus. The members say that, the main reason for choosing one kind of species for their village is because of the soil condition. Yes, it is a best practice to select the species of trees according to the soil conditions, but at the same time it is not advisable to have just one species. The main goal of TIST is reforesting with biodiversity, i.e, biodiversity means growing multiple species of trees. Though the Small Groups of Bethel Nagar have only few trees from 50- 100, but still they have more than 3 different kinds of species. When they can have multiple species, why not other groups.
In case of single species, suppose if some disease affects one Casuarina tree at Kattiampandal, there will not be even one single tree left in Kattiampandal, because all the Small Groups of this village have gone in for Casuarina. It is the same case with Chittoor, because all the Small Groups of Chittoor have predominantly gone for Eucalyptus. The best practice of planting multiple species of trees not only avoids disease spreading, but also avoids forest fire. Even the Department of Environment and Forest insists to grow multiple of species of trees.
Nameplate for Groves
TIST has been emphasizing to place a nameplate for every grove. The TIST Quantifier takes the photograph of every grove immediately after finishing the quantification. This photograph is taken through the palm top through which grove data is collected, so that, the photographs may also gets synced and stored along with the grove data in the TIST Web Site.
Why does TIST place all this data in the web site? When this data is placed in the web site, the whole world can view it. It is very easy to market our carbon credits to the buyer through the web site. The buyer scrolls our website and sees all our data’s, i.e., the grove, trees, seedlings, etc. He also sees the photographs taken by the Quantifier. The photographs displaying the grove, which does not have a nameplate, will not impress the buyer. How impressive it will be if the photograph displays the trees/seedlings of the grove along with nameplate, and the members standing beside the nameplate.
Unless we have a buyer to sell our carbon credits, we would not have enough funds to make the voucher payments. To catch the attention of our buyer, we need to host our web site with all the required data along with the relevant photographs. So every photograph of the grove should be taken in such way that it displays the trees/seedlings along with the nameplate, and the members standing besides the nameplate. Having a nameplate for the groves is as important as submitting the SGMR.
Sakthi Small Group of Kandoor
This Small Group has got 2-3 acres of land, in which, they have multiple species of trees like mango, guava, teak, drum stick and neem. A very special matter with this Small Group is that they have more than 300 neem trees in their grove. Neem trees belong to that variety of tree species which have leaves very densely grown. It is said that, the ground surrounding the neem tree will always be wet. This Small Group is the first group to have a nameplate placed in their grove. The nameplate has the name of the Small Group, Village Name and Grove Name. Though this Small Group receives a small amount as voucher payment, but still they followed the best practice of TIST and erected a nameplate, for which, they have spent Rs.200/-.. The members of this Small Group give more importance to fruit bearing trees. Even during the month of October 2005, they have transplanted 5 mango trees. Overall, they have 5 different kinds of species of trees totaling to 1,051 in their grove.
Saroja Small Group of Kandoor
This Small Group has two different kinds of species of trees like 8,203 Casuarina and 2,100 Eucalyptus trees in two different groves of Ponnu casuarina and Ponnu eucalyptus respectively.
Casuarina trees were transplanted 4 months back and Eucalyptus trees were transplanted 1 month back. The growth rate of both Casuarina and Eucalyptus are little slow. The members are confident that after one or two rainfalls, and by the end of this year, the growth of these trees will be good.
Apart from trees, they also have two different kinds of species of seedlings like 85 Cotton and 10 Drum Stick trees in a grove called Ponnuswamy.
