TIST
October 2005
CHEZZUMAI ©
GHG Agreement
TIST is in the process of getting the Host Country Approval from the CDM Authority – Ministry of Forest & Environment. Green House Gas (GHG) agreement is very important for this approval, i.e, the GHG Agreement between the Small Groups and TIST is the most important supporting document which is to be produced to the CDM Authorities of India.
Once the GHG Agreement is produced to the CDM Authorities of India, the Host Country Approval will be released. This approval will enable TIST to help the Small Groups to sell the greenhouse gas credits created by their trees to buyers around the world and therefore making it possible for TIST to continue to make voucher payments for the Small Group's trees.
GHG Agreement is purely for the benefit of the Small Groups to have voucher payments continuously. Through this GHG Agreement, the Small Groups transfers and assigns all of its rights to the GHG credits it produced by planting trees to TIST India. The Small Group shall own the land, trees, fruits, nuts, medicines and all other products from the trees, and shall own the crops from the sustainable agriculture. TIST cannot make any voucher payment to the Small Groups who have not signed the GHG Agreement.
Form Pond – A great result just in two years
You must all have read the article on Form Pond in the Chezhumai September 2005, wherein we have projected the usefulness of the Form Pond. Here is one great example on the usefulness of Form Pond – to what extent the Form Pond helps? - The immediate greenery of the Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV) Campus situated at Bhopal.
During 2003-2004 one of the Voluntary Organization of Bhopal carried out a well-planned project of digging a huge pond to store the rainwater. This pond made a great change to the surrounding area. Now days the huge campus looks marvelously green and lush, quite in contrast to the situation two years ago. The water table in the campus has risen considerably just because of the pond and the three tube wells in the campus that were totally dry couple of years back are now gurgling out water. (Hindustan Times Bhopal Live – 27th August 2005).
Dig a Form Pond now and see the great change in the water table in your land in one year.
Chamundeshwari Small Group of Vandhavasi
This Small Group takes innovative steps in utilizing the natural resources for the growth of trees and seedlings. Generally, drip irrigation method is carried out only for the plants that too for the short time crops, but this Small Group use this drip irrigation method to water their trees. There are 730 mango trees and 232 other species like, Guava, Neem, Cotton etc. all planted in a single grove. A thin tube, which is connected to the available water source, passes by every tree. There is a small opening in the tube near every tree, with which, water drops out from the tube. Though the water given for every tree is very less, but still the ground surrounding the tree remains wet and this wetness saves the tree from the heat.
They also have a nursery with four different species like, 350 Cotton, 900 Mango, 950 Neem, 1550 lime seedlings. The members are planning to transplant all these seedlings by the end of this year (2005).
How to Keep the Ground Wet Always?
To keep the ground surrounding the tree wet round the clock, use the coconut fiber. Coconut fiber is very thick and it will not allow the direct sunlight to fall on the ground at the same time it blocks the heat wave to enter the ground. When the heat wave and the direct sunlight are blocked, then it is sure that the ground in that area will always be wet when compared to the other open land. If this method of using the coconut fiber is followed along with the drip irrigation, then it is sure that all the members can do wonders in their tree planting work. There will not be any causality even during peak summer.
Vasudev Small Group of Vandhavasi
This Small Group has neither followed the basic principles nor the ‘Best Practices’ of TIST. In spite of several talk & discussions during the node meeting and various examples through Chezhumai (Newsletter) to have multiple species, this Small Group have gone for a single species, i.e, casuarinas. They have more than 2 lakh casuarina seedlings and more than 35,000 casuarina trees. According to the directive, only three thousand seedlings will be taken into account for voucher payment, but as far as trees are concerned, unless they show 6000 trees/seedlings of different species (non-casuarina & non eucalyptus), non of the trees will be taken into account for voucher payment.
Lotus Small Group of Vandhavasi
This Small Group has 186 teak trees of one year old all planted in a single grove. The spacing between each trees ranges from 5 to 10 meters.
They also have 1.25 lakh casuarinas seedlings scattered on the soil bed.
Nelli Small Group of Vandhavasi
This Small Group has many different species of seedlings and couple of rare species of tree in their grove. In their nursery, there are total of 1826 seedlings like, Cotton, Pala, Sapota, Mango, Lime, etc. kept in the polythene bags. The seedlings are arranged all around their house. All the seedlings are more than 3 feet in height. The members are waiting for a good season to transplant their seedlings.
There are 970 Nelli trees in a single grove. These Nelli trees are very good in growth and they stand more than 3 feet in height.
There are 10,920 casuarina trees in muthuswamy grove. Five months back during the quantification there were more than 18,000 casuarina trees, but during the last month (August) quantification there are only 10,920 trees. All these casualities are due to April – June hot season.
Since it was only trees, the members did not show more interest in watering the grove. Suppose, if there had been some intercropping done, then the members would have shown little more interest in watering the grove. The casualities would not have been so drastic. It is always good to do the work in an interesting way, so that work goes smoothly.
